Editing Hatshepsut (section)

=== Exclusion from the historical record ===
[[File:Deir el-Bahari 0538.JPG|thumb|right|An example of ''[[damnatio memoriae]]'' of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari. While the cartouches of Thutmose III (right) were left intact, the cartouches of Hatshepsut (left) were hacked off, presumably by Amenhotep II.]]
Toward the end of the reign of [[Thutmose III]] and into the reign of his son, an attempt was made to remove Hatshepsut from certain historical and pharaonic records. Her cartouches and images were chiselled off stone walls. Erasure methods ranged from full destruction of any instance of her name or image to replacement, inserting Thutmose I or II where Hatshepsut once stood. There were also instances of smoothing, patchwork jobs that covered Hatshepsut's cartouche; examples of this can be seen on the walls of the Deir el-Bahari temple. Simpler methods also included covering, where new stone was added to fully cover reliefs or sacred stone work.{{sfn|Roehrig|Dreyfus|Keller|2005|pp=278–279}}

At the Deir el-Bahari temple, Hatshepsut's many statues were torn down and in many cases, smashed or disfigured before being buried in a pit. At Karnak, an attempt was made to wall up her monuments. While it is clear that much of this rewriting of Hatshepsut's history occurred only during the close of Thutmose III's reign, it is not clear why it happened, other than as a manifestation of the typical pattern of self-promotion that existed among the pharaohs and their administrators, or perhaps to save money by not building new monuments for the burial of Thutmose III, and instead using the grand structures built by Hatshepsut.{{sfn|Tyldesley|2006|p=107}}<!-- close paraphrasing; reword -->

[[Amenhotep II]], the son of Thutmose III, who became a co-regent toward the end of his father's reign, is suspected by some as being the defacer during the end of the reign of a very old pharaoh. He would have had a motive because his position in the royal lineage was not so strong as to assure his elevation to pharaoh. He is documented, further, as having usurped many of Hatshepsut's accomplishments during his own reign. His reign is marked with attempts to break the royal lineage as well, not recording the names of his queens and eliminating the powerful titles and official roles of royal women, such as God's Wife of Amun. Some of these titles would be restored in the reign of his son [[Thutmose IV]].{{sfn|Gardiner|1961|p=198}}

For many years, presuming that it was Thutmose III acting out of resentment once he became pharaoh, early modern Egyptologists presumed that the erasures were similar to the Roman ''[[damnatio memoriae]]''. Egyptologist [[Donald Redford]] says that this was not borne out of hatred but was a political necessity to assert his own beliefs.{{sfn|Redford|1967|p=87}} Redford added:

{{blockquote|But did Thutmose remember her? Here and there, in the dark recesses of a shrine or tomb where no plebeian eye could see, the queen's cartouche and figure were left intact ... which never vulgar eye would again behold, still conveyed for the king the warmth and awe of a divine presence.{{sfn|Redford|1967|p=87}}}}