The wives of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Akhenaten and Nefertiti
And a great reformer. His wife is the most beautiful woman in the kingdom. The reign of this couple fell on the Amarna period. What made Akhenaten and Nefertiti famous for the short period of their reign? Among all the great queens of Egypt, only the name of the most beautiful and revered ruler remained on hearing. Infrequently, the pharaohs allowed their wives to rule, but Nefertiti was not just a wife - she became a queen during her lifetime, whom they prayed for, whose mental abilities were extolled so highly. "Perfect" - that's what her contemporaries called her, extolled her merits and beauty.
Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton)
Akhenaten was not supposed to rule Egypt as he had an older brother. But Thutnos died during the reign of his father, so Amenhotep became the legitimate heir. AT last years Pharaoh was seriously ill during his life, and the opinion of historians boils down to the fact that younger son was co-ruler at this time. However, for how long such a joint rule lasted could not be established.
After the death of his father, Amenhotep becomes pharaoh and begins to rule the country, which by this time has achieved great power and influence. Queen Teie, famous for her prudence and wisdom, helped her son in the early years. She skillfully directed his thoughts in the right direction and gave wise advice.
New religion
During the reign of the pharaoh, the cult of the Sun reached unprecedented heights. The previously not so popular Aten (the sun god) becomes the center of religion. A grandiose temple for the highest deity is being built using new technologies. Aten himself is depicted as a man with the head of a falcon. God was given the status of pharaoh, the border between Amenhotep and the sun was erased. To top it off, he changes his name to Akhenaten, which means "useful to the Aten." All members of the family, as well as the most important dignitaries, were also renamed.
In order to establish a new deity, a new town. First of all, a huge palace was erected for the pharaoh. He did not wait for the completion of construction and moved along with the entire court from Thebes. The temple for the Aten was erected immediately after the palace. Residential quarters and other buildings for residents were built from inexpensive materials, while the palace and temple were made of white stone.
Pharaoh's wives. Nefertiti
Akhenaten's first wife was Nefertiti. They were married before his ascension to the throne. To the question of at what age girls were taken as wives by the pharaohs: they became brides from 12-15 years old. The future husband of Nefertiti was several years older than her. The girl was unusually pretty, her name literally translates as "the beauty has come." This may indicate that the first wife of the pharaoh was not an Egyptian. It has not yet been possible to find confirmation of its foreign origin. The wife supported Akhenaten in everything, she contributed to the elevation of Aten to the rank of the highest deity. On the walls of the temple there are much more of her images than of the pharaoh himself. The wife could not give him a son: during their marriage, she gave birth to six daughters.
Nefertiti raised the son of Akhenaten's sister. He would later become the husband of one of her daughters, Ankhesenpaaten, and rule Egypt under the name of Tutankhamen. The girl will change her name to Ankhesenamun. One of the daughters of the royal solar couple will die in childhood, the other will be given in marriage to her brother. The fate of the rest of the story is unknown.
Nefertiti and Akhenaten appeared everywhere together. Her greatness and significance can be judged by the fact that she was allowed to accompany her husband during the sacrifices. They prayed to her in the temples of the Aten, and all the actions were carried out exclusively in her presence. During her lifetime, she became a symbol of the prosperity of all of Egypt. There are many frescoes and statues of this beautiful woman. On the walls of the Akhenaten Palace there are many joint images of the pharaoh and his wife. They are captured at the moment of the kiss, with children on their knees, there are separate images of daughters. None of the wives of the pharaohs of Egypt was honored with such honors as this person.
Decline of the popularity of Queen Nefertiti
Now no one can say what caused her disappearance from the political arena and family life pharaoh. Probably, after the death of the daughter, the relationship of the spouses to each other changed. Or Akhenaten could not forgive the beauty for the absence of an heir. Evidence of her life after the reign is a statue depicting Nefertiti in old age. Still beautiful, but already broken by years and hardships, the woman froze forever in a tight-fitting dress and light sandals. Undoubtedly, the rejection of her husband broke her, left her imprint on the royal face. The tomb of Nefertiti has not yet been discovered, which may confirm the assumption of her disfavor. Perhaps she outlived her husband, but they did not bury her with honors.
kiya
Queen Nefertiti was replaced by a not so beautiful and majestic Kiya. Presumably, she entered into marriage with the pharaoh in the fifth year of his reign. There is also no reliable information about its origin. One version says that the girl was the wife of Akhenaten's father and after death passed to the young pharaoh. There is no historical mention of her high position at court and any participation in the reign of the pharaoh. It is known that Kiya gave birth to a daughter. This is where the story of the Pharaoh's wife ends. Judging by the fact that her name was removed from the walls of the temple, the woman was disgraced. The burial of this wife of the pharaoh was not found. There are no conjectures and facts about the fate of her daughter either.
