Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky listener discretion advised. In nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty two, Howard Carter had achieved what most archaeologists can
Speaker 1: only dream of. After over two decades of methodically exploring
Speaker 1: and excavating Egypt's Valley of the Kings, a region in
Speaker 1: Thebes where pharaohs of ancient Egypt built their tombs, he
Speaker 1: made a discovery that would change the field of archaeology forever.
Speaker 1: Carter happened upon a pharaoh's tomb virtually untouched for millennia.
Speaker 1: Pharaoh tutin common was relatively inconsequential as a ruler, but
Speaker 1: thousands of years later, as King Tut, he became the
Speaker 1: most famous ancient Egyptian pharaoh of modern times thanks to
Speaker 1: the fact that, unlike the tombs of many other pharaohs,
Speaker 1: it hadn't already been ransacked by robbers, which meant it
Speaker 1: was filled with dazzling artifacts. King Tut and Howard Carter
Speaker 1: both shot to stardom, but twenty years before Carter's career
Speaker 1: defining discovery. Back in his very first season in the
Speaker 1: Valley of the Kings, Carter had actually com tantalizingly close
Speaker 1: to making another spectacular find. Only three days into his expedition,
Speaker 1: while exploring the southeast wall of the basin, he discovered
Speaker 1: steps the stone staircase led to the tomb of Tutmos
Speaker 1: the Fourth, a pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty. The tomb
Speaker 1: itself was almost entirely empty, having been ransacked by ancient
Speaker 1: tomb raiders, but didn't walk away completely empty handed. He
Speaker 1: found two artifacts, an alabaster cup and a blue scarab
Speaker 1: beetle carving, both bearing the name Hot Chipsoot. Later that
Speaker 1: same season, Carter found another tomb, one that was relatively
Speaker 1: simple compared to the ornate burial chambers of the valley.
Speaker 1: After climbing down the rough steps and creeping down a passageway,
Speaker 1: he came to a chamber which looked to be ransacked.
Speaker 1: All that remained were two mummified women and some mummified geese.
Speaker 1: Carter was unimpressed. He took the geese, resealed the tomb,
Speaker 1: and moved on to his next find. Another archaeologist came
Speaker 1: upon that tomb just three years later, Edward Arton. He
Speaker 1: removed one of the two mummies, the one in an
Speaker 1: actual coffin, and he resealed the tomb again. Neither Carter
Speaker 1: nor Arton thought that the tomb was important enough to
Speaker 1: warrant even cataloging. Until the tomb's rediscovery in nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: the remaining female mummy had lain alone on the cold
Speaker 1: floor of the dark tomb for over three thousand years.
Speaker 1: If only Howard Carter had known that this unimportant looking
Speaker 1: female mummy, which he came upon decades before King Tut
Speaker 1: and left behind in favor of mummified geese, was likely
Speaker 1: one of ancient Egypt's greatest pharaohs. I'm Dana Schwartz, and
Speaker 1: this is noble blood from the beginning of Hotschips That's reign.
Speaker 1: She was exceptional, both in the sense of her rulership
Speaker 1: and in the sense that she was in almost every
Speaker 1: way an anomaly. Before we get into hutch Its life,
Speaker 1: I think it'll be a little helpful first to understand
Speaker 1: ancient Egyptian royal families and their systems of inheritance. Like
Speaker 1: many monarchies throughout history, the Egyptian monarchy was organized around
Speaker 1: male preferen primogeniture. In other words, firstborn sons and their
Speaker 1: offspring took privilege over their siblings in matters of succession.
Speaker 1: Speaking of siblings, ancient Egyptian royal families also practiced incest
Speaker 1: that might count as this episode's Lord Byron cameo. In
Speaker 1: ancient Egypt, brothers and sisters regularly married each other and
Speaker 1: had children, who would then often go on to marry
Speaker 1: their siblings. Ancient Egyptians believed that pharaohs were the physical
Speaker 1: embodiment of gods, and since incest was integral to the
Speaker 1: ancient Egyptian creation myth, this practice within the royal family
Speaker 1: seen as divinely inspired. Another marital tradition that ancient Egyptian
Speaker 1: royals practiced was polygamy. While polygamy was not the norm
Speaker 1: in everyday life in ancient Egypt, pharaohs were able to
Speaker 1: have multiple wives. Their primary wife was ideally a sibling,
Speaker 1: but they were not necessarily related to their lesser wives.
