The Double Crown: Secret Writings of the Female Pharaoh Read online

  Although this is a novel and as such a work of fiction, most of the characters who appear in the story were real people. Even though they lived and died about 3 500 years ago, we know a fair amount about them. The written evidence we possess about the ancient Egyptian civilisation derives in the main from two primary sources: from formal inscriptions on monuments, tombs and temples (the “living stone”), and from more informal writings on materials such as papyrus and ostraca (broken pieces of pottery or bits of limestone). The stone records comprise what one might term official propaganda, providing impressive but not necessarily accurate accounts of the lives and achievements of nobles and particularly of pharaohs. The ostraca record items such as songs, stories and administrative lists. Deductions about lifestyle and customs are also made from artefacts discovered in archaeological digs and from items stored in museums.

  Some complete papyrus scrolls from ancient times have emerged from storage places in a legible condition, due to the extremely dry climate. One such is The Egyptian Book of the Dead, a vast body of religious writings, a version of which was translated and edited by E.A. Wallis Budge in 1895 and is known as The Papyrus of Ani. I have gleaned much from this work.

  However, the primary sources of information all have to be translated and interpreted, and there is often considerable controversy about the correct interpretation of known facts. We should not find this surprising. It is difficult enough to know the character and motivation of people who have recently died – for that matter, of people who are still alive. How much more difficult it must surely be to discover exactly what people were like over a gap of 3 500 years?

  Hatshepsut is a prime example of a historical person whose life and character have been interpreted in varying and contradictory ways over time. We know that she did reign over Egypt for approximately twenty years and that her stepson Thutmose followed her to become one of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs. It is less clear whether he was her co-regent or whether she effectively kept him from the throne all her life.

  Two views of her are cited by Joyce Tyldesley in her informative biography entitled Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh. Egyptologists in the Victorian era saw her as “a valid monarch, an experienced and well-meaning woman who ruled amicably alongside her young stepson, steering her country through twenty peaceful, prosperous years”. In contrast, by the 1960s, she had been “transformed into the archetypal wicked stepmother familiar from popular films … she was now an unnatural and scheming woman … who would deliberately abuse a position of trust to steal the throne from a defenceless child … her foreign policy was quite simply a disaster …” Current scholars tend to avoid either of these extremes.

  In 2007, Egyptian authorities announced that the mummy of Hatshepsut had been identified. In 1903 Harold Carter, of Tutankhamen fame, discovered two mummies in an insignificant tomb designated as KV60. The smaller mummy, which was in a sarcophagus identifying it as that of Sitre, known as Inet, royal nurse, was brought to the Cairo museum. The larger one was uncoffined, and remained in situ until 2007. It was thought that the larger one might have been royal, because the position of its arm suggests the typical royal burial position. But since the two mummies came from such an undistinguished burial place, the larger one lay nameless for decades, until at last modern technology (DNA tests and CT scan) assisted in a definite identification. It has been declared to be the female pharaoh Hatshepsut.

  This person was obese and had red-gold hair. She had damaged teeth and may have suffered from diabetes and cancer. Many questions about her reign still remain unanswered, though. Did she die a natural death? This is not yet clear. If not, who killed her? Why and by whom were her monuments and statues desecrated? The same questions apply to Senenmut, plus others that have never been answered: Was he her lover? Did he ever marry? Was he the mastermind behind her accession? The novelist has more freedom than the scholar to imagine plausible answers to these and other questions about these people who lived so long ago.

  The following characters are recorded in history: Hatshepsut; the pharaohs Thutmose I, II and III; Queen Ahmose; the princes Wadjmose and Amenmose (although they may have been born to a different consort); Neferubity (also called Akhbetneferu); Neferure; Meryetre-Hatshepsut (although she may not have been Hatshepsut’s daughter); Hatshepsut’s still-born son (some scholars doubt that this event occurred); Satioh, Thutmose III’s first principal wife (who may however not have been a Mitannian princess); little Amenhotep (who became the Pharaoh Amenhotep II, one of the great pharaohs of Egypt); Sitre, royal nurse (known as Inet); Senenmut; Hapuseneb; Hapuseneb’s wife and children; the steward Amenhotep; the architect Ineni; the treasurer Thitui; General Nehsi; Mutnofert, mother of Thutmose II; Isis, mother of Thutmose III; the tutor Itruri; the King of Punt and his obese wife; the people of Punt who came to Egypt with the returning expedition; the Hyksos invaders; the Prince of Kadesh.

