* The latest year up to the present known of this king is the IInd, found upon the Aswan stele.  Erman, followed by Ed. Meyer, thinks that Hatshop-situ could not have been free from complicity in the premature death of Thutmosis II.; but I am inclined to believe, from the marks of disease found on the skin of his mummy, that the queen was innocent of the crime here ascribed to her.

[Illustration:  354.jpg HEAD OF THE MUMMY OF THUTMOSIS II.]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in the possession of
     Emil Brugsch Bey.

His statues bear the same expression, which indeed is that of the mummy itself.  He resembles Thutmosis I., but his features are not so marked, and are characterised by greater gentleness.  He had scarcely reached the age of thirty when he fell a victim to a disease of which the process of embalming could not remove the traces.  The skin is scabrous in patches, and covered with scars, while the upper part of the skull is bald; the body is thin and somewhat shrunken, and appears to have lacked vigour and muscular power.  By his marriage with his sister, Thutmosis left daughters only,* but he had one son, also a Thutmosis, by a woman of low birth, perhaps merely a slave, whose name was Isis.** Hatshopsitu proclaimed this child her successor, for his youth and humble parentage could not excite her jealousy.  She betrothed him to her one surviving daughter, Hatshopsitu II., and having thus settled the succession in the male line, she continued to rule alone in the name of her nephew who was still a minor, as she had done formerly in the case of her half-brother.

* Two daughters of Queen Hatshopsitu I. are known, of whom one, Nofiruri, died young, and Hatshopsitu II.  Maritri, who was married to her half-brother on her father’s side, Thutmosis III., who was thus her cousin as well.  Amenothes II. was offspring of this marriage.

** The name of the mother of Thutmosis III. was revealed to us on the wrappings found with the mummy of this king in the hiding-place of Deir el-Bahari; the absence of princely titles, while it shows the humble extraction of the lady Isis, explains at the same time the somewhat obscure relations between Hatshopsitu and her nephew.

Her reign was a prosperous one, but whether the flourishing condition of things was owing to the ability of her political administration or to her fortunate choice of ministers, we are unable to tell.  She pressed forward the work of building with great activity, under the direction of her architect Sanmut, not only at Deir el-Bahari, but at Karnak, and indeed everywhere in Thebes.  The plans of the building had been arranged under Thutmosis I., and their execution had been carried out so quickly, that in many cases the queen had merely to see to the sculptural ornamentation on the all but completed walls.

This work, however, afforded her sufficient excuse, according to Egyptian custom, to attribute the whole structure to herself, and the opinion she had of her own powers is exhibited with great naiveness in her inscriptions.  She loves to pose as premeditating her actions long beforehand, and as never venturing on the smallest undertaking without reference to her divine father.