Speaker 1: If a pharaoh didn't have any male offspring by their
Speaker 1: primary wife, the sons of lesser wives could ascend to
Speaker 1: the throne. Importantly, Egyptian succession almost never included women, and
Speaker 1: few women were pharaohs in their own right. That being said,
Speaker 1: royal women were not shut out of power entirely Within
Speaker 1: their system of government, there was an institutional structure set
Speaker 1: up to bestow power upon select women. Given the many
Speaker 1: health problems royalty faced due to their family's incest, as
Speaker 1: well as the decadent lifestyles they led, it was common
Speaker 1: for pharaohs to die young, with only a young child
Speaker 1: to succeed them. When that happened, the new pharaoh's mother,
Speaker 1: usually the primary wife of the former pharaoh, acted as
Speaker 1: her son's regent. The phenomenon of mother as regent was
Speaker 1: so common that king's mother was an official title that
Speaker 1: one could hold. In fact, there was no term in
Speaker 1: their language that translates to regent, but king's mother appears
Speaker 1: to have functioned as the equivalent term. Exercising power as
Speaker 1: king's mother was entirely accepted, even celebrated, and if you
Speaker 1: think about it, it makes sense why in a strict
Speaker 1: system of patriarchal rule, if an adult man was acting
Speaker 1: as regent to a younger pharaoh, he might be tempted
Speaker 1: to usurp power for himself, But women who had no
Speaker 1: way to take the throne would act in their son's
Speaker 1: best interests and gladly step aside once their sons came
Speaker 1: of age. A monument erected by Amos the First, the
Speaker 1: first pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty, offers just one example
Speaker 1: of the celebration of king mothers. Almost the First had
Speaker 1: a stella, or stone similar to a tombstone engraved at Karnak,
Speaker 1: which honored his mother, his former regent, Ajotep the First.
Speaker 1: The engravings describe her as quote one who pulled Egypt together,
Speaker 1: having cared for its army, having guarded it, having brought
Speaker 1: back those who fled it, gathering up its deserters, having
Speaker 1: quieted the south, subduing those who defy her end quote.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but just reading that, it
Speaker 1: definitely doesn't sound like she was a toothless regent. For
Speaker 1: a woman's power to be celebrated in such a way
Speaker 1: so early is kind of remarkable. Notable, too, is just
Speaker 1: how many king's mothers there were in the few generations
Speaker 1: before Hotchipsut during the Otset of the eighteenth dynasty, And importantly,
Speaker 1: these women were not exclusively the mothers of the pharaohs
Speaker 1: for whom they were acting as regent. Excuse all of
Speaker 1: the names that I am about to throw your way,
Speaker 1: no need to remember them, and I will do my
Speaker 1: best not to mispronounce them, but just to get the
Speaker 1: point across. For example, Hotchepsut's grandmother, amis Nefertari, had been
Speaker 1: the king's mother and ruled as regent for her daughter's husband.
Speaker 1: Because amis Nefertari's husband, Pharaoh Almost the First, hadn't had
Speaker 1: any male heirs, the throne passed to their daughter's husband,
Speaker 1: a distant relative, But that husband was young when he
Speaker 1: ascended the throne, so amus Nefertari, despite not being her
Speaker 1: son in law's biological mother, shepherded the country while he
Speaker 1: learned the ropes. This tradition of female regency later helped
Speaker 1: hot Chipsut legitimize her reign, but more on that later.
