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Section III (Personalities): Hatshepsut, Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty
Quick questions on Hatshepsut's historical context and family background: HSC Ancient History
14short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the Second Intermediate Period and the Hyksos?Show answer
Egypt before the 18th Dynasty was divided. The Hyksos (foreign rulers of Semitic origin) had controlled northern Egypt from their capital at Avaris in the eastern Delta for over a century (around 1650 to 1550 BC). Southern Egypt was ruled by Theban kings of the 17th Dynasty.
What is ahmose I and the start of the 18th Dynasty (c. 1550 to 1525 BC)?Show answer
Ahmose I, brother of Kamose, completed the expulsion. He captured Avaris and pursued the Hyksos into Palestine. The autobiography of Ahmose son of Ebana, inscribed in his tomb at El-Kab, records the campaigns.
What is amenhotep I (c. 1525 to 1504 BC)?Show answer
Son of Ahmose I. Consolidated the reunification. Established the workmen's village at Deir el-Medina (where the royal tomb workers lived). Beginning of major Theban construction at Karnak.
What is thutmose I (c. 1504 to 1492 BC)?Show answer
Hatshepsut's father. Possibly not of strictly royal birth (his parents are not named in the inscriptions, suggesting non-royal origin); his marriage to Ahmose, the Great Royal Wife, gave him legitimacy.
What is thutmose II (c. 1492 to 1479 BC)?Show answer
Hatshepsut's half-brother and husband. The marriage was a typical New Kingdom royal marriage between half-siblings, designed to consolidate the royal line.
What is the status of the Great Royal Wife and the God's Wife of Amun?Show answer
The senior royal woman in the early 18th Dynasty was politically and religiously powerful.
What is hatshepsut's family position?Show answer
Hatshepsut was the eldest daughter of Thutmose I and Ahmose. As the senior princess of the royal house, she held the strongest claim to the religious office of God's Wife of Amun. Her marriage to Thutmose II preserved the lineage. Their daughter Neferure was the senior princess of the next generation.
What is modern scholarship?Show answer
Joyce Tyldesley (Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh, 1996) is the standard biographical study and a recurring reference in HSC source materials.
What is the Great Royal Wife?Show answer
The principal queen. She authenticated the pharaoh's lineage and could rule as regent for a child king. Ahhotep had played this role; Ahmose-Nefertari extended it.
What is god's Wife of Amun?Show answer
A religious office at the Karnak temple. The God's Wife had her own estate, priesthood, and substantial revenues. Ahmose-Nefertari held the title; she was succeeded by her daughter, and eventually the title passed through royal women of the dynasty.
What is treating Thutmose I as Hatshepsut's husband?Show answer
He was her father. Thutmose II was her husband.
What is forgetting Thutmose III's parentage?Show answer
Thutmose III was the son of Thutmose II by Isis, a secondary wife, not by Hatshepsut.
What is missing the God's Wife of Amun?Show answer
This is the institutional power that supports Hatshepsut's later claim to the kingship.
What is overstating Hatshepsut's father's royal birth?Show answer
Thutmose I may not have been of fully royal origin; his marriage to Ahmose gave him legitimacy.