Hatshepsut: Wicked Stepmother or Joan of Arc?
Hatshepsut was an Eighteenth-Dynasty pharaoh, one of a handful of female rulers in ancient Egypt. Because Hatshepsut's monuments were defaced by her stepson, Tuthmose III, following her death in about 1458 BCE, historians have characterized her not only as a powerful queen, but as a wicked stepmother who usurped Tuthmose's throne. Yet according to University of Chicago Egyptologist Peter F. Dorman, Hatshepsut could just as easily have been the savior of the dynastic line. Dorman re-examines the archaeological evidence as he traces the alleged persecution of Hatshepsut's memory and the manner in which she obtained regalia and royal titles.Copyright 2002 The University of Chicago.