WEBVTT

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3.5 thousand years ago in Egypt,

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a noble pharaoh was the victim 
of a violent attack.

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But the attack was not physical.

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This royal had been dead for 20 years.

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The attack was historical,

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an act of damnatio memoriae,
the damnation of memory.

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Somebody smashed the pharaoh's statues,

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took a chisel and attempted to erase 
the pharaoh's name and image from history.

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Who was this pharaoh 
and what was behind the attack?

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Here's the key:

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the pharaoh Hatshepsut was a woman.

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In the normal course of things,
she should never have been pharaoh.

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Although it was legal 
for a woman to be a monarch,

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it disturbed some essential 
Egyptian beliefs.

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Firstly, the pharaoh was known
as the living embodiment

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of the male god Horus.

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Secondly, disturbance 
to the tradition of rule by men

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was a serious challenge to Maat,

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a word for "truth" 
expressing a belief in order and justice,

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vital to the Eygptians.

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Hatshepsut had perhaps tried to adapt

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to this belief in the link between 
order and patriarchy through her titles.

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She took the name Maatkare,

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and sometimes referred to herself


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as Hatshepsu, 
with a masculine word ending.

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But apparently, these efforts 
didn't convince everyone,

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and perhaps someone 
erased Hatshepsut's image

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so that the world forget 
the disturbance to Maat,

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and Egypt could be balanced again.

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Hatshepsut, move over, 
was not the legitimate heir to the thrown,

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but a regent, 
a kind of stand-in co-monarch.

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The Egypitan kingship traditionally 
passed from father to son.

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It passed from Thutmose I 
to his son Thutmose II,

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Hatshpsut's husband.

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It should have passed from Thutmose II 
directly to his son Thutmose III,

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but Thutmose III was a little boy 
when his father died.

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Hatshepsut, the dead pharaoh's chief 
wife and widow,

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stepped in to help 
as her stepson's regent,

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but ended up ruling beside him 
as a fully fledged pharaoh.

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Perhaps Thutmose III was angry about this.

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Perhaps he was the one 
who erased her images.

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It's also possible that someone wanted 
to dishonor Hatshepsut

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because she was a bad pharaoh.

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But the evidence suggests 
she was actually pretty good.

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She competently fulfilled 
the traditional roles of the office.

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She was a great builder.

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Her mortuary temple, Djeser-Djeseru,

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was an architectural 
phenomenon at the time,

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and is still admired today.

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She enhanced the economy of Egypt,

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conducting a very successful trade mission
to the distant land of Punt.

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She had strong religious connections.

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She even claimed to be the daughter 
of the State god, Amun.

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And she had a successful military career,
with a Nubian campaign,

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and claims she fought alongside 
her soldiers in battle.

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Of course, we have to be careful
when we access the success

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of Hatshepsut's career,

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since most of the evidence 
was written by Hatshepsut herself.

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She tells her own story 
in pictures and writing

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on the walls of her mortuary temple,

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and the red chapel she built for Amun.

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So who committed the crimes 
against Hatshepsut's memory?

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The most popular suspect is her stepson, 
nephew and co-ruler, Thutmose III.

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Did he do it out of anger 
because she stole his throne?

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This is unlikely since 
the damage wasn't done

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until 20 years after Hatshepsut died.

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That's a long time to hang on 
to anger and then act in a rage.

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Maybe Thutmose III did it 
to make his own reign look stronger.

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But it is most likely that he 
or someone else erased the images

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so that people would forget 
that a woman ever sat on Egypt's throne.

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This gender anomaly was simply 
too much of a threat to Maat,

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and had to be obliterated from history.

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Happily, the ancient censors 
were not quite thorough enough.

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Enough evidence survived for us 
to piece together what happened,

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So the story of this unique powerful women
can now be told.