Speaker 1: Like his predecessor, that son in law, I'menhotep the I
Speaker 1: didn't have any male heirs, so the throne passed to
Speaker 1: his sister's husband, Tutmost the First. And finally we get
Speaker 1: to hot Chipsut. She was the daughter of Futmost the
Speaker 1: First and his primary wife, Ahms. Thutmos and Alms did
Speaker 1: not have any sons, but that Moost had a son
Speaker 1: by his secondary wife, so Thutmost the second That son
Speaker 1: was his father's successor. Following tradition, half siblings, that Most
Speaker 1: the Second and hot Chipsut wed, thus making hot Chipsut
Speaker 1: the daughter of the pharaoh, the sister of the pharaoh,
Speaker 1: and the wife life of the pharaoh. Quite the collection
Speaker 1: of titles. At this point, Hotschipsut's life and trajectory was
Speaker 1: pretty standard for someone of her background. What her everyday
Speaker 1: life looked like we can't exactly know, but her general
Speaker 1: responsibilities were to perform religious rituals and, like many queens
Speaker 1: before and after her, to provide the pharaoh with a
Speaker 1: male heir. But everything changed when her husband, slash half
Speaker 1: brother that Most the Second died in fourteen seventy nine
Speaker 1: b C. Okay, this is the last of the very
Speaker 1: very confusing family tree, I promise. Hotschipsut and Thutmost the
Speaker 1: Second hadn't had any sons, and so when Thutmost the
Speaker 1: Second died, the throne passed to his son by his
Speaker 1: secondary wife, Isis a son named Thutmost the Third, but
Speaker 1: like many of the pharaohs before him, the Third was
Speaker 1: a young boy when he ascended to the throne. Instead
Speaker 1: of his mother, Isis, who had been a secondary wife,
Speaker 1: acting as his regent, Hot Chipsut, as the closest person
Speaker 1: of royal blood, assumed the role of king mother. This
Speaker 1: transition was the stepping stone for Hotschipsut between life as
Speaker 1: a royal wife and life as a pharaoh. As king's mother,
Speaker 1: Hotschipsut basically ruled Egypt with little to no input from
Speaker 1: Futmost the Third. However, instead of stepping aside ont Thatutmost
Speaker 1: the Third came of age, Hotschipsut took another quite unusual path.
Speaker 1: Seven years into young Thutmos's reign, Hotschipsut crowned herself along
Speaker 1: with her step son, co Pharaoh of Egypt. She was
Speaker 1: no longer ruler on behalf of someone else, but now
Speaker 1: acted in her own name. And even though she was
Speaker 1: technically of equal power to Most the Third, and even
Speaker 1: though both of their courts got along, hot Chipsut became
Speaker 1: the primary leader of Egypt. In becoming pharaoh, hot Chipsut
Speaker 1: went from king's mother to daughter of Ray, Lady of
Speaker 1: the Two Lands, king of Upper and Lower Egypt. Hot
Speaker 1: Chipsut united with Ammun as pharaoh. She was successful in
Speaker 1: maintaining peace and order within the state. Even better, she
Speaker 1: helped Egypt prosper financially and artistically. It's clear that Hotchepsut's
Speaker 1: rise to the throne was a positive force in ancient Egypt.
Speaker 1: Will never know why exactly Hotchepsut chose to elevate herself
Speaker 1: to becoming pharaoh. Unfortunately, the kinds of records or stories
Speaker 1: needed to know that information have been lost to history.
Speaker 1: Perhaps she felt she needed to become co pharaoh in
Speaker 1: order to secure the sun for Thutmost, her stepson, or
Speaker 1: perhaps she believed this promotion would be the best way
Speaker 1: for her to maintain her own legitimacy as a ruler.
Speaker 1: Maybe Thutmost was unqualified as a pharaoh and she thought
Speaker 1: she was doing what was best for Egypt. We can't know. Luckily, However,
Speaker 1: there is quite a lot that we can know about
Speaker 1: how hotships That legitimized herself as a pharaoh to the public,
Speaker 1: and we can thank hot ships At herself for that.
