Rethinking the ‘Shattered Visage’ of Queen Hatshepsut: Was Her Statuary Really Destroyed Out of Spite?
For decades, the defacement of Queen Hatshepsut’s images and monuments has been interpreted through a lens of personal vengeance or gender-based hostility, especially attributing the destruction to her successor and stepson, Thutmose III. According to this narrative, Thutmose sought to erase her memory as retribution for having usurped his rightful place as king.
However, recent scholarship complicates this view. The timing of the destruction—occurring late in Thutmose III’s reign—raises questions about whether the motive was immediate personal spite. If resentment had driven the action, why wait decades?
Instead, emerging interpretations suggest the damnatio memoriae of Hatshepsut may have had political and theological motivations:
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Restoring Ma’at (cosmic order): Hatshepsut’s unprecedented reign as a female pharaoh may have been perceived, retrospectively, as a break from tradition that needed correction—not out of misogyny, but to restore dynastic continuity and religious orthodoxy.
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Succession and Legitimacy: By suppressing her memory, Thutmose III could elevate the image of his own line (particularly his son, Amenhotep II) as the rightful heir in an unbroken male lineage of kingship.
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Selective Erasure: Not all of Hatshepsut’s monuments were destroyed—some were left intact or only partially defaced. This suggests strategic targeting, not indiscriminate spite. Some of her building projects were even usurped and reinscribed by later kings, which implies they still held value.
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Reuse and Recontextualization: In many cases, the destroyed statues were buried carefully in caches, such as those found at Deir el-Bahri. This ritual-like disposal hints at a more nuanced ritual or political act rather than raw emotional vandalism.
In conclusion, while personal rivalry may have played a role, the destruction of Hatshepsut’s statuary appears more likely to be part of a deliberate ideological reordering, rooted in the politics of succession, memory control, and the maintenance of pharaonic norms. The ‘shattered visage’ may reflect less a story of spite, and more one of systematic royal rewriting.
