Hatshepsut

Question 1

“Stated briefly, ma’at is the order, the just measure of things, that underlies the world; it is the perfect state of things toward which one should strive and which is in harmony with the creator god’s intentions”

Answer 1

Hornung

Question 2

While temples owned much of the land and High Priests were high ranking in the administration, they were subordinate to the king who was the sole link with the gods

Answer 2

O’Connor

Question 3

To ensure a smooth transition, the god Amun was gradually combined with another god Re, to form a new god Amun-Re

Answer 3

Hornung

Question 4

The Egyptians perceived kingship as fundamental to society and the cosmos. The main role of the king was to maintain ma’at (cosmic order) and prevent disarray or chaos.

Answer 4

O’Connor and Silverman

Question 5

She oversaw the bureaucracy of state, was the theological leader of the country and chief officiant to the gods and commander-in-chief of the military .

Answer 5

Silverman

Question 6

Royal women in ancient Egypt derived their importance from their relationship to the king.

Answer 6

Robins

Question 7

It is possible Hatshepsut’s political power was derived in part from this priestly office (Gods Wife of Amun) and Thutmose III later deliberately reduced the importance of the office

Answer 7

Robins

Question 8

Her father was not descended from the founding kings of the 18th Dynasty and may have had a military background.

Answer 8

Redford

Question 9

Some historians believe Hatshesput’s mother was a sister of the previous King Amenhotep I.

Answer 9

Redford, Lawless

Question 10

Some historians argue that the royal line was passed through the royal females – the so-called ‘heiress theory’ – so if Hatshepsut’s mother was an ‘Ahmosid’ then she had more royal blood and a greater claim to the throne than her brother.

Answer 10

Redford

Question 11

The proper successor was the surviving first born son of the king regardless of the mother – thus Hatshepsut’s claim to the throne did not include having more ‘royal blood’ than her brother or her step-son Thutmose III (i.e. the Heiress Theory is not true).

Answer 11

Robins

Question 12

It appears Thutmose II died prematurely. His mummy appears to be no more than 30 years old and has a ‘scaly’ appearance which could indicate he had been a sickly man.

Answer 12

Callender

Question 13

The regency was unprecedented because Thutmose III was not her son – she was his step-mother and aunt.

Answer 13

Callender and Tyldesley

Question 14

There is no evidence for Thutmose III ever marrying Neferure, but this Egyptologist believes they did.

Answer 14

Grimal

Question 15

Most historians agree Hatshepsut probably ‘consolidated her position’ to become king during the regency.

Answer 15

Robins and Redford

Question 16

The careful planning she shows during the regency indicates that she already had a group of people supporting her, including Senenmut, Ineni, Ahmose-pen-nekhbit and Hapuseneb.

Answer 16

Redford

Question 17

The coronation scenes may have occurred before Thutmose II was born. If Thutmose I had no male heir at the time, he could have designated Hatshepsut as his successor. This would have been ruled out once he was born.

Answer 17

Callender

Question 18

Hatshepsut was actually appointed coregent of Thutmose I. These historians point out that later NK kings use the same scenes it is accepted as historical, but these are assumed fictional because Hatshepsut was a woman.

Answer 18

Hornung and Helck

Question 19

The Divine Birth and coronation scenes are “wholly fictitious”

Answer 19

Kemp

Question 20

Hatshepsut and Thutmose III’s coregency lasted at least 13 years.

Answer 20

Lawless

Question 21

The timing of her claim was “unconstitutional” as she delayed her assumption to the throne until after Thutmose III was legitimately crowned.

Answer 21

Callender

Question 22

She “usurped the throne of a reigning king”

Answer 22

Callender

Question 23

The Queen and queen mother had much influence over the heir presumptive and husband presumably in the 17th and early 18th Dynasties.

Answer 23

Redford

Question 24

“The matriarchal streak is one of the most striking features of the early Eighteenth Dynasty. The stubbornness and driving ambition of the queens could not help but precipitate a conflict with the males of the family, at least if the women persisted in grasping after what logically mast have been the ultimate aspiration, viz. the crown”.

Answer 24

Redford

Question 25

“Hatshepsut was made of the same fibre as her grandmother”.

Answer 25

Redford

Question 26

She wanted to revive the line of queens and was outraged by the accession of Thutmose III. She clearly had supporters such as Senenmut behind her.

Answer 26

Redford

Question 27

The early queens may have paved the way for Hatshepsut to claim the ultimate power. These queens had power via the ‘God’s Wife of Amun’ position first used by Ahmose-Nefertari.

