Hatshepsut – Holy Sites – SOURCES

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The most important religious site of Hatshepsut’s day was probably Amun’s Temple of Karnak in Thebes, which was the centre of the cult of Amun that Hatshepsut was head priestess (God’s wife) of. Karnak was the centre of many large-scale building projects by many pharaohs, including the famous obelisks that Hatshepsut was known for raising, one of which still stands today. Luckily for us, Karnak has been reconstructed by digital means via the Digital Karnak project, so it’s fairly easy to get a good grasp of who build what and when.

  • We actually don’t really know what was painted on much of Karnak’s walls, but it’s safe to assume that it was mostly of Egyptian gods and other such inscriptions. Parts of Karnak was always being demolished and rebuilt by successive pharaohs, so even the ruins of Karnak nowadays don’t necessarily much resemble what they looked like in Hatshepsut’s time.
  • The panel in the top right hand corner depicts the purification baths Hatshepsut would have bathed in before she conducted her duties as God’s Wife of Amun. Unfortunately, they were based off roman-era (Ptolemic) baths that were built near Karnak some centuries later, recently discovered, meaning that Hatshepsut’s baths probably didn’t look like that. However, they were the only source material I could find of what the baths may have looked like.

A computer-generated model of what Karnak might have looked like in Hatshepsut’s time. This is BEFORE she had built her first pair of obelisks. SOURCE: Digital Karnak

Roman-era baths uncovered near the temple of Luxor. SOURCE: World Archaeology

These are the first pair of obelisks Hatshepsut raised, which was commissioned during the reign of Thutmose II and located near the front gate of Karnak. Her obelisks were gold-plated and full of inscriptions, and you may notice a smaller, shorter pair of obelisks behind them. Those pair of obelisks were raised by her father Thutmose I, and while they were probably gold too, I decided to make their colour duller because otherwise there would appear to be four obelisks when the text clearly states there were two. Either way, there are still four obelisks in the picture; just understand that Hatshepsut raised the taller ones only. One of her obelisks still stands today.

A clearer look at the front gate of Karnak, showing the twin obelisks of Thutmose I, but not those raised by Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut would raise her larger ones in front of her father’s. SOURCE: Digital Karnak

Hatshepsut built an untold number of temples to Egyptian gods and goddesses, and a few of them remain today in all their (faded) glory. She was one of the first pharaohs to build extensively in stone, which meant her buildings lasted a lot longer than those that came before her.

  • Top left panel:  Depicts a temple she dedicated to the lioness-headed goddess of war Pakhet, which the Greeks equated to their goddess of the hunt Artemis. It’s referred to nowadays by it’s Greek name Speos Artemeidos. Once again, I imagined it as brightly-painted in its heyday.
  • Top middle panel:  The red chapel, made of red granite, would have been a beautiful building had it been left standing. Sadly, it seemed that Hatshepsut never got got finish building it and Thutmose III possibly had to finish it for her, since the top level inscriptions were all inscribed with Thutmose III’s name. He later dismantled it completely to make way for his other building projects. It was originally built as a barque shrine, which is waystation for a god to rest in when his/her statue is being carried around on a barque, a ceremonial boat that the god “travels” in.
  • Top right panel:  Hatshepsut commissioned a number of sphinxes in her time, many as statues lining the way to Karnak’s entrances. Thutmose III would replace them with his own sphinxes, but you can still see some of Hatshepsut’s more feminine-looking sphinxes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Many people aren’t aware that sphinxes were brightly-painted in their time as well.
  • Bottom panel:  Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple of Djeser-Djeseru (‘Holiest of Holies), which is not her tomb, as it is dedicated to Amun. Her funerary cult didn’t last long after her death, but the temple was being used by various other religious cults for centuries after, until it became unsafe. The most important thing about this rendition of Djeser-Djeseru is that it includes another mortuary temple to its left, the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II. This means that the structure you see with the pyramid is actually not part of Djeser-Djeseru, but it was already there when Djeser-Djeseru was built right next to it. Mentuhotep II’s temple didn’t survive the ages, which is why the real image of Djeser-Djsesru below doesn’t have it. A third temple to Amun was built by Thutmose III between and to the back of these two temples, but it also didn’t survive. Obviously, since the Thutsmose III-built structure didn’t exist during Hatshepsut’s lifetime it’s not depicted here.

This temple dedicated to Pakhet, the lioness-headed goddess of war was also called Speos Artemidos (Grotto of Artemis) by the Greeks. SOURCE: Wikipedia

Hatshepsut’s most famous building, her mortuary temple of Djeser-Djeseru, which still stands today. SOURCE: Wikipedia

 

A rendition of Amun’s barque being carried by his priests. There weren’t many opportunities for the gods’ barques to make an appearance in this story, but nearly all gods had barques and followers who carried them around before the public in festivals.