Taduhepa
This wife of the pharaoh also went to him by inheritance. The girl came to Egypt from Mitanni at the request of Amenhotep III. He chose her as his bride, but died shortly after her arrival. Akhenaten made Taduhepa his wife. Some scientists and researchers believe that Nefertiti or Kiya had this name before the reign, but no evidence of this theory has been found. A message from her father Tushratta to her future husband has been preserved, in which he negotiates the imminent marriage of his daughter. But this does not confirm the fact that the princess existed as a separate person. Historians also did not find any mention of joint children.
Death of the pharaoh
How Akhenaten died has not yet been established. There are murals depicting an attempt on the pharaoh with the help of poisoning. However, his mummy is required to establish the cause of death. Only a tomb was found in the family vault. There was no body inside, and she herself was practically destroyed. Scholars are still debating whether the man's mummy from tomb KV55 is Akhenaten.
Someone tried to keep it a secret by knocking off the name on the sarcophagus and tearing off the mask. DNA examination established that the body belongs to the close relatives of Tutankhamun. But it could be Smenkhkare, who was also of the same blood as the pharaohs. It is not yet possible to establish the exact origin of the mummy, but archaeologists do not lose hope of finding new tombs and regal bodies.
- Judging by this photo, this attitude was completely understandable! Here stands a huge pharaoh, and somewhere between his legs his wife is lost ...
“However, it was believed that royal blood ran in the veins of women, not men. To become pharaoh, a man had to marry a royal princess, who could be his sister or cousin!
"Even allow incest?"
- As for incest, many researchers came to the conclusion that there were probably marriages between brother and sister, but, most likely, relatives were no longer considered as such.
- I read that despite the beauty of faces, the last representatives XVIII dynasty who ruled Egypt from 1580 to 1314. BC (according to a different chronology from 1550 to 1307), features of degeneration appeared, probably caused by closely related marriages practiced in royal families. So Pharaoh Horemheb, who seized the throne after the death of the aged Eye, in order to legitimize the usurpation of power, married Nefertiti's sister, Mutnedzhmet. The queen's mummy was found next to the embalmed body of her newborn child. An anthropologist who studied the remains of a woman concluded that Horemheb's wife died from childbirth at the age of approximately 40 years. The unfortunate woman had a serious injury to the hip joint, probably the result of numerous attempts to produce offspring. The scientist came to the conclusion: Mutnezhmet gave birth more than ten times, but all her children died, the queen became so weak that the last pregnancy became fatal for her.
“The widespread marriage between siblings, especially among the royal families of the New Kingdom, was probably an attempt to strengthen the ties between the royal family and the gods, who themselves often resorted to such unions.
— A lot of interesting and shocking things were in the country of the ancient pharaohs. For example, necrophilia. The bodies of the wives of noble people were not given to be embalmed immediately after their death, just like the bodies of beautiful and respected women. They were handed over to the embalmers only after three or four days. This was done so that the embalmers would not copulate with them. Indeed, they say, there was a case that one of them copulated with the fresh corpse of a woman and was caught on the denunciation of his comrade.
Were homosexual relationships legal?
- Written references to sexual relations between men are as rare as about sex between men and women. Homosexual relations between the king and his general are described in The Tale of Neferkare and Sasenet, which tells of the secret night visits of the king to the general, spied on by the hero of the tale; although most of the story is lost, the hero narrates about these meetings as about an unlawful crime.
“Do you know that circumcision was widespread among the Egyptians, that is, circumcision?”
“This is more of a positive than a negative thing. After all, they have sand all around there, and even in the Nile the water is not crystal clear. Therefore, circumcised men are able to keep their genitals cleaner and tidy than uncircumcised men.
What sexual positions were most common among the ancient Egyptians?
- As we can see on the images of ancient papyri, the favorite poses of the ancient Egyptians were the poses of “standing face to face” and “behind”.
- The Ebers papyrus discovered in Thebes in 1872 is very interesting - medical encyclopedia ancient Egyptians. Ebers is a German Egyptologist and writer, and the papyrus is named after him. In the Ebers papyrus, the gynecological section, for example, contains information about recognizing the timing of pregnancy, the sex of the unborn child, as well as "a woman who can and cannot give birth." One very interesting fragment of the Ebers papyrus is devoted to tumors and diseases of the uterus and external genitalia. The Egyptians were aware of some women's diseases: irregular menstruation, prolapse of the walls of the vagina, prolapse of the uterus.