Answer 27

Lawless

Question 28

She seems to have wanted to make Neferure her direct heir to the throne and exclude from the succession Thutmose III and any children she might have. Neferure held the title ‘Lady of the Two Lands’ on her own and not because of marriage to Thutmose III (but Neferure died before her mother anyway…)

Answer 28

Bentley

Question 29

She has to consolidate her position at the head of the administration first as regent, proving she could do a better job than her nephew.

Answer 29

Bentley

Question 30

She may have used the title ‘King’ to prepare Egypt for a matrilineal succession and rule followed by Neferure as the next king.

Answer 30

Bentley

Question 31

Thutmose II was only a ‘falcon in the nest’ when he became king. Might Hatshepsut have been designated heir apparent before his birth, but this was nullified after his birth? Then after his death she mulled over the opportunity that had been denied her and decided it was rightfully hers?

Answer 31

Callender

Question 32

“There is no documentation indicating the reasons why Hatshepsut made her bid for the throne, and when exploring this avenue it must be realised that by doing so we enter the realm of speculation.”

Answer 32

Callender

Question 33

“Hatshepsut’s accession, within a few years of his [Thutmose III] may have been as much a dynastic defence mechanism as an act of personal ambition.”

Answer 33

O'Connor

Question 34

“We can never be sure why Hatshepsut defied tradition and became a king, nor why the male bureaucracy tolerated this aberration, but we can suggest some hypotheses”:

Answer 34

Robins

Question 35

She probably possessed a strong character and made the most of the power she accrued as regent. She probably carefully chose the officials who served her, especially Senenmut—their fortunes became linked with hers.

Answer 35

Robins

Question 36

She probably found the prospect of giving up power unpleasant, but could not prolong the regency when Thutmose III came of age.

Answer 36

Robins

Question 37

She made the use of the institution of coregency.

Answer 37

Robins

Question 38

In a scene at Karnak Hatshepsut stands behind Thutmose II in the traditional subordinate position for a queen.

Answer 38

Tyldesley

Question 39

The regency was "customary".

Answer 39

Lawless

Question 40

Hatshepsut used the time as regent to consolidate her support in the administration.

Answer 40

Redford and Robins

Question 41

The gradual erasure of feminising body and facial features from the statues of the queen occurred, and the numbers of male pharaonic attributes gradually increased.

Answer 41

Tefnin

Question 42

Later in the reign, Deir el-Bahri statues and reliefs cover the full range of kingly iconography and further changes include alterations to the face of Hatshepsut—more asexual/ asensual image of ruler.

Answer 42

Tefnin

Question 43

By causing herself to be depicted as a traditional pharaoh in the most regal and heroic form, Hatshepsut was making sure that this is precisely what she would become.

Answer 43

Hayes

Question 44

“The evidence for foreign military campaigns is more plentiful than is sometimes thought; and it may well be that the reason there is not more is because Thutmose III destroyed it…”

Answer 44

Redford

Question 45

Hatshepsut’s military actions were eclipsed by Thutmose III’s brilliant career after her death, but her campaigns are comparable with those before her.

Answer 45

Redford

Question 46

During the co-reign of the kings the Third Cataract region of Nubia was finally made stable and Egyptian control was extended as far as the Fourth Cataract.

Answer 46

O'Connor

Question 47

“Hatshepsut was not blind to the need of bolstering Egypt’s economy”

Answer 47

Redford

Question 48

Her expedition to Punt, the ‘God’s Land’, in year 9 of the co-regency was very significant to her, possibly the most important event of her reign.

Answer 48

Bentley

Question 49

The main purpose of the Punt expedition was to bring back incense for the Temple of Amun, Thebes in leaf form and full-grown trees for the gardens.

Answer 49

Bentley

Question 50

Through her ex[edition to Punt Hatshepsut would honour Amun, open up trade and possibly reward the support of the Amun priesthood.

Answer 50

Bentley

Question 51

“Ideology needs architecture for its fullest expression.”

Answer 51

Kemp

Question 52

“We must conclude from her repeated references to it that a building program had top priority”

Answer 52

Redford

Question 53

“It is unfortunate that the evidence for Hatshepsut’s full building program is so sketchy. It is obvious she made considerable changes to the temple at Karnak and that her mortuary temple was like no other. Fragments of evidence suggest an active building program all over Egypt, but so much of her work was later altered or damaged it is very difficult to make an accurate assessment”

Answer 53

Lawless

Question 54

Deir el Bahri was a platform on which she installed her ideas about the cosmos and her place within it.

