Hatshepsut and the trick of the Hotep positioning.
The Hotep-Shape Gardens in Der Elbahari temple.
Der Elbahari temple.
Queen Hatshepsut was one the most remarkable queens in the history of ancient Egypt as well as for the mankind history. Her unique personality and her natural intelligence next her outstanding determination were her most effective tools on her struggle for keeping the throne. She ruled between 1508–1458 BC and according to ancient historians as for she ruled in 1st Shemu “ summer season” on day4 and died in Year 22, 2nd Peret” winter season” on day 10 of her reign.
The sudden death of her brother-husband Thutmoses II was a serious shock for her as she became a very young widow and a mother for two daughters. Hatshepsut determined to become the ruling queen for Egypt however being a mother of two princesses and no male hair among, it seems that her plan of becoming the ruler of Egypt was much resisted by clergy of the Egyptian temples and also by some of her royal family members. In fact there was a wave of resentment on her decision to rule as a solo-ruler which inspired the opposition seeking an alternative successor for Thutmoses II and actually managed to reach Isis who was an unknown mistress for Thutmoses II . We just can imagine the shock which Hatshepsut had once that bad news reached her also the serious protection Isis was provided once she gave birth to a royal son. The queen’s opposition succeeded to claim his royal birth and announced him as Thutmoses III son of Thutmoses II and the legal successor for his father. Hatshepsut denied his royal birth right for rule as him was born of a mistress but her opposition were smart too as they forced the idea of allowing Thutmoses III to be married to one of her daughters to become appropriate for rule. Hatshepsut managed to become his princess-in-regent as well as a mother-in-law and a step-mother and according to many researches Thutmoses III was disdained by Hatshepsut and was allowed to share in the rule. The queen first trick was to portend that her refusal by her opposition is based on being her a female queen therefore Hatshepsut decided to be shown in all of her carvings as a man who is bearded and often dressed with a kilt even in her inscription on her temple the texts addressed her as a king .Her second trick was her claim of being herself divine in birth as born of her father god Amun the top of the gods pantheon which drifted her opposition attention to the event of being herself telling the truth or the vice versa. Her determination of getting a burial in the valley of the kings was so unusual but breaking royal and religious rules was impossible therefore her most powerful trick had to exist. The very early hieroglyphic character “ Hotep” which has several meanings such as verb to offer ,to calm ,to rest to relax ,to be happy and to be appeased or as nouns also it means offerings and an offering table. The same character was included by royal names of Middle kingdom kings as for the Montuhoteps as in name of king Montuhotep I who reunified Egypt and stopped its civil war therefore his name means Montu” god of war” is appeased. The most common use for the Hotep was to be the offering table for gods and kings once become deified in their tombs.
A stone table with the Hotep sign in the center. Alexandria national museum.
The Hotep sign resembles an inverted letter “T” in shape and it was inspired to king Muntohotep II to take as design for his temple where it contained his burial chamber and also pointed at his ancestors tombs direction. Doubtless that Senmut her architect and lover borrowed Muntohotep’s old design to provide Hatshepsut with a royal burial simply by building her a tomb at the back of her temple similarly with king Muntohotep II or by attempting to dig her tomb deeply in the cliff to be linked with the valley of the kings. Anyway her goal was reached as Her Temple at El der elbahary stood at a distance of only a few hundred meters in a straight line from the tomb that queen Hatshepsut had ordered to build for herself in the Valley of the Kings on the other side of the mountain. So her best trick to get an equal burial to male rulers was to adapt the Hotep positioning for her temple and tomb thereby she managed to get the equality she desired. It seems that her use for her father tomb Thutmoses I was unsuccessful and her admission to that tomb was prohibited but some final trick seemed to help her to cross with her body into the valley of the kings most probably after she sacrificed her identity where she was found. Her mummy was found in the tomb of her wet nurse, Sitre-Re, in kv60 as an unknown woman with no royal names or titles then latter was brought to Cairo Museum and left there for ages then just in the 2009 queen Hatshepsut identity was determined by the Egyptian Supreme council of Antiquities using the DNA test for the first time. In fact her mummy examination referred to her death to be normal in her middle age suffering Diabetes, arthritis.
By Yasser Kamel to Museumegypt, All rights reserved. Copyrig ©Musegypt.
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