- In addition to many recipes for the treatment of various diseases, the Ebers papyrus even contains a cosmetic section, which recommends remedies to get rid of wrinkles, increase hair growth, remove moles and even change skin color. Each recipe is accompanied by a corresponding magic spell, without which it does not work. Almost all drugs have a complex formulation and dozens (up to 37) constituent parts. As a rule, these are infusions on beer, honey or milk.
“And I know about the so-called Berlin and Kahun papyri, which describe a simple way to determine the sex of an unborn child.
- And what is it?
- It is proposed to moisten grains of barley and wheat with the urine of a pregnant woman. If wheat germinates first, a girl will be born, if barley, a boy. Also, the fact of pregnancy was determined using a drink made from the milk of a woman who gave birth to a boy, and a special herb (bud-duka). If the drink caused vomiting, the pregnancy was considered established, otherwise it was denied. Interestingly, American researchers from Georgetown University conducted such tests and received statistically significant confirmation of their effectiveness. However, this fact has no rational explanation yet. The "gynecological papyrus" from Kahun describes the recognition of pregnancy, the treatment of infertility, the induction of labor pains, and the separation of milk. It is difficult to determine what treatment was prescribed in most cases. Many of the drugs mentioned are unknown today. But there are also clear recipes. Thus, one of the prescriptions recommends for the treatment of "corrosion of the vagina" a washing solution containing fresh dates, pig bile, cassia and water.
- A major role in the accumulation of medical information in ancient Egypt was played by military doctors who accompanied the Egyptian army on campaigns. The lists from the papyrus of the deified physician Imhotep give clear instructions on the treatment of soft tissue wounds, the technique of dressings, as well as on the most frequent surgical operations of that time: circumcision and castration.
Egyptian healers used ointments, plasters, lotions, potions, enemas and other dosage forms. Milk, honey, beer, water from sacred springs, vegetable oils served as the basis for the preparation of medicines. Some recipes contained up to 40 components, many of which cannot yet be identified, which makes their study difficult.
- By the way, in ancient Egypt, urine was widely used as a remedy.
“Ah, what great experts the Egyptian doctors were!
- Specialization, indeed, existed. Moreover, during the heyday of Egypt, under Cheops and Khafre, the board of court doctors consisted exclusively of specialists, each of whom represented a narrow field of medicine. This is evidenced by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who traveled around Egypt in the 5th century BC. e.
– Considering that a number of ancient Egyptian medicines have passed the test of time and are quite acceptable for use in our time, Egyptian doctors and pharmacists are showing great interest in developing modern medicines based on them. medicines. Laxatives, diuretics, anti-inflammatory, antirheumatic and other drugs with components of ancient Egyptian recipes have already been put into practice.
This concludes our discussion today. But we do not stop the historical theme. Read our next releases! See you soon.
Ancient Egypt is one of the centers of human civilization that arose as early as the 4th millennium BC. and existed for more than 4 thousand years. At the head of this huge state was the pharaoh. It is assumed that it was a man, because even the feminine word "pharaoh" does not exist. And yet, in the history of Ancient Egypt, there were periods when women took the reins of government into their own hands, when powerful priests, military leaders, hardened palace intriguers bowed their heads to a woman and recognized her power over them.
woman in ancient egypt
What has always amazed all travelers of antiquity in Egypt is the position of women in society. Egyptian women had rights that Greek and Roman women could not even dream of. Egyptian women were legally endowed with the right to property and inheritance, along with a man they could conduct commercial and industrial activities, conclude contracts on their own behalf and pay bills. We would say "recognized as full-fledged owners of small, medium and large businesses."
The Egyptians operated cargo ships, were teachers, scribes. Aristocrats became officials, judges, rulers of nomes (regions), and ambassadors. The only areas where the Egyptians were not allowed were medicine and the army. But this too is questionable. In the tomb of Queen Ahhotep, among other decorations, two orders of the Golden Fly were found - awards for outstanding services on the battlefield.
The wife of the pharaoh often became his adviser and closest assistant, along with him ruled the state. Therefore, it is not surprising that when the pharaoh died, the inconsolable widow took upon herself the burden of governing the state. History has preserved for us the names of several mistresses of Ancient Egypt.
Nitocris (c. 2200 BC)
She is Neitikert (Excellent Neith) ruled Egypt for twelve years. All these years, Beautiful Nate managed to keep the whole country in an iron bridle. Egypt did not know any rebellions or coups. Her death was a disaster for the country. Priests, courtiers, officials and the military began to tear each other in the struggle for the throne, and this continued for a century and a half (the First Intermediate Period).