  The following characters are my inventions: Khani (although instances are recorded of Nubian youths captured in battle being trained in the Kap and later holding prominent positions in the army); Mahu the scribe; Ahmose the scribe; Hapu, royal physician; Minhotep, physician; Bek and Yunit; Dhutmose (although there were two viziers during the New Empire period); Ibana the enforcer; Captain Aqhat; Seni, senior counsellor; Ahmeni, head of the Party of Legitimacy (such a party did exist); the five daughters of Satioh; Nefthys, wife to Senenmut; their twin boys.

  Hatshepsut’s statues, monuments and inscriptions were indeed desecrated, as were those of Senenmut. Her name was omitted from King lists from the time of Thutmose III, so she was completely forgotten until Egyptologists deciphered hieroglyphs in 1820. Archaeologists from the Metropolitan Museum in New York were instrumental in retrieving and restoring many items from Hatshepsut’s legacy. The temple at Djeser-Djeseru still stands (complete with images of Senenmut, of Hathor suckling Hatshepsut and of the voyage to Punt); having been carefully renovated, the site is now known as Deir el-Bahri. The caricatures exist, except that I have moved them from an unfinished tomb in a cliff above the temple to the temple wall itself.

  Marié Heese

  Stilbaai 2008

  In memory of Andries Johannes Heese

  1 February 1972 – 14 March 1999

  I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the following people: my son Fritz for giving me the book by Fletcher that made me complete what was one-third of a manuscript; Melanie and Fanie Celliers for their support and suggestions; Willie Burger for a thoughtful report on an early version that prompted a major rewrite; my outstanding literary agent, Daniel Lazar, for his coaching (via email from New York) that helped me to write a substantially better novel than the one he first set eyes on; Mignon van Coller for coming to the rescue when technology baffled me; Mart and Koos Meij for bringing the manuscript to the attention of the publishers; Marietjie Coetzee and Charles Malan for their recommendations; Alida Potgieter, my publisher at Human & Rousseau, for further helpful suggestions; Louise Steyn for meticulous editing; Michiel Botha for the cover design; Chérie Collins for the page design, and above all, Chris, my husband, for insightful criticism, for taking me to Egypt to see Hatshepsut’s temple and to New York for the Hatshepsut exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and for putting up with my obsessions.

  List of characters

  Ahmeni, head of the Party of Legitimacy

  Ahmose, a scribe

  Ahmose, Queen, mother of Hatshepsut

  Amenhotep, a steward

  Amenhotep, son of Meryetre-Hatshepsut by Thutmose III and grandson to Hatshepsut

  Amenmose, Prince, elder brother of Hatshepsut

&nbs
p; Aqhat, a captain

  Bek, a slave and a dwarf

  Dhutmose, Vizier of the North

  Hapu, the royal physician

  Hapuseneb, Vizier of the South, Prophet and later Chief Priest of Amen, and Overseer of the Royal Tomb

  Hatshepsut, Princess, Queen, King and Pharaoh

  Ibana, an enforcer

  Ineni, an architect

  Itruri, tutor to the royal children of Thutmose I

  Khani, from the Land of Kush (Southern Nubia), now a member of the Egyptian army

  King of Punt

  Mahu, a scribe

  Meryetre-Hatshepsut, second daughter to Hatshepsut by Thutmose II

  Minhotep, a physician

  Neferubity, younger sister of Hatshepsut

  Neferure, first daughter to Hatshepsut by Thutmose II

  Nefthys and her twin boys

  Nehsi, a general

  Prince of Kadesh

  Satioh, a Mitannian princess, Thutmose III’s first principal wife

  Senenmut, scribe, tutor to the royal children, later Chief Steward of Amen and Overseer of all Royal Works

