Behind every great, cross-dressing woman is a husband who's just happy to be there

An incredibly brief run-down of Queen Hatshepsut, because archaeologists JUST discovered the tomb of her husband (literally last week)

Archaeologists just found the first tomb of a pharaoh since Tutankhamun (the shiny fellow pictured above). Yes, that is a BIG. DEAL. It belonged to Thutmose II and you can read about it here, here, and here. But honestly, who wants to look at a pile of rubble/read a few pull quotes from archaeologists before they’ve actually analysed anything when you can read about his WIFE? What if I told you his wife was such a transgressive, rule-breaking, cross-dressing FEMALE. PHARAOH. that the ancient Egyptians tried to erase her from the historical record? (Scroll for literal scratch marks, I am not remotely kidding).

Isn’t she glorious. Seated Statue of Hatshepsut (New Kingdom), ca. 1479–1458 BCE.

Hatshepsut was the female king (I mean!!!!!!!!) of Egypt, ruling as co-regent ca. 1479–73 BCE and ON HER OWN ca. 1473–58 BCE. (That’s more exciting than rubble, come ON). She was married to her half-brother (just keep reading, I promise all the incest is fine as long as you don’t look at forensic reconstructions of the pharaohs), and together they had one daughter, Neferure. When her husband died, his throne passed on to his son from a lesser marriage (ouch), Thutmose III. Thut no.3 was an infant so Hatshepsut ruled in his stead. At first, she was very traditional and respectful. No headlines were made, everything was going swimmingly. Fastforward to the end of the 7th year of her stepson’s reign, Hattie had well and truly spiced things up. She had a) been crowned king b) adopted the full royal protocol taken on by male pharaohs and c) was now co-ruler with her adolescent stepson.

Here she is as a SPHINX. Sphinx of Hatshepsut (New Kingdom), ca. 1479–1458 BCE.

Up until this point Hatshepsut had stuck with tradition in one way at least, she’d been depicted as a female queen with a female body and associated feminine garb. She briefly messed around with a composite moment, showcasing her female body with male clothing/regalia, but after a period of… experimentation… she doubled down, and was depicted with a male body and a false beard. (The fake beard isn’t weird/unique to Hattie, most male pharaohs were clean-shaven and rocked these).

Now I have no CLUE when it comes to the reality of Hatshepsut’s gender expression BUT what has been convincingly argued by scholars is that this was far closer to ✨ manifestation ✨ than anything else. By depicting herself as a true, male pharaoh, Hatshepsut was willing this into reality.

She also had a great team around her, fabulously loyal officials, hand-picked by her, which helped smooth her path. She also enjoyed a remarkably peaceful reign; instead of having to focus on defending Egypt’s borders when it came to foreign policy, she was able to focus on trade (although, according to some art on a temple wall in Thebes she did have a brief crack at war in Nubia and was bloody good at that too). She was in charge of a game-changing seaborne mission to Punt, a trading centre on the coast of East Africa (which has apparently vanished???), and brought back exotic animals and precious metals. She also brought back live trees that were then planted in Egypt.

Yes, I took this photo and yes, I was really normal about it.

She also took her architectural responsibilities very seriously, building a whole bunch of new structures and remodelling some that had gotten a bit shabby/otherwise weren’t to her taste.

As Hattie got on age-wise, she (VERY KINDLY) allowed her stepson Thutmose III to take on more and more responsibility. He repaid this act of generosity by having any sign of her and her rule completely erased. Toward the end of his reign, all her statues were destroyed, her monuments defaced, and her name was scratched out of the official king list.

Boooooooooooo.

I’m sure he had his reasons but I have no interest in hearing them.

I mean it’s a kind of beautiful (in a really aggravating way).

Hatshepsut remained an anonymous, archaeological ghost UNTIL 1822 when a bunch of archaeologists figured out how to read hieroglyphs and started to disentangle Dayr al-Baḥrī (an ancient site with a whole bunch going on, including Queen Hatshepsut’s terraced mortuary temple). The archaeologists were initially super confused by the whole female name/male figure situation but modern scholars have now, mercifully, figured out what the hell went down.

So, by all means, go and read about this new tomb (it is genuinely very exciting and you should seriously skim some articles) but keep in mind Hatshepsut, his trailblazing better half (and the hard-working archaeologists who wrote her back into the pages of history).

I hope you have enjoyed my overexcited ramble/rampage, stay tuned next week for a mythological/art historical story I’m incredibly excited about (Helen of Troy + Frankenstein = ????). Also, bonus pic of me sweating like a disgruntled piglet at the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, Luxor, in 2022.

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