This is a relief from the Red Chapel of Amun’s barque being carried by his priests. The figurehead of the barque (on both prow and stern) are ram’s heads because they’re sacred to Amun.

Visual Sources

Hatshepsut – Palace – SOURCES

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This is from my “Women Who Were Kings #1: Hatshepsut” story, which is 30 pages. I spent a fair amount of time doing research on Egypt, the New Kingdom (18th Dynasty, which is approx 1550BC – 1292BC) and Hatshepsut herself, so I’ll list my sources below and what I had to consider when I put this picture together.

It’s difficult to reconstruct the Egyptian royal palace from the time of Hatshepsut, because none of it remains.

  • Egyptian palaces were built using unbaked Nile bricks, with only things like columns, toilets and doorway bases made of stone, so much of it is destroyed.
  • The above is an artist’s impression of Malkata palace, but whose image credit remain unknown since the websites I cribbed the picture off does not accurately credit the picture’s artist or origins. The Malkata palace is the only known 18th Century Egyptian palace that has any ruins remaining – however, it was built by Amenhotep III, which means that it comes several generations after Hatshepsut, and thus is not necessarily representative of Hatshepsut’s palace.
  • On the other hand, this artist’s depiction is not an inaccurate depiction of an Egyptian palace. Egyptian palaces were often built along the Nile, with ramps (Egyptians didn’t really do stairs) that allow the pharaoh’s boat (and entourage) to dock.
  • Pharaohs in Hatshepsut’s time had traveling courts and multiple palaces along the Nile in which the pharaoh can dock and perform rites and hold court, though Hatshepsut herself probably didn’t travel as much as Thutmose III did, since he was younger and fitter.

Likewise, we don’t know much about the exact inner decorations of an Egyptian palace.

  • However, it’s probable that Egyptian palaces were painted white, with walls filled with colourful drawings of Egyptian flora and fauna. You don’t see this as much in my depiction, because the pictures became mind-boggling busy when I added flora and fauna to the walls of the palace, and so I removed them because otherwise it becomes too visually dense.
  • One thing we do know is that Egyptian windows were typically high, and close to the ceiling. This is because Egypt is a sandy place, and had the windows been closer to the floor, the palace would very quickly fill up with sand and dirt blowing in by the wind.
  • Likewise, we also know that the palace probably had blue floor tiles, with some of it depicting the Nile river and the fishes and marine life that lived in it. Again, I removed the marine life because it would otherwise make the images too busy.

There are various tools, implements, jewellery and minor details scattered through the illustrations that I borrowed from either wall reliefs in tombs, or from funerary items found. A good number of them can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which hosts a large collection of Hatshepsut items.

Visual Sources

  • Cooney, Kara. “The Woman Who Would be King: Hapshetsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt”. USA: Crown Publishers, 2014.
  • Roehrig, Catherine H. et al. “Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh”. USA: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006.
  • Hill, J. “Malkata (Malqata) Palace”. Ancient Egypt Online, 2010. Web. 31 Nov 2017. Retrieved from http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/malkatapalace.html
  • “The Ancient Palace of Malkata, Egypt” (2015). Lateet: A Small Dose of Interesting. Web. 31 Nov. 2017. Retrieved from http://www.lateet.com/the-ancient-palace-of-malkata-egypt/

The BentoNet – Closing down

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Hi all, this is a post to let you know that “The BentoNet” will be closing down before the end of this year. It’s unfortunate, but the reasons are mostly personal which I have listed below.

The site was originally launched in 2016 as a way to connect indie comic creators with local libraries and bookstores using print-on-demand technology (IngramSpark). Now, this worked as a concept, but unfortunately after the site launched, I never had much time to work on it or promote it since I was wrapped up in my own work and personal life. Various technical issues also created numerous problems, and so I thought it would be best to close it down and dissect it to see what went wrong (and right).

Anyway, if you don’t feel like reading to the bottom of this post, I still thank you for taking an interest in “The BentoNet”, and thank you also to any supporters, creators, buyers, bookstores and libraries who helped support it. It was an experiment from the start, and while it was something of a success (it actually got books to customers within a set amount of time), it was also a tad ahead of its time. Neither print-on-demand is there yet, and most books are still not available to be digitally printed.