Speaker 1: During her reign, she sponsored an impressive number of artistic
Speaker 1: and architectural projects. Many of these commissions featured engravings, paintings,
Speaker 1: and sculptures that tell her story, or at least the
Speaker 1: story she wanted told. The type and volume of art
Speaker 1: created during hot ships AT's reign was markedly different from
Speaker 1: that of her predecessors. First, facilitated by the trade routes
Speaker 1: that Hotschipsut had helped to open up, artists began to
Speaker 1: draw inspiration from neighboring kingdoms, and Egyptian art began to
Speaker 1: feature new motifs and techniques. Not only were artists creating
Speaker 1: new visions of Egyptian art, but now hot Chipsut was
Speaker 1: paying them to do so. The pharaoh commissioned an impressive
Speaker 1: number of buildings and monuments during her reign, and in
Speaker 1: the interest of keeping this episode relatively short, i'll name
Speaker 1: just a few. Following in the footsteps of previous pharaohs,
Speaker 1: hot Chipsut sponsored various projects at the Karnak Temple complex
Speaker 1: in Luxor, like what is now known as the Chapel
Speaker 1: Rouge Temple. The most outstanding of these projects at Karnak
Speaker 1: are twin obelisks that once flanked the entrance to a temple.
Speaker 1: Measuring just under thirty meters almost one hundred feet tall,
Speaker 1: the obelisks were the tallest buildings in the world when
Speaker 1: they were constructed. Unfortunately, only one of these obelisks remains upright,
Speaker 1: but it has stayed upright for over thirty five hundred years,
Speaker 1: which is amazing, and that remaining obelisk is the tallest
Speaker 1: obelisk in Egypt to this day. The gem in all
Speaker 1: of ancient Egyptian architecture really is her mortuary Temple at
Speaker 1: Deir el Barrie. The temple, which was meant to serve
Speaker 1: as a place to worship the pharaoh after her death,
Speaker 1: sits on top of a series of colonnaded terraces. Sloping
Speaker 1: walkways allow visitors to scale the many stories with ease.
Speaker 1: The monument was built into a steep cliff face, which
Speaker 1: makes for a striking backdrop. Despite how awe inspiring it is,
Speaker 1: today the temple is less impressive than it once was.
Speaker 1: Many sculptures, including ones of the gods of Cyris and Sphinxes,
Speaker 1: were looted over the years by other pharaohs for their
Speaker 1: own projects, and although a bit hard to imagine based
Speaker 1: on today's arid landscape, the entire complex was once surrounded
Speaker 1: by lush gardens. I urge you to look up photos
Speaker 1: of the temple, as it certainly deserves its title as
Speaker 1: a masterpiece of the ancient world, and I'll put up
Speaker 1: photos on the Patreon. Within the episode script it's on
Speaker 1: these buildings that Hotschipsut solidified justification for her reign. At
Speaker 1: all of these different sites there remain engravings and paintings
Speaker 1: which tell stories of Hotchipsut's origins and her accolades and
Speaker 1: many accomplishments. For example, on the walls of her mortuary temple,
Speaker 1: we can still find engravings telling about her successful expedition
Speaker 1: to the kingdom of punt or the region south of
Speaker 1: the Nile around the mouth of the Red Sea. These
Speaker 1: inscriptions and images also tell us how the pharaoh used
Speaker 1: religion and gender to justify her reign. As I previously mentioned,
Speaker 1: ancient Egyptians saw pharaohs as physical embodiments of their gods.
Speaker 1: Not only were pharaohs ordained by the gods to rule,
Speaker 1: but they were the beings that connected the physical and
Speaker 1: spiritual worlds and held the two in balance. If the
Speaker 1: king wasn't appeasing the gods properly, the world as the
Speaker 1: ancient Egyptians knew, would cease to exist. The Nile would
Speaker 1: dry up, disease would descend upon the population, or their
Speaker 1: neighbors would invade. As such, being a pharaoh involved a
Speaker 1: panoply of religious responsibilities Accomplishing all of those religious tasks
Speaker 1: were not difficult for Hotshipsut. She had already trained to
Speaker 1: be God's wife or the highest priestess in the state religion.