Nefrusebek (c. 1763 - 1759 BC)
The name Nefrusebek meant "beauty of Sebek". (Sebek is a god with the head of a crocodile. Yes, the Egyptians had strange ideas about beauty.) The rules did not last long, no more than 4 years, but during this time she managed to become not only a pharaoh, but also high priestess, and the supreme commander, to carry out a series of reforms and a victorious campaign in Nubia.
In order to pacify the regional aristocrats, she married one of the influential nomarchs (the ruler of the nome, that is, the governor), but she kept the title of pharaoh for herself. The husband, deceived in his hopes, hired a killer and he killed the queen.
Subsequent events showed how right Nefrusebek was, not trusting her husband to rule the country. The new pretender to the title of pharaoh failed to retain power. For Egypt, an era of civil wars and upheavals began, which lasted about 250 years.
Hatshepsut (c. 1489-1468 BC)
Hatshepsut undoubtedly possessed both the will and strong character. With a living male heir, she managed to seize the throne, declared herself pharaoh, took the name Maatkar and the priests crowned her as a man. During ceremonies, she often wore an artificial beard to really look like a male pharaoh. Both "male" and "female" images of Queen Hatshepsut have been preserved.
Hatshepsut. Female and male options
How this masquerade was perceived by the nobles and the people is not clear, but Hatshepsut achieved absolute power, which many male pharaohs did not have, became the greatest female ruler in the history of Ancient Egypt.
Her reign marked a golden age for Egypt. evolved Agriculture, the queen handed out land to peasants for free and issued loans for the purchase of slaves. Abandoned cities were restored. She organized a research expedition to the country of Punt (present-day Somalia).
Hatshepsut. pharaoh woman
She conducted several successful military campaigns, led one campaign (to Nubia) herself, i.e. also showed herself as a military leader. Built on her orders, the mortuary temple of Queen-Pharaoh Hatshepsut is the pearl of Egypt along with the pyramids and is under the protection of UNESCO.
Unlike other queens, Hatshepsut was able to create a mechanism of succession, and after her death, the title and throne were safely accepted by Thutmose III. This time, Egypt did without cataclysms, which once again proves that Hatshepsut had a state mindset.
Tausert (c. 1194-1192)
Tausert was the wife of Pharaoh Seti II. The marriage was childless. When Seti died, the power was seized by the bastard son of Seti, Ramses-Saptahu, behind whom stood the keeper of the seal, the gray cardinal of Egypt, Bai. However, after 5 years of the reign of the new pharaoh, Bai was accused of corruption and executed, and a year later, Ramses-Saptahu himself died of an incomprehensible illness. As you can see, Tausert was a resolute woman and did not suffer from excessive sentimentality.
According to one data, she ruled for 2, according to others for 7 years, but these years were not calm for Egypt. The country began a civil war. Tausert died for unknown reasons, but civil war it didn't stop. Her successor Pharaoh Setnakht with with great difficulty brought order to the country and resolved another political crisis in the country.
Cleopatra (47-30 BC)
The famous queen can be called a pharaoh with a big stretch. Egypt was Hellenized and bore little resemblance to the ancient country. The reign of Cleopatra cannot be called successful. Egypt was a semi-colony of Rome, the legionaries rampaged in the country and ended in a war with Rome, which Cleopatra lost. Egypt lost the remnants of even a ghostly independence and became part of the Roman Empire. Thus, Cleopatra became not only the last female pharaoh in the history of Egypt, but in general the last Egyptian pharaoh.
Regent for an adult pharaoh. In the summer of the year before last, sensational news spread around the world: the mummy of Hatshepsut, the first woman in history who can be called famous, was found. Finding her was a clue the greatest secret, a mixture of thrilling adventure in the spirit of Indiana Jones and crime drama. In ancient Egypt, royal power was transferred in a rather original way: inheritance went through the female line - but at the same time, men were pharaohs. That is, the son-in-law of the pharaoh, the husband of the princess, the daughter of the main royal wife (also, in turn, the bearer of royal blood), became king. That is why the sons of the pharaohs were forced to marry their sisters - in order to inherit the throne. Through marriage, a dignitary or commander could also become a pharaoh. In this way, power was passed through daughters - but bypassing daughters, since tradition and religion claimed that women could not rule. Therefore, the story of Hatshepsut, a woman who became pharaoh, is completely unique. Hatshepsut's grandfather, probably (there are still many blank spots in the history of the New Kingdom, and therefore it is difficult to say anything for sure), was the founder of the XVIII dynasty, Ahmose I, who expelled the formidable Hyksos from Egypt, who had captured the north of the Nile Valley two centuries before. The son of Ahmose Amenhotep I had no sons, and therefore the next pharaoh was a certain commander Thutmose, who married the princess Ahmose, probably the daughter of Ahmose I. From this marriage, Thutmose had a daughter, Hatshepsut, and from his second wife, Queen Mutnofret daughters) - the heir of Thutmose II.