Answer 54

Callender

Question 55

The Hypostile hall at Deir el Bahri was an original concept.

Answer 55

Callender

Question 56

The three terracesat Deir el Bahri wer created to be an explicit expression of three key aspects of the nature of Amun-Re as defined by Hatshepsut’s theological innovations.

Answer 56

Alison Roberts (drawing on Assman's work)

Question 57

Hatshepsut's reign was the “starting point of the revolutionary changes that occurred in the religious history of the New Kingdom.”

Answer 57

Jan Assman

Question 58

The concept of Amun-Re: Hatshepsut defined new aspects of Amun-Re including Amun-Re the city god, ruler god, primeval god, creator god, sun-god and ethical authority. Offering prayers express these in as epithets eg. the offering prayer to Amun-Re on the tomb stela of Amenemhat.

Answer 58

Jan Assman

Question 59

The worship of Amun not only included the outward display of ritual but also conscious inner devotion – it required moral behaviour and personal integrity.

Answer 59

Jan Assman

Question 60

Religious aspects of the ideology of kingship: later pharaohs also claimed to be directly chosen by Amun-Re. Amenhotep III and Rameses II even copied her Divine Birth Scenes. Hatshesput seems to have wanted to strengthen the relationship between the king and Amun-Re, thus developing the ideology of kingship. Her actions were not just about stressing her legitimacy.

Answer 60

Jan Assman

Question 61

The merging of Isis and Hathor went on to be a popular theme in the ideology of kingship under later kings of the 18th and 19th Dynasties.

Answer 61

Roberts

Question 62

Under the earlier kings of the 18th Dynasty, Amun/ the Amun cult became a possessor of vast riches due to the kings’ donation of all booty to the state god.

Answer 62

Redford

Question 63

The Amun Priests were always subordinate to the king and could never undertake politically disturbing theological initiative.

Answer 63

O'Connor

Question 64

Hatshepsut would have also inherited some of her supporters from her father’s and husband’s administrations, such as Ineni and Ahmose-pen-Nehkbet.

Answer 64

Redford

Question 65

The number of titleholders associated with the cult of Amen-Re (including women as well) increased sharply during her reign.

Answer 65

Bryan

Question 66

The Amun priesthood was the backbone of Hatshepsut’s administration, especially Hapuseneb.

Answer 66

Callender

Question 67

Hapuseneb gained considerable power over the civil administration when he became overseer of all prophets.

Answer 67

Lawless

Question 68

Hatshepsut relied on the cult of Amun to strengthen her position.

Answer 68

Redford

Question 69

Temple establishments were on the whole more subject to political manipulation and exploitation, rather than initiators of such activity. The high priests of Amun were undoubtedly high-ranking and influential figures but “we must not exaggerate their political importance”.

Answer 69

O'Connor

Question 70

The king was the chief channel of divine power and guidance. The priests could not undertake politically disturbing ideology.

Answer 70

O'Connor

Question 71

Hapusoneb was Hatshepsut’s most influential supporter and must have lent considerable support.

Answer 71

Redford and Bradley

Question 72

Hapusoneb took charge of her monuments at Karnak.

Answer 72

Callender

Question 73

The formation of the priesthood of all of Egypt into a coherent organisation under a single individual for the first time probably meant that all the priesthood were on Hatshepsut’s side.

Answer 73

Breasted

Question 74

Hapusoneb He controlled the civil bureaucracy. However, he may have been appointed to this later in the reign.

Answer 74

Bradley

Question 75

“The backbone of her administration lay in the powerful priesthood of Amun”

Answer 75

Callender

Question 76

Hatshepsut carefully chose officials and built up a “political support system”. Their careers and fortunes became linked to hers.

Answer 76

Robins

Question 77

Hatshepsut could not have ruled without strong male advisors to aid her.

Answer 77

Gardiner

Question 78

Hatshepsut needed a skilled and huge bureaucracy, but not because she was female and ‘incapable’—all kings needed one! Also, there is no evidence for the two opposing ‘parties’ of officials argued by some Egyptologists.

Answer 78

Lawless

Question 79

There were two opposing ‘parties’ of officials—those who supported Thutmose III and those who supported Hatshepsut.

Answer 79

Wilson

Question 80

Senenmut “appears to have been something of a power behind the throne”. He was one of the officials among her “circle of favourites”. Most of these were “new men”.

