The Face of Queen Hatshepsut: Redux (Artistic Reconstruction)

Описание: The sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, wife to half-brother Thutmose II, daughter of Thutmose I and Ahmose, and mother to Neferure. Famously depicted herself in male roles and garb to try to establish her place in a patriarchal society, but was erased from many aspects of history by both succeeding royalty and the people for overstepping and perhaps even inadvertently mocking the bounds of Egyptian royal and religious traditions.

ARTIST NOTES: Yes, that DISLIKE button is going to get smashed a LOT this time.

Much like the first reconstruction I attempted back in 2013 (which at the time I did not have a skull to work from, only the mummy) I highly expect a lot of backlash from the viewing public for not making Hatshepsut the exotic, mysterious, lovely oval-faced queen of her most famous monuments. The comparison of her CT scan to her statues clearly shows a lot of artistic license was cashed in to make her look "ideal".
XXXRetractionXXX--I had previously explained that the hieroglyph titled, "Expedition to the Land of Punt" showed a glaringly overweight Hatshepsut flanked by her entourage. The image is actually of a similarly overweight Queen Ati following behind her slender husband King Parehu, so while the two queens shared the same timeline (possibly the same chef) the image is not, as previously asserted, Hatshepsut herself.

Hatshepsut was undeniably overweight, as evidenced by the thick mummified skin rumpling over her face and body like a heavy blanket. Her decayed, cracked and missing teeth also seemed to point to an exceptionally unbalanced diet heavy in sugars & carbohydrates, which is something of course Egyptian royalty would have plenty of access to if they wanted it.

The skull tracing of the CT scan made of Hatshepsut’s mummy, which showed the bone structure underneath all the mummified skin, seemed to have markers of the Thutmosian family tree: arched eyebrows, eyes close together, wide nose, prominent cheekbones and flaring nostrils with a naturally grinning mouth. Even as Thutmose II’ s half-sister, the paternal genes of Thutmose I seemed to have dominance over many features which might otherwise have come from her mother. The nostrils of the mummified Hatshepsut were well-stuffed with cotton or linen, so the rest of the shape of the nose was merely affected by dehydration but was not out of place.

It’s hard to say definitively how round Hatshepsut’s face might have been, and while I fleshed it out considerably, there’s the possibility that I may have been too hesitant to blow it up beyond recognition. It could be, too, that her face was less affected by her obesity than the rest of her body as the hieroglyph of her once suggested. It seems that most of her weight was centralized from the torso down. Many of the other internet reconstructions I’ve seen show a slender and beautified version of Hatshepsut derived purely from her monuments which were idealized to begin with (tradition, you know). The actual mummy brings forward the face of someone more ordinary and fallible, with features more unique than traditionally beautiful. I wouldn’t have judged her ugly, either. It is certainly a face which commands attention.

Yes, I combined the Khat and Nemes headdress into one anomalous design, which was a part of the original reconstruction which I just passed along for continuity. It also speaks of her blended roles as queen AND king, to some extent. I contemplated leaving Hatshepsut bald with just a royal broad collar for decoration but that was a little too much on the nose with her cross-dressing as a king and with her heftier weight there was not much left to identify her as female without something on her head to distinguish her. The mummy was reported to have had long hair existing in the back, but the hieroglyphs only showed her with the traditional wig or with a royal headdress covering her hair. It never once crossed my mind to put a fake beard on her, even though she sometimes wore one, because then the title of the project would have to be changed from "The Face of…" to "The Weirdy Beardy of…" !! Besides, I’ll get enough complaints that she looks too much like a man already without sticking a beard on her. It has to be said again that not every royal personage worldwide looked like Mr. or Mrs. Universe!

"Why isn’t she wearing traditional Egyptian makeup?" Simple answer: it hides the natural features, which while ideal from a beauty standpoint doesn’t do justice to the reconstruction underneath.

Opening Image: CT scan image derived from Hawass, Zahi & Saleem, Sahar N. "Scanning the Pharaohs" AUC Press, 2018

"Hatshepsut" 2026. Original Digital Art (c) M.A. Ludwig

Music: "History Mirror" arranged by M.A. Ludwig

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