Speaker 1: The pharaoh's religious rituals were no more difficult or demanding
Speaker 1: than those of the pharaoh's wife. The task Hotschipsut did
Speaker 1: face was to communicate the divine justification for her rule,
Speaker 1: and to do that, hot Chipsut made herself divine at
Speaker 1: both her temple in Karnak and her mortuary temple. Inscriptions
Speaker 1: tell the supposed story of Hotschipsut's divine birth. According to
Speaker 1: the inscriptions, Amun, the principal god during the eighteenth dynasty,
Speaker 1: visited and impregnated Hotchipsut's mother in the form of Hotchipsut's father,
Speaker 1: the pharaoh that most the first. This way, Hotchipsut is
Speaker 1: simultaneously the daughter of a previous pharaoh but also sired
Speaker 1: by a god. Hotchepsut's birth itself was also sacred, as
Speaker 1: her mother was tended to in labor by Hecket, the
Speaker 1: goddess of life, and Khnum, the god in charge of
Speaker 1: shaping humans. On top of all that, according to her story,
Speaker 1: hot Chipsut was also endorsed by the oracle of a moon,
Speaker 1: who proclaimed that it was his will that Hotchepsut be pharaoh.
Speaker 1: With those stories and proclamations, hotschipsu It covered all of
Speaker 1: her bases. Whether or not she truly believed that narrative
Speaker 1: is something else, we'll never know. But like many later
Speaker 1: monarchs who bought into their own divine mandate to rule,
Speaker 1: Hotchepsut very well could have believed that the gods predetermined
Speaker 1: her birth and fate as a pharaoh. But more importantly,
Speaker 1: the general public and future generations needed to believe it,
Speaker 1: and by inscribing that tale on her temples, Hotschepsut woild,
Speaker 1: cementing her claim to the throne in perpetuity. Another key
Speaker 1: way that Hotchipsut legitimized her rule was by deliberately masculinizing
Speaker 1: her image. In ancient Egyptian art, there were customary and
Speaker 1: distinct representations of men and women. The main difference between
Speaker 1: genders was that men were drawn wearing short kilts and
Speaker 1: with their feet spread apart, and women had ankle length
Speaker 1: dresses and a shorter stride. Given that Egyptian pharaohs were
Speaker 1: almost always men, the standard depiction of a pharaoh included
Speaker 1: standard male dress and stance. Pharaohs were also depicted wearing
Speaker 1: a variety of crowns and a fake beard. During the
Speaker 1: early years of her regency, Hotchipsut was depicted femininely. She
Speaker 1: had a smaller stride and wore a long dress. I mean,
Speaker 1: she was the wife of the former pharaoh and not
Speaker 1: yet claiming the throne beside her stepson, there was no
Speaker 1: need for her to portray herself as anything but the norm. However,
Speaker 1: once she crowned herself pharaoh in the seventh year of
Speaker 1: that Most the Third's reign, her depictions started to feature
Speaker 1: both masculine and feminine traits. For example, the engraving of
Speaker 1: Hotchepsuit at Chappelle Rouge shows her with a long dress,
Speaker 1: but also with a crown adorned by ramshorns, an accessory
Speaker 1: worn by pharaohs. Over time, her depictions became more and
Speaker 1: more masculine. For example, some of the statues that we
Speaker 1: still have of her today feature the fake beard that
Speaker 1: all pharaohs donned. Other engravings that depict both hot Chepsu
Speaker 1: and her co ruler that Most the Third appear to
Speaker 1: show two male pharaohs. We only know that it's this
Speaker 1: particular pair. Because of the inscription that accompany the engravings,
Speaker 1: it's clear that Hotschipsut was meticulous in crafting her image.
Speaker 1: She even went so far as to have altered depictions
Speaker 1: of herself from her years as queen and king mother
Speaker 1: to eliminate the queenly attributes and add in more masculine traits. Now,
Speaker 1: this topic has been controversial over the years. For a while,
Speaker 1: many scholars believed that Hotchipsut's masculine appearance in art reflected
Speaker 1: a queer identity or perhaps an androgynous wardrobe. However, that
Speaker 1: view has largely fallen out of fashion, particularly because of
Speaker 1: the feminine grammar that was used in writing Hotschipsut's names
Speaker 1: and epithets. Accompanying many of those masculine depictions of hotship
Speaker 1: Sut are inscriptions using feminine versions of titles and feminine
Speaker 1: endings for words. While the image appears to depict a man,
Speaker 1: the inscriptions communicate that we are looking at a female pharaoh.
