Thutmose III's actions highlight nuances in Hatshepsut's legacy
- Hatshepsut was one of ancient Egypt's most successful rulers, reigning as a female pharaoh.
- After her death, her legacy faced erasure, which was previously attributed to Thutmose III's spite and gender bias.
- New research suggests Thutmose III's motivations may be more nuanced, involving ritualistic practices rather than merely hostility.
In ancient Egypt, Queen Hatshepsut reigned as a rare female pharaoh from 1473 to 1458 BCE. After her death, her legacy faced systematic erasure, largely attributed to her stepson and successor, Thutmose III. This erasure involved the destruction and defacement of Hatshepsut's statues and images, leading many historians to conclude that Thutmose III acted out of spite. However, new research from University of Toronto Egyptologist Jun Yi Wong challenges this notion, suggesting that Thutmose III's motivations were more complex than simple revenge based on her gender. Instead, Wong proposes that some of the damage done to Hatshepsut's statues may have been a form of ancient Egyptian ritual intended to 'deactivate' the statues' power, rather than outright hostility. Wong's study posits that while Hatshepsut did suffer a program of political persecution after her death, the motivations for Thutmose III's actions should not be overly simplified. His actions, including the erasure of her name and image, followed broader patterns observed in the treatment of statues belonging to other pharaohs as well.