The pharaoh that wouldn't be forgotten - Kate Green

Hatshepsut was a female pharaoh during the New Kingdom in Egypt. Twenty years after her death, somebody smashed her statues, took a chisel and attempted to erase the pharaoh’s name and image from history. But who did it? And why? Kate Green investigates Hatshepsut's history for clues to this ancient puzzle.

Lesson by Kate Green, animation by Steff Lee.

[ButterflyScarlet]

I love this animation she's so sassy like "sup bitches, bet you thought you'd seen the last of me"

[riddlers]

Ironically, she is remembered more than many other pharaohs.

[ShawnRavenfire]

Destroying the monuments of previous pharaohs was a common problem.  Many pharaohs would make statues of themselves and write their names hidden in places, so that if someone in the future tried to destroy their memory, they would always miss something.

[Fanimatin]

What i find great is that in the Egyptian afterlife, Pharaohs basically had their own place aside from other people, but if they were forgotten, they would disappear completely. This would mean that destroying memorials of her would erase her entirely. not just from memory, but from history, time, and all of existence; however, the acts taken to destroy any evidence of her existence ironically made her more well known than many other Pharaohs, thus cementing her place in history, and more importantly, our memories. So she lives on still in her afterlife. They tried to wipe her from existence, but they failed, and now they have to deal with it. (this is just imagining what would happen if their religion were true. which it may be, who knows?)

[emmasol]

Omg the animation is so cute 😂the way she kinda just shrugs and smiles like "yupp hihi I'm pretty cool😉✨"

[RitualCat]

when I was a little girl I was obsess with Hatchepsout and her history. now I am an history major, making sure that history is not forgotten

*Edit 3 years later (cause I still get hate about that) : Ok so, first of all, I speak French, "Hatshepsut" is written "Hatchepsout" in French. Second, I really dont understand why people are sending hate about a comment I made 3 years ago about studying history. May I add, that my major was not in Egyptology, but Egypt's history and Hatchepsout were an entry way for my passion in history.

[PlantixthWatcher]

In ancient Egypt, it was believed that your soul truly died when you were forgotten. So you have to take in mind that whoever tried to erase her name also tried to erase her in a religious sense too.

Also, if you look for a picture of her corpse, she seems to be happy, smiling in her death. 

[TheChaosDragoness]

The fact that we even know about her is a marvelous thing. After Tuthmosis III tried to erase her name and leave her off the list of pharaohs, her name was lost for a couple of millennia. Her body wasn't found until the early 20th century in a unmarked grave, then years later DNA testing came along to confirm that the mummy was indeed Hatshepsut.

The sad part is that in Kemetic belief, if you're forgotten in the living world then you don’t exist in the afterlife. Tuthmosis III was trying to kill her even in death.

[GVZGQosqoruna]

She was not just "wife of Thutmose II", in fact Hatshepsut had pure royal blood, because she was the daughter of Pharaoh with Queen Ahmose. Thutmose II (her half brother and husband) was the son of a secondary wife. Hatshepsut was the rightful heir to the throne

[zyzmys]

Hatshepsut is the most well known pharaoh In Somalia because she traded with the Land of Punt which is an ancient kingdom that existed in Northern Somalia

[troy]

And if you look up her mummified body, she's still kinda well preserved, and actually has a happy smile on her face

[Adhanethermela]

No one:
Literally no one:
Me at 10 pm: let's learn about Egyptian people

[catherinetheegreat]

anyone else notice that when a women becomes king... their reign is always seen as horrible and a failed until we learn the truth and that they were GOOD RULERS.... like Wu Zetian, Cleopatra, Elizabeth the first, Victoria, Elizabeth II, Christina, AND SO many more.
Yet, when we read accounts we heard they were horrible people who disappointed their countries and made things horrible. but they were actually good rulers who cared about their people, made the country stronger (money wise and military wise) and did SOOO much more to make their countries where they are now

[PozoBlue]

It's kinda disingenuous to make it sound like Hatshepsut might have exaggerated her accomplishments because ''she wrote'' them. ALL Pharaoh depicted their own reign and key milestones on their monuments. It was the common practice. Casting a shadow on hers as if she did any differently than other Pharaohs is misleading.

[oscarmendez]

Hatshepsu is my favorite Pharaohs! She is so epic. She made a lot of expansion campaigns, architecture projects and seriously invest in trading routes!


Pharaohs have a tradition of creating stories to make their reing look stronger, after all they are the 'Pharaoh' the only king a loving deity, no other individual should be a s glorious as them, which is why they had another traditions. Newer pharaohs had a tradition of burning records of older pharaohs and then taking credit of the older work as their own. And you know you must be freaking great when a lot of newer Pharohs after you, did that thing to you, like it happen numerous times to Hatshepsu.

[sadalien]

She's probably my favorite Pharaoh. Her memory prevails even after almost being erased.

[judgeholden]

Having studied under Donald Redford, a world leading Egyptologist, I am very happy with how succinctly and accurately this affair was described here <3 Most shit I see on youtube about Egypt makes me cringe. If I recall, archaeological evidence does indicate a flourish of trade during her rule and punitive raids into Nubia....however this was probably one of the LEAST militaristic periods in Egyptian history (ignoring ones where they were not militarily capable). Hatshepsut considered herself a peaceful pharaoh and her reign an era of peace and burial site pictured in this video is often thought to be the source of inspiration for the iconic columns in both Greek and Roman

There certainly would have been EXTREME resentment from Thutmose III towards his mother for how long she retained the his coming of age, she ruled as late as his 35th year. After assuming control of Egypt, he seemed very eager to prove himself and his masculinity (having been kept submissive to his mother for over a decade of his adult life) and immediately engaged in very ambitious military famously involving the battle of Megiddo which earned him a very esteemed warrior image that endured in Egyptian history which was only eclipsed later by Ramses II. It certainly seems that he had the most motive to deface his mother's am not a big enough expert to know how plausible it is, but many have theorized that it could have taken him 20 years to getting around to the act with the need to solidify his power and his acts of war which IMMEDIATELY followed his mothers death.

[lilaclake]

I learned about her a while back, the moment I heard of the concept the forgotten Pharoah I was hooked! I never think ill get bored of this topic. It's utterly fascinating.

[bleedingrose]

Egyptian history is extremely intresting i'm a 13 yr old girl who has been intrested in it since almost as long as i can remember XD

[Tricorvus]

I've been an Egyptology freak since 1976, and this was factual and well presented