Course Corrections
The textbook we use, World History and Cultures, is all in all an excellent resource. However, it does have a somewhat pie-eyed, jingoistic approach to some issues. For instance, the authors claim that there was only one female Pharaoh in spite of a multitude of evidence to the contrary. America is portrayed as always being the good guys in the white hats here to save the day. Having lived in many countries, I readily agree that the United States is an excellent country in which to live. However, it is a largely secular state in which the ethical statistics differ very little between the Lowlanders and the Cultural Christians. Our government has lied to us on MANY occasions and our principle religion seems to be centered on money, power, and selfish pleasures. It's important that we recognize both the good AND the bad in ourselves so that we can approach Hashem honestly and humbly.
- Romans 12:3 HCSB For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.
History and Civil Government
The book teaches that early man was primitive and through time gradually evolved civil government, the US representative democracy being the pinnacle. I disagree for three reasons:
a. It goes against Biblical teaching. Adam did not lose all his intelligence when he was kicked out. He was not primitive. Witness the extreme architecture of the Egyptian and Babylonian cultures.
b. It goes against historical example. Sparta and Greece also had representative democracies. The US is not unique.
c. It assumes the US experiment has proven itself. It has not. It is incredibly young. Many other countries have HOUSES that are older than our country. It is hubris to assume that our system works long term – we simply don’t know that.
a. It goes against Biblical teaching. Adam did not lose all his intelligence when he was kicked out. He was not primitive. Witness the extreme architecture of the Egyptian and Babylonian cultures.
b. It goes against historical example. Sparta and Greece also had representative democracies. The US is not unique.
c. It assumes the US experiment has proven itself. It has not. It is incredibly young. Many other countries have HOUSES that are older than our country. It is hubris to assume that our system works long term – we simply don’t know that.
Female Pharaohs
Hatshepsut
1. Meryt-Neith or Merytneith or Merneith
First Dynasty (~3000 BC)
Wife of Djet, Mother of Den. Her tomb is with the tombs of other First Dynasty Pharaohs, she was buried with honors usually used for kings including a boat to travel to the next world, and her name is found on a seal with the names of other First Dynasty Pharaohs. But on that seal, her symbol is that of a King's Mother and the other names have the sign of Horus, for a Pharaoh. So perhaps she was a regent, but the evidence is not clear.
2. Nimaethap or Ni-Maat-Heb
Third Dynasty
"King's Mother" of Djoser, who was probably the second king of the Third Dynasty, the builder of the step pyramid at Saqqara. She may have served as regent for him.
3. Khentkaus
Fourth Dynasty
Titled "King's Mother" and "God's Daughter," Khentkaus was characterized in an inscription as the mother of "Two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt," presumably Sahure and Neferirke, Fifth Dynasty. She may have served as a regent for a time. She seems to have been daughter of Menkaure, or of Hordjedef, son of Khufu. She was married to Shepseskhaf (Dynasty 4) or Userkaf(Dynasty 5). Khentkaus is said to have married a priest and her sons inherited and initiated the fifth dynasty. In an inscription she may have a kingly title -- but there may have been two women of the same name, and a later regent of the same name may be confused with the earlier queen, their stories conflated.
4. Wife of Djedkare-Izezi
Fifth Dynasty
In the 1950s, a mortuary temple was excavated, though the excavation remains unpublished. Reportedly, royal insignia were found related to the wife of Djedkare-Izezi. She may have had no son and ruled as king. But the temple was destroyed so completely that the details are not clear, and her name cannot even be identified.
5. Ankhnesmeryre II or Ankhesenpepe II or Ankh-Meri-Ra
Sixth Dynasty
She may have served as regent for her son, Pepi II, who was about six when he assumed the throne when Pepi I (her husband, his father) died.
6. Neithhikret or Nitocris or Neith-Iquerti or Nitokerty
Sixth Dynasty (~2148-44 BCE)
She is known only through a story in Herodotus and several brief mentions of her name elsewhere, but there is no other historical or archaeological evidence for her existence, much less ruler-ship. She is mentioned on one king list (Turin) and not another (Abydos). If she existed, she lived at the end of the dynasty, may have been married to a husband who was not royal and may not even have been a king, and probably had no male offspring.
She may have been the daughter of Pepi II. In Herodotus, she is said to have succeeded her brother Metesouphis II upon his death, and then to have avenged his death by drowning his murderers and committing suicide.
7. Sobeknefru or Neferusobek or Nefrusobek or Sebek-Nefru (Meryetre)
Twelfth Dynasty (~1787-1783 BCE)
She ruled Egypt for a few years. She was the daughter of Amenemhet III and half-sister of Amenemhet IV and, perhaps, also his wife. She claimed to have been co-regent with her father. The dynasty ends with her reign, as she apparently had no son. Titles found with her image include Female Horus, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Daughter of Re.