It is difficult to understand how Hatshepsut managed to keep her adult stepson from power for twenty years, who had an undeniable advantage over her stepmother from the point of view of the ancient Egyptians - gender.Having married his sister Hatshepsut, Thutmose II received the right to the throne. And she seemed to repeat the fate of her mother - the royal couple had only a daughter, while the second wife of Pharaoh Isis gave birth to an heir. But then this story, still quite traditional, ceases to be such. For a long time it was believed that when Thutmose II left this world (from heart problems, as a CT scanner established thousands of years later), his heir Thutmose III was still very young. And because Queen Hatshepsut, by tradition, became the regent for the child. However, today it is known from ancient inscriptions: even during the life of his father, Thutmose III was already a priest of Amun-Ra in the Karnak temple in Thebes. That is, when the pharaoh died, the heir was hardly a child. However, his stepmother somehow mysteriously managed to become a regent under, probably, a young, but by no means a minor king. Her Majesty the King. This was only the beginning - then the traditions began to crumble like a house of cards. At first, Hatshepsut still ruled on behalf of her stepson - but soon the reliefs begin to depict how the regent performs purely royal functions: she brings gifts to the gods, orders red granite obelisks. And after a few years, she officially becomes the pharaoh. Thutmose III was reduced to the status of co-ruler and, it seems, was not admitted to real power. Hatshepsut was the full mistress of Egypt for 21 years. What made the Egyptian abandon the traditional role of regent? A crisis? Will of Amun-Ra? Thirst for power? It is difficult to understand her motives today. But it is no less difficult to understand how Hatshepsut managed to keep her adult stepson from power for twenty years, who had an undeniable advantage over her stepmother from the point of view of the ancient Egyptians - sex. It seems unlikely that Hatshepsut usurped the throne by force. Although Thutmose III did not take part in public affairs, it was he who was "thrown" to resolve military conflicts. And it is unlikely that the queen would risk putting at the head of the army the one from whom she took power against her will. This situation could be explained by the weakness and passivity of the opponent - but no! After the death of his stepmother, Thutmose III showed himself to be an extremely active ruler, he actively erected monuments and fought so successfully that he was later nicknamed the ancient Egyptian Napoleon. In 19 years, Thutmose III conducted 17 military campaigns, including defeating the Canaanites at Megiddo, in what is now Israel - an operation that is still studied in military academies! So, most likely, peace and harmony reigned between the stepson and stepmother - but one can only guess how Hatshepsut managed to do defeated opponent your ally. Probably, this woman was very good at getting along with people, and manipulating them, and intriguing. And her talents, willpower and motivation were certainly outstanding. “No one knows what she was like,” says Egyptologist Katharina Roerig. “I think she was an excellent strategist and knew how to pit people against each other so that they would not be killed, and she herself would not die.” One way or another, Hatshepsut solved the problems with the co-ruler, but there was a more serious problem. Tradition and religion unanimously asserted that the pharaoh is always a man, and this probably made the position of the queen very unsteady. Pharaoh Hatshepsut tried to solve this issue in different ways. Royal PR campaign. In written texts, the pharaoh did not hide her gender - we see many female endings. But in the images, she clearly tried to combine the images of the queen and the king. On one sitting statue of red granite, Hatshepsut has female body shapes, but on her head are symbols of male kings: nemes - a striped headdress and uraeus - a forehead figurine of a sacred cobra. On some reliefs, Hatshepsut appears in a traditional strict dress below the knees, but with legs wide apart - this is how the kings were depicted in a walking pose. Hatshepsut planted visual images of a female pharaoh, as if accustoming the Egyptians to such a paradox. But either the method did not bring the desired results, or Hatshepsut was persuaded - one way or another, over time, she changed tactics. The pharaoh began to demand that she be portrayed in a male guise: in the headdress of the pharaoh, the pharaoh's loincloth, with the royal false beard - and no female features. Trying to justify her strange position, the female pharaoh calls in allies ... the gods. On the reliefs of the funerary temple, Hatshepsut says that her accession to the throne is the fulfillment of the divine plan and that her father Thutmose I not only wanted his daughter to become king, but even could attend her coronation! The reliefs also tell how the great god Amon appears before mother Hatshepsut in the guise of Thutmose I. He addresses the creator god Khnum, who creates a man from clay on a potter's wheel: “So create her better than all other gods, mold her for me, this is my daughter, born of me.” Khnum echoes Amon: “Her image, when she takes the great post of king, will be worshiped more than the gods ...” - and immediately gets to work. Interestingly, on the potter's wheel of Khnum, little Hatshepsut is clearly a boy. Pharaoh Hatshepsut became a great builder. Everywhere, from Sinai to Nubia, she erected and restored temples and shrines. Under her, masterpieces of architecture were created - four granite obelisks in the huge temple of the god Amon-Ra in Karnak. She commissioned hundreds of her own statues and immortalized in stone the history of the entire family, her titles, the events of her life, real and fictional, even her thoughts and aspirations. Her statement, carved on one of the obelisks in Karnak, strikes with sincerity and piercing: “My heart trembles at the thought of what people will say. What will those who look at my monuments years later say about my deeds?
