Editing Hatshepsut (section)

== Legacy ==
=== 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}}}}

=== Modern assessment ===
Hatshepsut is, according to Egyptologist [[James Henry Breasted]], "the first great woman in history of whom we are informed."<ref>{{cite book|author=Margaux Baum, Susanna Thomas|title=Hatshepsut|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=adphDwAAQBAJ&dq=the+first+great+woman+in+history+of+whom+we+are+informed++Breasted&pg=PA8|year=2017|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc|isbn=978-0-664-21392-3|page=8}}</ref> In some ways, Hatshepsut's reign was seen as going against the [[patriarchal]] system of her time. She managed to rule as regent for a son who was not her own, going against the system which had previously only allowed mothers to rule on behalf of their biological sons. She used this regency to create her female kingship, constructing extensive temples to celebrate her reign, which meant that the public became used to seeing a woman in such a powerful role. This ensured that when the oracle declared her king, the Egyptian public readily accepted her status.{{sfn|Cooney|2018}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}

However, as with other female heads of state in ancient Egypt, this was only done through the use of male symbols of kingship; hence the description of Hatshepsut and others as female kings rather than queens.{{sfn|Graves-Brown|2010|p=4}}

Egyptologist [[Kara Cooney]] states that Hatshepsut was essentially given power by the elite class, who nominally served her, to further their own interests. She was raised to power due to her previous, successful record as a High Priestess (and during the succession crisis leading up to her regency), and during her rule, the elites gained significant power and wealth.{{sfn|Cooney|2018|loc=ch. 3, paras. 34–41}}

Historian [[Joyce Tyldesley]] stated that Thutmose III may have ordered public monuments to Hatshepsut and her achievements to be altered or destroyed in order to place her in a lower position of co-regent, meaning he could claim that royal succession ran directly from Thutmose II to Thutmose III without any interference from his aunt. This was supported by Thutmose III's officials, and as Hatshepsut's officials either died or were no longer in the public eye, there was little opposition to this.{{efn|Tyldesley (1996) notes on p. 252 that a detailed discussion of the disappearance of Senenmut – Hatshepsut's highest official and closest supporter who retired abruptly or died around Years 16 and 20 of Hatshepsut's reign – and a useful list of other publications on this topic is given in A. R. Schulman's 1969–70 paper "Some Remarks on the Alleged 'Fall' of Senmut," JARCE 8, pp. 29–48.}} Tyldesley, along with historians [[Peter Dorman]] and [[Gay Robins]], say that the erasure and defacement of Hatshepsut's monuments may have been an attempt to extinguish the memory of female kingship{{sfn|Tyldesley|1996|pp=137–144}}{{sfn|Dorman|2005b|p=269}}{{sfn|Robins|1993|pp=51–52, 55}} (including its successes, as opposed to the female pharaoh [[Sobekneferu]], who failed to rejuvenate Egypt's fortunes and was therefore more acceptable to the conservative establishment as a tragic figure) and re-legitimise his right to rule.{{sfn|Tyldesley|1996|pp=137–144}}

The "Hatshepsut Problem" is a direct link to gender normatives in regards to ancient Egyptian social structures. Although she did hold Queen status, her reign, especially after, was disregarded and even erased. Her reign could be considered more successful than some pharaohs' reigns, for example with expanding borders, which can be seen as a threat to traditional gender roles. This raises questions about the conflict between power and traditional gender roles, and to what extent modernism and conservatism overlap.{{sfn|Cooney|2018}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024|reason=Cooney makes no reference to a "Hatshepsut Problem."}}

The erasure of Hatshepsut's name—by the men who succeeded her for whatever reason—almost caused her to disappear from Egypt's archaeological and written records. When 19th-century Egyptologists started to interpret the texts on the Deir el-Bahari temple walls (which were illustrated with two seemingly male kings) their translations made no sense. [[Jean-François Champollion]], the French decoder of [[hieroglyph]]s, said:

{{blockquote|If I felt somewhat surprised at seeing here, as elsewhere throughout the temple, the renowned Moeris [Thutmose III], adorned with all the insignia of royalty, giving place to this Amenenthe [Hatshepsut], for whose name we may search the royal lists in vain, still more astonished was I to find upon reading the inscriptions that wherever they referred to this bearded king in the usual dress of the Pharaohs, nouns and verbs were in the feminine, as though a queen were in question. I found the same peculiarity everywhere...<!--Original French: "Si j'éprouvai quelque surprise de voir ici et dans tout le reste de l'édifice le célèbre Moeris, orné de toutes les marques de la royauté, céder ainsi le pas à cet Aménenthé qu'on chercherait en vain dans les listes royales, je dus m'étonner encore davantage, à la lecture des inscriptions, de trouver qu'on ne parlât de ce roi barbu, et en costume ordinaire de Pharaon, qu'en employant des noms et des verbes au féminin, comme s'il s'agissait d'une reine. Je donne ici pour exemple la dédicace même des propylons."-->{{sfn|Champollion le Jeune|1868}}}}
This problem was a major issue in late 19th-century and early 20th-century [[Egyptology]], centering on confusion and disagreement on the order of succession of early [[Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt|18th Dynasty]] [[pharaohs]]. The dilemma takes its name from confusion over the [[chronology]] of the rule of Queen Hatshepsut and Thutmose I, II, and III.<ref>{{cite web|first=David |last=Bediz |title=The Story of Hatshepsut |url=http://www.bediz.com/hatshep/story.html |access-date=27 June 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629080236/http://www.bediz.com/hatshep/story.html |archive-date=29 June 2007 }}</ref>