A powerful woman and an disrespected death

In 1508 BC, a girl was born to the royal family of Egypt.  They named her Hatshepsut, meaning the noblest of ladies.  Hatshepsut married her brother, Tuthmose II, who shortly after his coronation and shortly after his father, Pharoah Tuthmose I, died.  When her husband died, the question of ascension came to the forefront as Hatshepsut claimed to be her father’s heir, not her nephew and stepson Thutmose III, because Thutmose III was too young to rule.

Hatshepsut reigned from 1479 BC until her death in 1458 BC.  During this time, she presented herself as a male, partially in order to prove her legitimacy as a pharaoh.  All iconography depicting Hatshepsut deemphasizes her breasts and feminine qualities.  She even wore the false beard of a pharaoh.

Before Hatshepsut became pharaoh, a royal tomb was built for in the Valley of the Kings, but after she ascended to the throne, her tomb was deemed unworthy for a pharaoh.  Therefore, when she died, Hatshepsut was buried with her father in his tomb, KV20, which was discovered by Howard Carter in 1903.

In ordinary circumstances, Hatshepsut’s death would have been the end of her story, but unfortunately, these were not ordinary circumstances.  Because of her unusual rise to the throne, she delayed Tuthmose III’s ascension to the throne for two decades, something that Egyptologists cite for the destruction of all iconography relating to Hatshepsut shortly after her death.

Tuthmose III had all remaining images of Hatshepsut destroyed, defaced her name everywhere, and removed it from all records.  In 1907, archaeologists found blocks with her name still visible beneath the cartouche of Tuthmose III, the first evidence of her being pharaoh that had been found.

After the blocks were found, archaeologists re-examined Hatshepsut’s burial temple.  The first thing that the archaeologist’s noticed was that the record of Hatshepsut’s Sed-festival, or the festival that celebrates the continued rule of a pharaoh, showed a joint celebration including Hatshepsut and Tuthmose III, which appears unaltered.

Upon further study, the archaeologists discovered that Tuthmose I, Hatshepsut’s father was removed from his tomb during Tutmose III’s reign to a new tomb, KV 38. The scenes of Hatshepsut and Tuthmose III were unaltered, indicating that the scenes did actually happen, or that they were put there after Hatshepsut's death and Tuthmose I was removed from the tomb.

Although Hatshepsut was buried and mummified as a pharaoh, her successor did not want her remembered as such.  Hatshepsut’s story is interesting because although she was a woman of power in her lifetime, after her death she was treated as anything but one.  Although Egyptologists list her reign as being one of the most successful, her body was not treated that way.  This is in contrast to the studies of the Inca kings who were revered after their deaths.  Additionally, the treatment of Hatshepsut is in direct contrast to the treatment of the iconography of women by the Moche, who our main study is about.  First, there was no iconography representing Hatshepsut as a woman and second, the iconography that was left was destroyed by the people who came after her rule.

Sources:
http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/sites/browse_tomb_834.html
http://www.jstor.org/stable/542272
http://www.jstor.org/stable/543914