The de Young Museum's Hatshepsut exhibit is misleading

[Little95]

The de Young Museum's Hatshepsut exhibit is misleading

http://www.sfbayview.com/021506/hats...it021506.shtml
by Professor Manu Ampim


The royal tomb of Mer-Neith is in the middle of the 1st-2nd dynasty king's tombs and is surrounded by 41 burials.
A major exhibit, "Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh," was on display at the newly renovated de Young Museum in San Francisco from Oct. 15, 2005, to Feb. 5, 2006. This important exhibit housed over 300 artifacts, owned by more than a dozen museums, that were created during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut (1500 BCE), who ruled Egypt during the 18th dynasty. Hatshepsut was the fourth of five women who ruled Egypt during the dynastic period, and records indicate that she may have been the most powerful of these African women.

In response to this important exhibit, I led seven groups of mainly African Americans, totaling about 250 people, through the collection to give them insight from my primary research on classical African artifacts in countries around the world. The de Young Museum did a very good job of organizing the displays, but the museum's descriptions and explanations were often misleading and completely wrong.

For example, the de Young completely misleads the public with two false assertions that are directly contradicted by the first-hand evidence. First, the museum tries to make a color and racial distinction between Kushites/ Nubians on the one hand and ancient Egyptians on the other. There are numerous tomb reliefs that clearly show each of these groups depicted with various shades of black and brown skin tones.


The name of Queen Sobekneferu on a cylinder seal inside a royal shenu ("cartouche"), which was reserved for ruling kings.
However, the museum presents false information that the darker skin images are only from the southern areas of Nubia and that the Egyptians were "always" shown with a lighter color.

The second unsupported myth is that Hatshepsut was the "only" female pharaoh and that her "unprecedented" step of becoming a female ruler led Thutmose III to destroy all of her images as a king. Contrary to the de Young's misinformation, there are many well-preserved images of Hatshepsut either being crowned as a king, or presented as a ruling king side by side with Thutmose III, as they perform rituals together.

The mainstream Eurocentric Egyptologists have no answer as to why Thutmose would leave so many images of Hatshepsut if he was supposedly on a campaign to erase all evidence of her kingship. These Egyptologists simply ignore the evidence and hope that they are not confronted with their contradictions.

The real issue is that classical Africans developed a balanced social system thousands of years ago, which included women in the highest office in the country - whereas Europeans and Euro-Americans in this modern era still disrespect and disregard the value of women. For instance, women in America were only given the right to vote in 1920, they still lag behind men in salaries, and there has never been a female president or vice president.


Queen Taswosret with name in a royal shenu.

Queen Hatshepsut
It is too difficult for many white historians and Egyptologists to admit the obvious fact that Black people are several thousand years ahead of them in terms of creating an equitable society, with male and female balance.

Lastly, Queen Hatshepsut is the fourth of five females who ruled Kemet, Egypt. Here is the list:

1. Queen Mer-Neith, first dynasty, ruled when her son Den was too young to rule (c. 3000 BCE)

2. Queen Netjqerti (Nitocris), sixth dynasty, ruled at end of the Old Kingdom (last ruler of this era) (c. 2200 BCE)

3. Queen Sobek-Neferu, 12th dynasty, ruled at the end of the Middle Kingdom (last ruler of this era) (c. 1800 BCE)

4. Queen Hatshepsut, 18th dynasty, ruled when Djehuti-mes III (Thutmose III) was too young to rule (c. 1500 BCE)

5. Queen Tawosret, 19th dynasty, ruled when Siptah was too young to rule (c. 1200 BCE)

Contact Prof. Manu Ampim through his website at www.ManuAmpim.com. He will be leading a tour to Egypt this May and June; go to http://manuampim.com/kmt_may06.doc for more information.


Temple of Hatshepsut (called Djeser-Djeseru = "holy of holy")

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go to the link to see tha pics...unless someone so kindly posts em' for me!!