  Seni, a senior counsellor

  Sitre, royal nurse (known as Inet)

  Thitui, treasurer

  Thutmose I, Pharaoh, Hatshepsut’s father

  Thutmose II, Pharaoh, son of Thutmose I and the Lady Mutnofert, and thus Hatshepsut’s half-brother; also her husband

  Thutmose III, Pharaoh, son of Thutmose II and a concubine, Isis; thus Hatshepsut’s step-nephew and stepson

  Wadjmose, Prince, elder brother of Hatshepsut

  Yunit, a slave and a dwarf

  Prologue

  I am the chosen of the gods. I have always known that. This knowledge has been the source of my strength and my power, and it is the reason why I know that those who now seek my death and desire to usurp my throne shall not succeed.

  Yet I have decided that I must make a secret record with details about those whom I do not trust. I shall give the scrolls that I produce into the keeping of my scribe, the faithful Mahu. If I die a wrongful death, he must hand them to someone in power who will avenge me. Mahu will have to decide who the right person might be. I shall ensure that there will be sufficient evidence to see to it that the guilty, if such there are, suffer the just punishment of the gods and do not reap great benefits from treason.

  Also I intend to write down the truth regarding my time as Pharaoh, ruler over the Two Lands. It is so that the main events of my reign are engraved upon the walls of the funerary temple at Djeser-Djeseru that my devoted Senenmut built for me, and upon the steles I have had erected. The living stone will bear witness to my deeds. But I fear that those who seek my death, should they succeed, might even attempt to destroy that proud record. Although I am certain that I can prevail, I shall nonetheless ensure that another record exists on the humble material created from papyrus, a record that Mahu could hide if needs be and that would survive. For those who would take my life would also steal my name, and so they would deprive my spirit of its home in the Afterlife. I will not let them take either my life or my immortality. I will not.

  Besides, one can write on papyrus what one cannot write on stone. I am not an old woman – although I have seen forty risings of the Nile I am still vigorous – yet I feel the need to record my experiences, and to reflect on them. Sometimes it seems to me that time slides through one’s grasp like the waters of the great river, and what one has done and what one knows cannot be writ in water.

  I have lived a life of some significance, I do believe. I followed a destiny unusual for a woman. I achieved greatness and I paid for it. Loss and loneliness have been my portion; but I have always served the Black Land and its people to the utmost of my ability and they have loved me in return. As I feel hostile forces gathering around me, as I begin to sense age taking its inexorable toll, I wish that my life may not be forgotten, neither its greater deeds nor the smaller things that have given me joy.

  I have sailed the Nile at sunset, floating on a sheet of living gold. I have tasted the roasted liver of fat geese. I have heard the haunting songs of the blind bard. I have felt a child’s soft arms, a dying woman’s bony grip, a lover’s warm caress. I have inhaled the incense of the gods.

  I feel that I must record these things. Here follow the secret writings of Ma’atkare Khnemet-Amen Hatshepsut, Female Horus of Fine Gold, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, and hereto I affix my seal.

  I am Mahu, scribe to Pharaoh Hatshepsut, may she live for ever. With these few words, added later and scribbled in haste, I wish to attest that these scrolls were given into my keeping by the Pharaoh and that they are written in her own script. But I have not given them into the hands of any of the men of power, for I do not know whom I should trust. The scrolls are stored in a safe and dry place where they must be kept secret until I have decided who should read them.

  Of course Her Majesty sealed the scrolls she gave into my keeping with the imprint of her royal cartouche. But I did not have the strength of mind to keep them in my possession without reading what she had written. I needed to know what I was involved in, but also I am only human and I was most curious about unfolding events and about Her Majesty’s intimate thoughts and feelings. So I confess it here: I broke the seals and I read the contents. Then I resealed the scrolls with my own scribe’s seal. But never did I alter anything Her Majesty had set down. So if one day these scrolls are found, whoever reads them will be reading the very words of Her Majesty. This I solemnly swear by the Ka of Thoth.