There are some now-headless statues of her that remain, and other artifacts and mentions in the archaeological record. She was depicted in female clothing but wearing male objects related to kingship, and was sometimes referred to in terms using the male gender, perhaps to reinforce her role as Pharaoh.
8. Ashotep
Eighteenth Dynasty
Mother of the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty and New Kingdom, Ahmose I, himself the pharaoh who defeated the Hyksos (foreign rulers of Egypt). Ahmose I credited her in an inscription with holding the nation together during his minority, when she seems to have been regent for her son.
9. Ahmose-Nefertari
Eighteenth Dynasty
Wife and sister of the dynasty's founder, Ahmose I, and mother of the second king, Amenhotep I, Ahmose-Nefertari served as regent for her son. Her daughter, Ahmose-Meritamon, was the wife of Amenhotep I.
10. Hatshepsut (Maatkare)
Eighteenth Dynasty (~1472-1458 BCE)
Widow of Thutmosis II, she ruled first as regent for his minor son and heir, and then as Pharaoh, a female Horus. Her titles include "King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Maatkare, Daughter of Re."
She is depicted in a fake beard and with the objects that a Pharaoh is usually depicted with, and in male attire, after a few years of ruling in female form. She reported herself heading up a military campaign and going on a journey to the Land of Punt. She disappears suddenly from history, and her son apparently ordered the destruction of images of Hatshepsut and mentions of her rule.
11. Nefertiti
Eighteenth Dynasty (~1336 BCE?, with her husband ~1353-1336 BCE)
The claim that Nefertiti ruled after the death of her husband, Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV), is based on the theory that she assumed the name Smenkhkare after his death. Even if she did not rule, during her husband's reign she was accorded more honor than usual for a Great Wife, and is sometimes depicted as a co-equal officiant at ceremonies.
12. Tausret (Twosret, Tausert, Tawosret)
Nineteenth Dynasty (~1194-1186 BCE)
Tausret was chief wife of Seti II. When Seti II died, Tausret served as regent for his son, Siptah (Rameses-Siptah, renamed at some point Menenptah Siptah). Siptah was likely the son of Seti II and a minor wife, so Tausret was his stepmother. There is some indication that Siptal may have had some disability. He died about six years into his reign, and Tausret seems to have served as Pharaoh for two to four years, using kingly titles for herself. The founder of Dynasty 20 took over her tomb, and her successors replaced her name and image with his own. It was a time of civil unrest and there are few clear records, so the story isn't completely clear. A mummy at the Cairo museum is said to be hers.
13. Cleopatra VII
Ptolemy (~ 51-30 BCE)
The last Pharaoh of Egypt, daughter of Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra VII became Pharaoh when she was about 17 years old. She had no son at the time; she married a much younger brother.
Cleopatra tried to keep Egypt's independence during a time of Roman domination by allying herself romantically, matrimonially, and militarily with Roman commanders Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony. She had a son, Caesarion, supposed to be fathered by Julius Caesar, for whom she was regent. When she died, Egypt's rule passed into the hands of Rome.
The Ptolemies were descendents of a Macedonian general of Alexander's army. During the Ptolemaic dynasty, several other women named Cleopatra and Berenice served as regents.
First Dynasty (~3000 BC)
Wife of Djet, Mother of Den. Her tomb is with the tombs of other First Dynasty Pharaohs, she was buried with honors usually used for kings including a boat to travel to the next world, and her name is found on a seal with the names of other First Dynasty Pharaohs. But on that seal, her symbol is that of a King's Mother and the other names have the sign of Horus, for a Pharaoh. So perhaps she was a regent, but the evidence is not clear.
2. Nimaethap or Ni-Maat-Heb
Third Dynasty
"King's Mother" of Djoser, who was probably the second king of the Third Dynasty, the builder of the step pyramid at Saqqara. She may have served as regent for him.
3. Khentkaus
Fourth Dynasty
Titled "King's Mother" and "God's Daughter," Khentkaus was characterized in an inscription as the mother of "Two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt," presumably Sahure and Neferirke, Fifth Dynasty. She may have served as a regent for a time. She seems to have been daughter of Menkaure, or of Hordjedef, son of Khufu. She was married to Shepseskhaf (Dynasty 4) or Userkaf(Dynasty 5). Khentkaus is said to have married a priest and her sons inherited and initiated the fifth dynasty. In an inscription she may have a kingly title -- but there may have been two women of the same name, and a later regent of the same name may be confused with the earlier queen, their stories conflated.
