Quick questions on Hatshepsut's death and proscription: HSC Ancient History

Hatshepsut had two prepared tombs:

An earlier cliff tomb prepared while she was Great Royal Wife of Thutmose II. The tomb is now lost (or partly excavated but not securely identified). Her sarcophagus from this tomb was found at the Wadi Sikkat Taqet Zayed.

Her royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings. KV 20 is one of the most architecturally complex tombs in the Valley, with a long descending corridor. Hatshepsut arranged for her father Thutmose I to be reburied in KV 20 with her.

Statues at Deir el-Bahri were smashed and dumped in a pit (now known as the Senenmut Quarry). The Metropolitan Museum of Art expedition recovered around 200 statue fragments from this pit, which have been partially reassembled. Cartouches were erased from many monuments.

The proscription was not total. Cartouches in inaccessible positions (high up on the obelisks, deep in internal sanctuaries) were often left. Reliefs showing Hatshepsut as queen rather than as king were sometimes left intact, suggesting the proscription targeted her kingship rather than her existence.

A 20-year gap between death and proscription rules out personal vendetta as the principal motive. The proscription was a deliberate act long after Hatshepsut's death.

The late timing aligns with the preparation of Amenhotep II for succession. Thutmose III's son was being readied to inherit. Removing the visible record of a female pharaoh from Egyptian monuments secured the masculine succession line and prevented Hatshepsut's reign from being used as a precedent for future female claimants.

A female pharaoh contradicted the standard Egyptian theology of kingship as Horus, the falcon king. Erasing Hatshepsut's kingship from public record restored theological order.

If Thutmose III had personally resented Hatshepsut as a usurper, the proscription would have begun immediately. He had reigned alongside her for over 20 years; the proscription came after another 20 years of sole rule.

Importantly, Hatshepsut continued to receive offerings as a deceased royal ancestor. Her name appears in some king lists; her burial was not desecrated. The proscription targeted public memorialisation, not eternal afterlife or the basic religious offerings owed to the dead.