  I did however add some writings of my own to support and to amplify the writings of my Pharaoh so that the record may be complete and correct, for that is my task as a scribe. Those that follow after should know the truth about Her Majesty. Certainly there are many records of King Hatshepsut’s reign, sculpted in statues, carved into the walls of temples, engraved on obelisks. Yet even that which is written on the living stone may be altered, as we have seen when a new Pharaoh takes over the temple of a predecessor and strikes out his cartouches, replacing them with his own. After all, it is written: “Be thou a scribe, for a book is more durable than a stele or pyramid; it will preserve thy name better than any monument.”

  These writings could lead to my immediate execution should they fall into the wrong hands. It is a dangerous commission that Her Majesty has honoured me with, but by the Ka of Thoth, I shall carry it out faithfully. I have ever been a loyal follower and humble servant of King Hatshepsut, may she live for ever. May the gods help me not to fail the Pharaoh.

  THE FIRST SCROLL

  The reign of Hatshepsut year 20:

  The first month of Peret [seEd season] day 2

  It is a fact that I possess the blood royal, that I am the only one of four children borne by the Great Royal Wife Ahmose to the Pharaoh Thutmose the First, may they live for ever, who grew to adulthood. I am the last of the old royal line that runs through my mother, for my father the Pharaoh, may he live, came to the Double Throne as a great general and it was his marriage to her that made him royal since she was own sister to Pharaoh Amenhotep. Oh yes, I am the entirely legitimate occupant of the throne of the Two Lands. But to be legitimate is not enough for a woman to accede to the throne. She must also be the chosen one. The one the gods would have. And that am I.

  For Hathor suckled me, Hapi cradled me, and Apophis spared me for my destiny. Since I was very young when these events occurred I do not myself recall them exactly, but they have been told to me so often that it seems as if I do remember. Perhaps I have some memory of the third and most significant event. The one who knew, who saw all three events as they happened, was the Great Royal Nurse Sitre, known as Inet – the ancient of days who had nursed my siblings and me and later took care of my daughters Neferure and Meryetre-Hatshepsut. She was my witness and unlike many who surround me, particularly now, had no reason whatsoever to lie.

  Looking back, I realise that Inet’s tales did much to direct my dreams of greatness. My earliest memories are of her voice telli
ng me stories, always using the same words as the illiterate do and as children indeed demand. She would lisp a little because of her sparse teeth – she had only a few rotted stumps left, the rest ground down by years of chewing gritty bread. Some of her stories were those that all Egyptians know, such as The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, or legends of great battles, or comic stories about animals.

  But others concerned me personally and those were the ones that I liked best just as she loved to tell them. She used to nod her head, the plain black wig framing her wizened brown face with its little black eyes like olives in desiccated bread. The nods punctuated her tales as if she were listening to herself and agreeing that yes, that is quite correct, that is exactly how it happened.

  Alas, my dear Inet is dead now and her voice is still. Ah, there have been so many deaths. I have seen to it that she is properly buried and well supplied with all the grave goods necessary for a good life in the Fields of the Blessed. Yet although sometimes it seems that her Ka breathes so close by that I feel it upon my cheek, she can no longer bear witness for me. But I can never forget the love she bore me, and her unwavering faith in my destiny.

  So I shall set these tales down, just as she told them, for they have significance as regards the legitimacy of my rule over the Black Land. They prove that I am the chosen of the gods. During the time of rest after the midday meal I have some privacy. Usually I rest on a day-bed on the cool, spacious portico overlooking the flower gardens with their splashing fountains at the side of the harem palace in the royal city of Thebes. I shall use that time to write down these accounts. The slaves who bring fruit juices and keep me cool with ostrich feather fans are illiterate. They will not know what writings these are. My bodyguards keep a tactful distance while I rest, although they remain alert.

  Tale number one was about Hathor, mother of Horus, foremost of the gods who have held me in their protective embrace all my life. I loved to hear it, for it made me feel that I had been singled out, that I was somehow special to the Goddess. It concerns the first year of my life, in the reign of my late father, may he live, Thutmose the First, year 4.