4. Wife of Djedkare-Izezi
Fifth Dynasty
In the 1950s, a mortuary temple was excavated, though the excavation remains unpublished. Reportedly, royal insignia were found related to the wife of Djedkare-Izezi. She may have had no son and ruled as king. But the temple was destroyed so completely that the details are not clear, and her name cannot even be identified.
5. Ankhnesmeryre II or Ankhesenpepe II or Ankh-Meri-Ra
Sixth Dynasty
She may have served as regent for her son, Pepi II, who was about six when he assumed the throne when Pepi I (her husband, his father) died.
6. Neithhikret or Nitocris or Neith-Iquerti or Nitokerty
Sixth Dynasty (~2148-44 BCE)
She is known only through a story in Herodotus and several brief mentions of her name elsewhere, but there is no other historical or archaeological evidence for her existence, much less ruler-ship. She is mentioned on one king list (Turin) and not another (Abydos). If she existed, she lived at the end of the dynasty, may have been married to a husband who was not royal and may not even have been a king, and probably had no male offspring.
She may have been the daughter of Pepi II. In Herodotus, she is said to have succeeded her brother Metesouphis II upon his death, and then to have avenged his death by drowning his murderers and committing suicide.
7. Sobeknefru or Neferusobek or Nefrusobek or Sebek-Nefru (Meryetre)
Twelfth Dynasty (~1787-1783 BCE)
She ruled Egypt for a few years. She was the daughter of Amenemhet III and half-sister of Amenemhet IV and, perhaps, also his wife. She claimed to have been co-regent with her father. The dynasty ends with her reign, as she apparently had no son. Titles found with her image include Female Horus, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Daughter of Re.
There are some now-headless statues of her that remain, and other artifacts and mentions in the archaeological record. She was depicted in female clothing but wearing male objects related to kingship, and was sometimes referred to in terms using the male gender, perhaps to reinforce her role as Pharaoh.
8. Ashotep
Eighteenth Dynasty
Mother of the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty and New Kingdom, Ahmose I, himself the pharaoh who defeated the Hyksos (foreign rulers of Egypt). Ahmose I credited her in an inscription with holding the nation together during his minority, when she seems to have been regent for her son.
9. Ahmose-Nefertari
Eighteenth Dynasty
Wife and sister of the dynasty's founder, Ahmose I, and mother of the second king, Amenhotep I, Ahmose-Nefertari served as regent for her son. Her daughter, Ahmose-Meritamon, was the wife of Amenhotep I.
10. Hatshepsut (Maatkare)
Eighteenth Dynasty (~1472-1458 BCE)
Widow of Thutmosis II, she ruled first as regent for his minor son and heir, and then as Pharaoh, a female Horus. Her titles include "King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Maatkare, Daughter of Re."
She is depicted in a fake beard and with the objects that a Pharaoh is usually depicted with, and in male attire, after a few years of ruling in female form. She reported herself heading up a military campaign and going on a journey to the Land of Punt. She disappears suddenly from history, and her son apparently ordered the destruction of images of Hatshepsut and mentions of her rule.
11. Nefertiti
Eighteenth Dynasty (~1336 BCE?, with her husband ~1353-1336 BCE)
The claim that Nefertiti ruled after the death of her husband, Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV), is based on the theory that she assumed the name Smenkhkare after his death. Even if she did not rule, during her husband's reign she was accorded more honor than usual for a Great Wife, and is sometimes depicted as a co-equal officiant at ceremonies.
12. Tausret (Twosret, Tausert, Tawosret)
Nineteenth Dynasty (~1194-1186 BCE)
Tausret was chief wife of Seti II. When Seti II died, Tausret served as regent for his son, Siptah (Rameses-Siptah, renamed at some point Menenptah Siptah). Siptah was likely the son of Seti II and a minor wife, so Tausret was his stepmother. There is some indication that Siptal may have had some disability. He died about six years into his reign, and Tausret seems to have served as Pharaoh for two to four years, using kingly titles for herself. The founder of Dynasty 20 took over her tomb, and her successors replaced her name and image with his own. It was a time of civil unrest and there are few clear records, so the story isn't completely clear. A mummy at the Cairo museum is said to be hers.
13. Cleopatra VII
Ptolemy (~ 51-30 BCE)
The last Pharaoh of Egypt, daughter of Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra VII became Pharaoh when she was about 17 years old. She had no son at the time; she married a much younger brother.
Cleopatra tried to keep Egypt's independence during a time of Roman domination by allying herself romantically, matrimonially, and militarily with Roman commanders Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony. She had a son, Caesarion, supposed to be fathered by Julius Caesar, for whom she was regent. When she died, Egypt's rule passed into the hands of Rome.
The Ptolemies were descendents of a Macedonian general of Alexander's army. During the Ptolemaic dynasty, several other women named Cleopatra and Berenice served as regents.