Answer 80

Redford

Question 81

Senenmut was Hatshepsut’s main advisor and gained enormous power and influence.

Answer 81

Lawless

Question 82

Senenmut was a man of low origin but also the power behind the throne.

Answer 82

Redford

Question 83

Senenmut was the most famous of all her officials, but it is unlikely he has a sexual liaison with her.

Answer 83

Callender

Question 84

Senenmut enjoyed privileges and prerogatives never before extended to a mere official.

Answer 84

Hayes

Question 85

Senenmut is a “controversial figure”.

Answer 85

Bradley

Question 86

Senenmut was a competent administrator and financial manager.

Answer 86

Callender

Question 87

Senenmut was allowed to represent himself at least 70 times in out-of-the-way places in Deir el-Bahri worshipping Amun and Hatshepsut

Answer 87

Hayes

Question 88

Senenmut quarried and executed a sarcophagus of a royal type and built a tomb similar to Hatshepsut’s own under the forecourt of her Deir el-Bahri temple

Answer 88

Hayes

Question 89

It is unlikely that Senenmut’s memory was reviled by the sovereigns he served. There is a statue of him which still stands in Thutmose III’s mortuary temple.

Answer 89

Dorman

Question 90

This relationship has intrigued historians because Senenmut (a) arguably ‘enjoyed privileges never before extended to a mere official’

Answer 90

Hayes

Question 91

Senenmut rose from the ‘middle class’ and held various positions under Thutmose I to Thutmose II.

Answer 91

Callender

Question 92

Under Hatshepsut, Senenmut was appointed steward and tutor to her daughter Neferure and by Year 7 Steward of the property belonging to Neferure and Hatshepsut.

Answer 92

Callender

Question 93

Hatshepsut would have despised his inferior birth and believed she had a right to the throne as daughter of the King’s Great Wife.

Answer 93

Redford and Bentley

Question 94

Hatshepsut eventually intended to begin a matrilineal line of kings with Neferure.

Answer 94

Bentley

Question 95

The erecting of the two obelisks was a kingly prerogative.

Answer 95

Robins

Question 96

Thutmose III could have easily used his control of the military against Hatshepsut if he desired her removal.

Answer 96

Tyldesley

Question 97

Neferure disappears from the record having probably died before her mother.

Answer 97

Murnane

Question 98

Recent research on the Red Chapel has shown that Thutmose III did not begin Damnatio Memorare until Year 42 of his reign. Twenty years is too long to hold a grudge.

Answer 98

Nims

Question 99

Thutmose III felt Hatshepsut's name and image (Damnatio Memorare) had to be removed for political expediency because her rule had not been in accordance with ma’at.

Answer 99

Robins

Question 100

Hatshepsut's relationship with Thutmose III was “fundamentally amicable”.

Answer 100

O'Connor

Question 101

Hatshepsut despised Thutmose II’s inferior birth and therefore his son’s.

Answer 101

Bentley

Question 102

Hatshepsut was “outraged by Thutmose III’s succession, but she waited for her moment to strike”. There may have even been an agreement between Hatshepsut and Thutmose II on the succession of Neferure.

Answer 102

Redford

Question 103

As regent, Hatshepsut took on the customary role. She was depicted on official monuments behind Thutmose III. It all seemed reasonable until Thutmose III came of age.

Answer 103

Bradley

Question 104

Hatshepsut departed from queenly precedents in some ways during the regency (iconography; erected obelisks etc).

Answer 104

Robins

Question 105

The coregency was “unconstitutional”. She ‘usurped’ the crown and she was the dominant partner until he was about the age of 30.

Answer 105

Callender

Question 106

“There was no opposition (from Thutmose III). Why should there be? Thutmose was allowed to retain the outward show of kingship, and his aunt even allowed him to appear behind her in reliefs... It is not at all improbable that Thutmose III was thrust into the army as a child at the queen’s behest,

Answer 106

Redford

Question 107

Hatshepsut came to an unnatural end in a coup by Thutmose III.

Answer 107

Steindorf and Seele

Question 108

Some of Hatshepsut's supporters went over to the side of Thutmose III towards the end of the coregency, he killed her and even destroyed her mummy.

Answer 108

Mertz

Question 109

At the beginning of his sole rule Thutmose III started a ferocious campaign to efface Hatshepsut’s memory, his motives being vengeance and fury

Answer 109

Gardiner and Wilson