Almost all the statues, images and inscriptions look like a well-thought-out PR campaign designed to legitimize the rule of a female pharaoh.But who was this powerful propaganda aimed at? For whom did the pharaoh write her sincere confessions and create myths? For priests? know? Military? Officials? Gods? future? Humanist and vandal. One of the answers suggests Hatshepsut's habit of referring to the lapwing, an inconspicuous swamp bird. In ancient Egypt, the lapwing was called "rekhit", which in hieroglyphic texts usually means "common people". They, ordinary, like lapwings on the Nile, were not taken into account by any of the pharaohs and did not influence politics in any way, although the word is often found in inscriptions. But Kenneth Griffin of the University of Swansea in Wales noticed that Hatshepsut used it much more often than other pharaohs of the 18th dynasty. A unique phenomenon, the scientist believes. Hatshepsut often used the form "my rehit", referring to ordinary people for support... Saying that her heart trembles at the thought of what people will say, the queen may have had in mind just rehit - mere mortals. After the death of Hatshepsut, her stepson came to power. And he took up not only conducting successful military campaigns. Thutmose III was unexpectedly carried away by the methodical deletion from the history of the period of the reign of his stepmother. Almost all images of Hatshepsut and even her name were systematically chipped from temples, monuments and obelisks. Pharaoh pounced on the traces of the existence of King Hatshepsut no less zealously than on the Canaanites in Megiddo. Its inscriptions on the obelisks were laid with stones (which had an unplanned result - the texts were perfectly preserved). In Deir el-Bahri on the west bank of the Nile, opposite modern Luxor, is the memorial temple of Hatshepsut Djeser Djeseru - "the most sacred of the sacred." The three-level structure, porticoes, wide terraces connected by ramps, the avenue of sphinxes that has not come down to us, T-shaped pools with papyrus and myrrh trees providing shade - all this makes Jeser Jeser one of the most beautiful temples in the world and the best building of Hatshepsut. According to the project of the architect (probably Senmut, presumably a favorite of Hatshepsut), the temple was to become the central place of the cult of the queen. But under Thutmose III, her statues were broken here and thrown into a pit. It would seem that Thutmose III acted in full accordance with the popular ancient Egyptian tradition - to erase the names of unloved predecessors from the monuments. Well, how can one not recall the version of the unfortunate orphan, who was bullied by the evil stepmother for many years? And historians succumbed to the temptation - the hypothesis that Thutmose III destroyed the memory of Hatshepsut in retaliation for her shameless usurpation royal power became very popular over the years. Conclusions about the personality of Hatshepsut herself made the appropriate ones. In 1953, archaeologist William Hayes wrote: "Soon... this vain, ambitious, unprincipled woman showed herself in her true light." Who was disturbed by the dead queen. However, in the 1960s, the sentimental story of family squabbles ceased to seem indisputable. It was established that the persecution of Hatshepsut Pharaoh began at least twenty years after her death! Somewhat strange is such anger - twenty years of exposure! There is another mystery - for some reason, the "avenger" did not touch those images where Hatshepsut appears as the king's wife. But on all those where she declares herself as a pharaoh, his workers walked with chisels. Neat such vandalism, pinpoint. “The destruction was not made under the influence of emotions. It was a political calculation,” says Zbigniew Szafranski, head of the Polish archaeological mission in Egypt, who has been working in the memorial temple of Hatshepsut since 1961. Indeed, today it seems more logical to assume that Thutmose III acted on the basis of the interests of politics. Perhaps it was necessary to confirm the legal right of his son Amenhotep II to the throne, which was also claimed by other members of the royal family. Descendants of Hatshepsut? Women? Runaway Mummy. In 1903, the famous archaeologist Howard Carter discovered in the twentieth tomb from the Valley of the Kings (number KV20) two sarcophagi with the name of Hatshepsut - apparently from among the three that the queen herself prepared in advance for herself. However, the mummy was not there. But in a small tomb next door, KV60, Carter saw "two heavily naked female mummies and several mummified geese." One mummy, smaller, lay in a sarcophagus, another, larger, right on the floor. Carter took the geese and closed the tomb. Three years later, the mummy from the sarcophagus was transported to the Cairo Museum, having established that the inscription on the coffin points to Hatshepsut's nanny. And the second mummy remained on the floor. It was, it seemed, a simple slave - too uninteresting to be