Speaker 1: Scholars now mostly believe that Hotshepsut did not try to
Speaker 1: hide her sex, but rather assumed these masculine traits in
Speaker 1: portraiture in order to associate herself with kingship, and considering
Speaker 1: that we still consider her not just a pharaoh, but
Speaker 1: one of Egypt's most impactful pharaohs. She seems to have
Speaker 1: achieved her goal about twenty two years after Thutmost the
Speaker 1: Third was crowned pharaoh and about fifteen years after hotships
Speaker 1: crowned herself. Co pharaoh. Hotchepsut died sometime around fourteen fifty
Speaker 1: eight BC. She was likely around fifty when she passed.
Speaker 1: Based on the mummy that is believed to be hotship Sut,
Speaker 1: she likely died of bone cancer. Her co ruler and stepson,
Speaker 1: Thutmost the Third, when to rule for about thirty three
Speaker 1: more years that I'm telling. The story of Hotschipset itself
Speaker 1: is pretty remarkable, given the measures taken after her death
Speaker 1: to erase her from history. Across the many monuments that
Speaker 1: Hotschipsut commissioned, archaeologists have found evidence that most the Third
Speaker 1: and perhaps his son the next pharaoh, tried to destroy
Speaker 1: statues and engravings featuring hot chip Sut. One of the
Speaker 1: biggest examples of that erasure was found at d'ar l Baris,
Speaker 1: not far from Hotshipsut's mortuary temple. In the twentieth century,
Speaker 1: archaeologists found two pits filled with destroyed statues just yards
Speaker 1: away from Hotschipsut's temple. After reassembling the fractured stone, it
Speaker 1: became clear that the broken statues were all of hotship Set.
Speaker 1: Some featured her as a sphinx, others depicted her sitting,
Speaker 1: and some were enormous statues of the pharaoh standing upright.
Speaker 1: These works of art had previously adorned her mortuary temple,
Speaker 1: but at some point they were removed, destroyed, and thrown
Speaker 1: into pits. It seems that Most the third wanted to
Speaker 1: erase Hotchipsut's image so completely that he hid some of
Speaker 1: the rubble underneath a ramp leading to his own mortuary temple.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't the only form of erasure that that
Speaker 1: Most the third demanded. Artisans on the orders of the
Speaker 1: pharaoh chipped away at images of the previous pharaoh, as
Speaker 1: well as inscriptions bearing her name. Buttmost the Third literally
Speaker 1: tried to remove Hotschipsut from ancient Egyptian historical records. Although
Speaker 1: this act might feel pretty personal, the destructive mission was
Speaker 1: likely not an act of retro on the part of
Speaker 1: Moost the Third against his stepmom. Evidence suggests that This
Speaker 1: work didn't begin immediately after Hotshipsut died, but close to
Speaker 1: twenty years after. Why wait so long to take revenge
Speaker 1: If it's personal? Historians hypothesize that actually that Moost the Third,
Speaker 1: removing his former co ruler from the records, was trying
Speaker 1: to gradually subsume his stepmom's achievements as his own in
Speaker 1: order to appear all powerful. He wouldn't want to share
Speaker 1: credit for various achievements during their co rulership. He wanted
Speaker 1: to claim those achievements for himself. Additionally, the idea of
Speaker 1: female leadership complicated the male led form of government that
Speaker 1: the ancient Egyptians subscribed to. Since it was the pharaoh's
Speaker 1: job to maintain order and ward off chaos, it's possible
Speaker 1: erasing Hotships from their history was an attempt to erase
Speaker 1: the reality of female leadership and any of the chaos
Speaker 1: that it might cause. So, even though it might be
Speaker 1: easy to assume that that most Third attempted to erase
Speaker 1: Hotship Suit from history because of personal contempt for his
Speaker 1: stepmom slash Aunt, the motivation was much more likely political.
Speaker 1: Despite this campaign of erasure, evidence of Hotshipsut's reign remains.
