The Seated Statue of Hatsepshut

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“The Seated Statue of Hatshepsut:” The Woman Who Would Be King Egypt, the civilization of the Nile, was arguably the grandest and most impervious civilization to ever exist on this Earth. It owed its very essence to the river it narrowly surrounded, and flowed just as consistently in both the way it conducted itself and depicted itself for nearly three thousand years. However, the unchanging state that was Egypt was also substantially productive as well as progressive, achieving difficult architectural feats of massive scale and elaborately mummifying and burying people in wonderfully built “necropolises.” They were convincingly the most advanced people of any era they inhabited, yet one marvelous period in the age of the pharaohs showed both how unchangingly diuturnal yet revolutionary the Egyptians were, and forever changed the course of history. This epoch was none other than the reign of Hatshepsut, perfectly immortalized in the sculpture known simply as “The Seated Statue of Hatshepsut.” In order to analyze the artwork properly, one must first understand the historical context of pharaoh Hatshepsut, and why she was so monumental. Hatshepsut, born in 1508 BC, was the daughter of Thutmose I. After the death of Thutmose II, her brother, his son Thutmose III ascended to the throne at an early age. Hatshepsut therefore took on a joint role as co-regent of Egypt at the age of twenty-nine alongside her nephew. Soon, she would take full control of the throne, becoming the first female pharaoh in the history of colossal Egypt, and quite possibly the most powerful female the world had ever seen. She would rule until her death at age fifty in the year 1458 BC, whereby Thutmose III would reclaim the throne. Thutmose III, so disparaged by the dishonor of a female obtaining his birthright at the head of the kingdom, attempted to strike her very existence from the

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