placed somewhere. KV60a (under this number the mummy was entered into the registers) went on an eternal journey, having no coffin, no clothes, no figurines of servants, no headdress, no jewelry, no sandals - nothing that a noble woman should have taken. Arm bent at the elbow. As the years passed, everyone completely forgot about the mummy left on the floor, and even the road to the KV60 tomb was lost. It was found again in 1989 by the scientist Donald Ryan, who came to study several small, undecorated graves. He also included the KV60 in the application. Having descended into the tomb, the scientist immediately realized that in ancient times it had been savagely plundered. “We found a broken fragment of a coffin with an image of a face and grains of gold that had all been scraped off,” he recalls. That is, thieves could easily take away the sarcophagus and all the decorations of the mummies, if any. And in the next room, Ryan found a huge pile of cloth and a pile of "edible mummies" - food folded into knots, which was given to the deceased with them on their journey through eternity. But what interested Ryan the most was the mummy's left arm, still lying on the floor. The arm was bent at the elbow - and some scholars believe that only royal people were buried like this in the era of the 18th dynasty. And the longer Ryan studied the mummy, the more he became convinced that it was an important person. “She was superbly mummified,” he recalls. “But there were no leads to somehow identify her.” And yet, it seemed wrong to the scientist to leave the mummy, whoever she was, lying on the floor in a pile of rags. Ryan and a colleague tidied up the tomb, ordered a modest coffin from the carpenter, lowered the stranger into a new bed, and closed the lid. In the tomb and in obscurity, the mummy spent almost another two decades - until a new study began on the secret of Hatshepsut. It's all about the tooth. The study was started by Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian Mummies Program and general secretary Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt. First, Hawass collected all the unidentified female mummies of the 18th dynasty, presumably related to the royal family. There were four of them, among them - both inhabitants of the tomb KV60. The scientist, however, was sure that the KV60a mummy had absolutely nothing to do with it. She did not have a regal posture at all and, as the archaeologist wrote, “a huge chest hung down” - rather, it could be a nurse. But still, she, along with others, was examined on a CT scanner, establishing the age and cause of death.
And then Hawass remembered a wooden box with the name of Hatshepsut found in a cache in Deir el-Bahri back in 1881. It was believed that her liver was there. However, after scanning the box, the scientists found... a tooth.Dentists have determined that this is the second molar, which is missing part of the root. And a large mummy from the floor of the KV60 tomb had a root without a tooth in the upper jaw on the right. Measurements were taken - the root and the tooth completely corresponded to each other! Today, the KV60a mummy is on display at the Cairo Museum. On the tablet it is written in Arabic and in English that this is Hatshepsut, Her Majesty the King, who is finally reunited with her large family - the pharaohs of the New Kingdom. In the era of the XXI dynasty, around 1000 BC, the high priests of Amon could transfer her body to the tomb of the nanny in order to protect the mummy from thieves - members of the royal family were often hidden in secret graves. CT scans have already disproved the hypothesis that Hatshepsut killed her stepson. A large KV60a woman died of an acute and severe infection caused by a tooth abscess; in addition, she probably suffered from bone cancer and possibly diabetes. And if the tooth from the box still did not belong to Hatshepsut? The first DNA tests are not yet certain. But new research should come up with a more precise verdict.
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Ancient Egypt is one of the centers of human civilization that arose as early as the 4th millennium BC. and existed for more than 4 thousand years. At the head of this huge state was the pharaoh. It is assumed that it was a man, because even the feminine word "pharaoh" does not exist. And yet, there were periods when women took the reins of government in their hands, when powerful priests, military leaders, hardened palace intriguers bowed their heads to a woman and recognized her power over themselves. (website)
woman in ancient egypt
What has always amazed all travelers of antiquity in Egypt is the position of women in society. Egyptian women had rights that Greek and Roman women could not even dream of. Egyptian women were legally endowed with the right to property and inheritance, along with a man they could conduct commercial and industrial activities, conclude contracts on their own behalf and pay bills. We would say "recognized as full-fledged owners of small, medium and large businesses."