Speaker 1: I mean how else would we know about her. But
Speaker 1: between her death and the archaeological excavations of the nineteenth
Speaker 1: and twentieth centuries, hot Chipsut largely disappeared from history. It
Speaker 1: was only after archaeologists deciphered the inscriptions at Dar l
Speaker 1: Bari that Hotschipsut, the female pharaoh, reappeared. And that is
Speaker 1: part of why I'm telling her story today. This woman
Speaker 1: was one of the most successful and prolific pharaohs of
Speaker 1: ancient Egypt. Despite centuries of silence, were now able to
Speaker 1: share her story and her achievements. Her reign complicated the
Speaker 1: patriarchal system of governance of her time and complicates our
Speaker 1: current understanding of gender and power in the ancient world.
Speaker 1: But still she existed and her story is worth telling.
Speaker 1: That's the story of hot chipst But keep listening after
Speaker 1: a brief sponsor break for a little bit on her
Speaker 1: beauty secrets. Nowadays, skincare and beauty are all the rage.
Speaker 1: Influencers are touting the newest creams and ointment mascara's and lipsticks,
Speaker 1: obviously the solution to any and all of your problems.
Speaker 1: Despite the distinctly postmodern capitalists spin on beauty that we're
Speaker 1: currently experiencing. Emphasis on one's appearance is as ancient as
Speaker 1: the pharaoh's. One of Hotschipsut's notable accomplishments is her successful
Speaker 1: expedition to the Kingdom of punt, which I spoke briefly
Speaker 1: about earlier. That kingdom was known for its luxury goods
Speaker 1: like aromatic resins, ivory gold. Hotschipsut's royally sponsored expedition came
Speaker 1: back to Egypt with live mrh trees, with frankencen and
Speaker 1: with gold. This trio of items pre dating the Three
Speaker 1: Wise Men of the Bible. Hot Chipsut brought them first.
Speaker 1: Hotchipsut took the frankincense from this expedition, charred it, and
Speaker 1: ground it to a paste. She then took the paste
Speaker 1: and added it to a galina based eye cosmetic now
Speaker 1: known as coal. While she was almost certainly not the
Speaker 1: first person to ever do it, Hotchipsut is the first
Speaker 1: person to have been recorded using frankincense's resin as eyeliner.
Speaker 1: Archaeologists also think they found the skin cream Hotschipsut used.
Speaker 1: The Egyptian Museum at the University of Bonn in Germany
Speaker 1: has in its permanent collection a vessel shaped like a
Speaker 1: falcon that, based on an inscription on the vessel, likely
Speaker 1: belonged to Hotschipsut. Originally, scholars believed that the falcon might
Speaker 1: have once held her perfume, but after breaking through the
Speaker 1: seal into the body of the falcon, they were able
Speaker 1: to test what was once inside. Based on the chemical
Speaker 1: components of the remaining ancient residue, the vessel likely contained
Speaker 1: skin lotion, and not just any lotion, but body or
Speaker 1: even medication for irritated skin. The sample contained lots of
Speaker 1: fatty acids that are known to provide relief to people
Speaker 1: with skin conditions. Further, scientists found a number of hydrocarbons,
Speaker 1: which are used today to treat chronic conditions like egzema.
Speaker 1: Scholars know that skin diseases ran in Hotchipsut's family, so
Speaker 1: it is very likely that Hotchipsut herself suffered from something
Speaker 1: like psoriasis and used that cream in that falcon to
Speaker 1: help calm her skin. While this cream might have been
Speaker 1: a temporary salve for Hotschipsut, it also might have killed her.
Speaker 1: One of the hydrocarbons that the scientists found in the
Speaker 1: falcon was a benzopyrene, one of the most carcinogenic compounds known.
Speaker 1: This is the compound in cigarettes that causes lung cancer.
Speaker 1: So essentially, hot Chipsut probably exposed herself to cancerous lotion regularly.
Speaker 1: Scholars knew for years that Hotschipsud had cancer. Now we
Speaker 1: have a potential cause. People have always said beauty is pain.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and
Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me
Speaker 1: Danish Forts, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston,
Speaker 1: Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sender, Julia Milani, and Armand Cassam. The
Speaker 1: show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima
Speaker 1: il Kaali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers
Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.