The Mortuary Temple Of Queen Hatshepsut - Assignment Example

The Mortuary Temple Of Queen Hatshepsut The Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut Currently, one of the most notable royal structures of Ancient Egypt is the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut was the fifth Egyptian Pharaoh and the first female king in the history of the New Kingdom. She ruled through the 18th Dynasty from 1490 to 1460 BCE. Although she was not the first Queen to ever rule Egypt, Hatshepsut became an exceptional leader after she denied her stepson the right to inherit his father’s throne for approximately two decades.

The temple was designed and built in 1470 BCE by the Queen’s royal architecture named Senenmut. It is a product of strategic ancient architectural techniques and calculations. The temple’s colonnaded terraces contain two strong ramps which lie both vertically and horizontally adjacent to the surrounding cliffs1. After Hatshepsut’s death, the Mortuary Temple was significantly disfigured and its artistic pieces destroyed under authority of the Queen’s stepson. Conflicting Theories of the Mortuary Temple Controversy on the Queen’s Gender In contemporary history, discussions relating to the Mortuary Temple are surrounded by numerous controversies.

Scholars and archeologists are offering conflicting analysis on architectural, religious and social aspects of the temple. One conflicting theory surrounding this historic building revolves around the role of artistic paintings and sculptures in portraying the Pharaoh’s gender. Some Ancient literature about the Middle Kingdom ascertains that Hatshepsut was a female ruler who rose to the Pharaoh’s title after her husband’s death. However, sculptures and paintings collected from the temple depict Hatshepsut having masculine physical attributes2.

One painting found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York depicts Hatshepsut wearing full regalia of a pharaoh with beards on her face. Apart from the bearded face, Hatshepsut is also widely portrayed in sculptors as lacking delineation of breasts. With respect to the role of art in the society today, many scholars though that the paintings were accurate representation of Hatshepsut. In case the paintings are a true reflection of Hatshepsut’s physical attributes, then there is possibility that the “Queen” was a male ruler.

However, conflicting arguments are quick to point out the fact that Egyptian royal art were representations of pharaonic powers rather than a ruler’s gender. Actually, many young sons inherited their father’s thrones during their teenage years. It is possible that at such a young age, most of those pharaohs had not grown beards. However, depiction of such teenage rulers shows them wearing stylized and false beards around their faces. Possibly, a beard was associated with maturity and authority in the society, which were characteristic attributes of a pharaoh’s throne.

This explains why Queen Hatshepsut was portrayed as having false beards only when dressed in her official attire. With respect to delineation of breasts, early scholars interpreted that even Egyptian goddesses were traditionally portrayed without breasts. It means that contemporary values of symbolic art were not applicable in the Middle Kingdom. Consequently, the physical attributes of gender were not of great importance as opposed to the symbolic significance of art. Religious Significance of Art Apart from conflicting issues surrounding the Queen’s gender, scholars also differs on religious significance of artistic pieces associated with the Mortuary Temple.

Hatshepsut instructed creation of sculptures and paintings showing her close association with the god Amun and the cult of Osiris. Amun was the god of sun, responsible for giving life and power to Egyptian pharaohs. Paintings on the temple’s walls procedurally describe how Hatshepsut was born and elevated by god Amun into the position of Pharaoh. Hatshepsut alleges that she was conceived and given birth under intervention of Amun, the god who later appointed her as the successor of her father.

In addition, Mortuary Temple also contains paintings depicting the deity Osiris transporting the body of Hatshepsut3. Osiris was the ancient goddess responsible to resurrection of the dead. Such depictions of religious inclination between Hatshepsut and Egyptian gods are widely publicized despite the fact that the Queen’s birth and death were ever recorded in ancient history. However, scholars differ concerning the religious attributes of the temple by arguing that most artworks in contemporary museums are misrepresentation of religious significance.

Given the fact that Hatshepsut scheduled her own birth and coronation times without knowledge of her father renders such claims unreliable. There is a possibility that religious symbolisms found inside the temple are not supposed to be interpreted literally. This argument is supported by the fact that although history acknowledges Hatshepsut as a female ruler, paintings and sculptures inside the temple portrays her having male physical qualities. Traditionally, pharaohs were accorded cultural religious practices after their death.

In addition, all pharaohs of both the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms were thought to have been born by a cow. In this context, images in museums and from the site should not be perceived as actual representation of religious aspects in Hatshepsut’s Middle Kingdom. Conclusion In conclusion, archaeologists and historians are yet to solve their difference in perception regarding features of Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. Accuracy of artwork and other artistic portraits are undermined by the fact that Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple was considerable defaced by her successor, Thutmose 2.

What appear today in museums and art galleries is reconstruction of pieces left from fragmented sculptures from the Mortuary Temple4. At this juncture, it is rational to conclude that state of original paintings and pictures have been lost through ingenuity of reconstructing the smashed fragments. In addition, conflicts in interpretation of content may be attributed to substantial divergence concerning the use of symbolism in ancient and contemporary settings. Bibliography Crystalinks, “Temple of Hatshepsut”.

Crystalinks.com. http://www.crystalinks.com/TempleofHatshepsut.html Kleiner, Fred and Gardner, Helen. Gardner’s Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective. (New York: Cengage Learning, 2010), 23-35 Mohamed, May, “Ancient Egypt: Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut”. Monumentsinegypt.blogspot. http://monumentsinegypt.blogspot.com/2012/09/mortuary-temple-of-queen-hatshepsut.html Stevenson, Kristy, “Fifth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty: The Temple of Deir El-Bahri”, Hatshepsutpharaoh.com. http://hatshepsutpharaoh.

com/hatshepsut-temple.html