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The Egyptians operated cargo ships, were teachers, scribes. Aristocrats became officials, judges, rulers of nomes (regions), and ambassadors. The only areas where the Egyptians were not allowed were medicine and the army. But this too is questionable. In the tomb of Queen Ahhotep, among other decorations, two orders of the Golden Fly were found - awards for outstanding services on the battlefield.
The wife of the pharaoh often became his adviser and closest assistant, along with him ruled the state. Therefore, it is not surprising that when the pharaoh died, the inconsolable widow took upon herself the burden of governing the state. History has preserved for us the names of several mistresses of Ancient Egypt.
Nitocris (c. 2200 BC)
She is Neitikert (Excellent Neith) ruled Egypt for twelve years. All these years, Beautiful Nate managed to keep the whole country in an iron bridle. Egypt did not know any rebellions or coups. Her death was a disaster for the country. Priests, courtiers, officials and the military began to tear each other in the struggle for the throne, and this continued for a century and a half (the First Intermediate Period).
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Nefrusebek (c. 1763 - 1759 BC)
The name Nefrusebek meant "beauty of Sebek". (Sebek is a god with the head of a crocodile. Yes, the Egyptians had strange ideas about beauty.) The rules did not last long, no more than 4 years, but during this time she managed to become not only a pharaoh, but also a High Priestess and Supreme Commander, to hold a series of reforms and a victorious campaign in Nubia.
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In order to pacify the regional aristocrats, she married one of the influential nomarchs (the ruler of the nome, that is, the governor), but she kept the title of pharaoh for herself. The husband, deceived in his hopes, hired a killer and he killed the queen.
Subsequent events showed how right Nefrusebek was, not trusting her husband to rule the country. The new pretender to the title of pharaoh failed to retain power. For Egypt, an era of civil wars and upheavals began, which lasted about 250 years.
Hatshepsut (c. 1489-1468 BC)
Hatshepsut undoubtedly possessed both will and strong character. With a living male heir, she managed to seize the throne, declared herself pharaoh, took the name Maatkar and the priests crowned her as a man. During ceremonies, she often wore an artificial beard to really look like a male pharaoh. Both "male" and "female" images of Queen Hatshepsut have been preserved.
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Hatshepsut. Female and male options
It is not clear how this masquerade was perceived by the nobles and the people, but Hatshepsut achieved absolute power, which many male pharaohs did not have, became the greatest female ruler in the history of Ancient Egypt.
Her reign marked a golden age for Egypt. Agriculture developed, the queen distributed land to peasants for free and issued loans for the purchase of slaves. Abandoned cities were restored. She organized a research expedition to the country of Punt (present-day Somalia).
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Hatshepsut. pharaoh woman
She conducted several successful military campaigns, led one campaign (to Nubia) herself, i.e. also showed herself as a military leader. Built on her orders, the mortuary temple of Queen-Pharaoh Hatshepsut is the pearl of Egypt along with the pyramids and is under the protection of UNESCO.
Unlike other queens, Hatshepsut was able to create a mechanism of succession, and after her death, the title and throne were safely accepted by Thutmose III. This time, Egypt did without cataclysms, which once again proves that Hatshepsut had a state mindset.
Tausert (c. 1194-1192)
Tausert was the wife of Pharaoh Seti II. The marriage was childless. When Seti died, the power was seized by the bastard son of Seti, Ramses-Saptahu, behind whom stood the keeper of the seal, the gray cardinal of Egypt, Bai. However, after 5 years of the reign of the new pharaoh, Bai was accused of corruption and executed, and a year later, Ramses-Saptahu himself died of an incomprehensible illness. As you can see, Tausert was a resolute woman and did not suffer from excessive sentimentality.
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According to one data, she ruled for 2, according to others for 7 years, but these years were not calm for Egypt. The country began a civil war. Tausert died for unknown reasons, but this did not stop the civil war. Her successor Pharaoh Setnakht brought order to the country with great difficulty and resolved another political crisis in the country.
Cleopatra (47-30 BC)
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The famous queen can be called a pharaoh with a big stretch. Egypt was Hellenized and bore little resemblance to the ancient country. The reign of Cleopatra cannot be called successful. Egypt was a semi-colony of Rome, the legionaries rampaged in the country and ended in a war with Rome, which Cleopatra lost. Egypt lost the remnants of even a ghostly independence and became part of the Roman Empire. Thus, Cleopatra became not only the last female pharaoh in the history of Egypt, but in general the last Egyptian pharaoh.