Hatshepsut

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut, whose name means ‘foremost of noble ladies’. She ruled Egypt from about 1479 - 1458 BC and some scholars argue that she was one of the most successful and influential pharaohs. When she came to the throne, Egypt was still recovering from a period of turbulence known as the Second Intermediate Period a few generations earlier. Hatshepsut reasserted Egyptian power by building up international trade and commissioned buildings considered masterpieces of Egyptian architecture. She also made significant changes to the ideology surrounding the pharaoh and the gods. However, following her death, her name was erased from the records and left out of ancient lists of Egyptian kings.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Elizabeth Frood 3 episodes
  Associate Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford
• Kate Spence 4 episodes
  Lecturer in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Cambridge
• Campbell Price 2 episodes
  Curator of Egypt and Sudan at The Manchester Museum

Reading list

• Karnak: Evolution of a Temple
  Elizabeth Blyth (Routledge, 2006) Google Books →
• The Woman Who Would Be King
  Kara Cooney (Crown, 2014) Google Books →
• Creativity and Innovation in the Reign of Hatshepsut
  Jose M. Galan, Betsy M. Bryan and Peter F. Dorman (eds.) (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2014)
• A History of Ancient Egypt
  Marc Van De Mieroop (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) Google Books →
• Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh
  Catharine H. Roehrig, Renee Dreyfus and Cathleen A. Keller (Yale University Press, 2005) Google Books →
• Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh
  Catharine Roehrig (ed.) (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005) Google Books →
• Hatshepsut: The Female Pharaoh
  Joyce Tyldesley (Penguin, 1998) Google Books →
• UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology
  Willeke Wendrich (ed.) (University of California, 2010)

Related episodes

• Akhenaten
  
  1 Oct, 2009 930 History of the Ancient World
• Nefertiti
  
  18 Jan, 2024 930 History of the Ancient World
• Cleopatra
  
  2 Dec, 2010 930 History of the Ancient World
• Queen Zenobia
  
  30 May, 2013 930 History of the Ancient World
• Tutankhamun
  
  26 Dec, 2019 930 History of the Ancient World
• The Hittites
  
  23 Dec, 2021 930 History of the Ancient World
• The Rosetta Stone
  
  11 Feb, 2021 930 History of the Ancient World
• Eleanor of Aquitaine
  
  28 Jan, 2016 940 History of Europe
• The Egyptian Book of the Dead
  
  27 Apr, 2017 930 History of the Ancient World
• Aphra Behn
  
  12 Oct, 2017 820 English and Old English literatures

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: b04n62jx

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04n62jx

Auto-category: 932 (Ancient Egypt)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. In the early 15th century BC, a woman came to power in ancient Egypt.