Divine Birth and Coronation Inscriptions of Hatshepsut

Impact

The evidence from Hatshepsut's reign, such as the massive monuments she was able to build and the expeditions she is known to have undertaken, suggests that she ruled peacefully as king for at least fifteen years. Her reign, however, did not pave the way for a succession of female rulers. Instead, the attempts by Thutmose III to obliterate many of her records may have been partly in reaction to the idea of a female pharaoh. Women, especially royal women, were accorded high status in Egyptian society, but this was in positions like those held by Hatshepsut prior to her coronation, such as god's wife or king's mother—important positions, but not pharaoh. The king of Egypt was a male, and after Hatshepsut's death it may have been easier to erase her legacy rather than to rewrite Egyptian royal ideology around a female ruler who had been essentially an anomaly.

Years later, during the Nineteenth Dynasty, many of Hatshepsut's monuments were restored. She does appear in the history of Egypt written by the priest Manetho in the third century BCE, although no other classical sources make mention of her. With the dawn of modern Egyptology and the decipherment of hieroglyphs in the early nineteenth century, scholars were left with puzzling clues about this enigmatic woman who was often depicted as a man. Her divine birth and coronation came off in early scholarly interpretations as desperate attempts to justify a succession that was likely fraught with intrigue and controversy.

Modern historians are still left with as many questions as answers about the person of Hatshepsut, her divine birth, and her coronation. While some see her as a feminist icon to be heralded, others view her as an exception. Current scholarship has tended to focus less on the significance of her gender and more on the innovative ways in which she adapted iconography and ideology to accommodate her reign. Whether her coronation indicates that the Egyptians were more progressive toward gender relations than many ancient societies or whether her proscription indicates that she was an aberration, Hatshepsut's divine birth and coronation gave her a lasting place in the Egyptian canon of kings—and beyond.