Hatchepsut
The Female Pharaoh
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
Queen - or, as she would prefer to be remembered King - Hatchepsut was an astonishing woman. Brilliantly defying tradition she became the female embodiment of a male role, dressing in men's clothes and even wearing a false beard. Forgotten until Egptologists deciphered hieroglyphics in the 1820's, she has since been subject to intense speculation about her actions and motivations. Combining archaeological and historical evidence from a wide range of sources, Joyce Tyldesley's dazzling piece of detection strips away the myths and misconceptions and finally restores the female pharaoh to her rightful place.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Egyptian Queen Hatchepsut, who died in 1482 B.C. after more than 20 years of peaceful rule, proclaimed herself pharaoh during her reign. She depicted herself, in temple paintings, as a man who hunted, fished and even sported the pharaoh's hallmark false beard. Was she, then, as many historians have speculated, a cross-dresser or merely power-hungry and eager to outshine the half-brother whom she married, King Tuthmosis II? There's absolutely no evidence to suggest she "came out" as a transvestite, concludes English archeologist Tyldesley, and the fact that Hatchepsut retained her female name "suggests that she did not see herself as wholly, or even partially, male." In this highly conjectural biography, Hatchepsut emerges as a conformist queen consort who, once her husband died, blossomed as a pragmatic ruler, bringing Egypt an oasis of stable government, impressive architectural restoration and adventurous foreign trade and exploration from Phoenicia to Sinai. This biography will be of interest primarily to specialists. Illustrated.