Post-mortem: Dissecting the BentoNet

The site was originally meant to encourage local creators to make their work available via IngramSpark’s print-on-demand, which would make it easier for bookstores and libraries to order indie comics en masse since they won’t have to deal with individual creators (in retrospect, not the best idea). The site acted as a middle man (again in retrospect, not a good idea), which took money and orders from buyers, and then funneled the money and books (ordered from IngramSpark) to either the reader via mail, or to a bookstore of the reader’s choice for a pickup. This system was meant to encourage book buyers to visit bookstores, in return for cheaper mailing costs.

What Went Right?

  • Proof of concept: I received a number of orders through the website, and the system seemed to work as intended. I got the orders, placed them with IngramSpark, and then the books will be mailed out to the buyers. They typically got them within a week to 10 days, even in remote places like Alice Springs. Either way, the system worked fine, and was actually financially feasible and workable, so no problems with execution. The problems were all about something else.

What Went Wrong (a lot)?

  • Difficulty in advertising:  I actually spent way too much time programming the website, and nothing on how I was going to advertise and promote it. Marketing isn’t my forte, and when I realised that the website worked as proof of concept, I was at a loss at what the next step was. Allowing prose fiction along with comics onto the site was also not a great idea – it meant that the site wasn’t niche enough, and its only selling point is that it’s “indie books”. It then quickly dawned on me that “indie books” is not a reason for anyone to buy a book. This is a problem that only individual creators can ameliorate, through self-marketing. Which leads me to the next point.
  • Failure to help indie bookstores:  The BentoNet was originally meant to encourage book buyers to pick up their books from a bookstore, in return for much cheaper shipping. Unfortunately, this was a huge failure – only TWO orders out of dozens did the book pickup option; most people were just happy to pay quadruple the shipping amount to have it shipped directly to them. Sadly, most people just don’t care about bookstores they don’t already know and love, which leads me to the next point.
  • Acting as a middleman:  The BentoNet was always a too-complicated a concept to explain to bookstores, and it didn’t fit into their inventory systems. It was okay for most of them because it was only a very small number of orders, but this became a problem when one o(f two) of the book pickup orders were by a faithful customer of Impact Comics in Canberra. The customer emailed me to say that she ordered because she supported and regularly visited Impact Comics, which made me realise an unfortunate fact: if the customer already visited Impact Comics, then she wasn’t she better off directly ordering her books through Impact Comics rather than going through The BentoNet (which takes a cut)? The BentoNet acting as a middleman actually didn’t benefit bookstores at all – in the long run, it might actually have been more helpful to raise the professionalism of indie creators in dealing with bookstores and library suppliers.
  • Failure to supply for libraries:  It turns out that one of the largest suppliers of libraries, James Bennett, is owned by a rival of IngramSpark and does not allow orders from IngramSpark under any circumstances. So, JB can only order directly from the creators in this instance, and libraries themselves prefer to order from companies like James Bennett because they do cataloguing for libraries as well, which saves the libraries money. So, raising the professionalism of indie creators so they will list with library suppliers is the only way to deal with this.
  • Hardcopy books:  With the increase in e-books and e-comics, I wonder if hardcopy books are that popular anymore. The long-awaited death of the comic floppies also look to be finally happening, as the sales figures have now definitely etched out a downward trend on various graphs and website blog posts. I don’t think hardcopy books will every go away, but I can’t deny this fact.
  • Technical issues:  All websites taking credit cards got a sudden security upgrade in late 2016 due to PCI Compliance laws, which required massive amounts of contingency plans that the site owner must fulfill before they can process credit cards. I couldn’t make heads or tails of this, and so had to stop taking credit cards. In late 2017, Paypal demanded a security certificate upgrade which I also couldn’t understand, and which the Paypal website didn’t either (it led to dead 404 links on Paypal itself). This means that all payment options will be defunct by January 2018. These technical issues don’t count the platform I used to build the site, Magento 1, which is being phased out by its developer due to security concerns. I had a look at the newer Magento 2, and realised that it was completely different to Magento 1, meaning that it’s impossible to do a direct site upgrade. In the end, I realised I should have just stuck with WordPress rather than learned Magento. Going with a dated e-commerce platform was a huge mistake.
  • Personal issues:  In late 2017, I developed some minor health issues that needs to be managed, and there is also the possibility of a major life change. I may be going back to university from 2018 onwards, which means that I even have less time.

I’m saddened that I couldn’t help creators more, and I apologise if anyone is disappointed by the outcome of this. But all in all, it was an interesting (and mildly successful) experiment, and I again want to thank everyone who took an interest in this. Who know what the future will bring, but best of luck to all the creators and bookstores/libraries, and I hope things will continue to be good for the Australian Comics Community.

Important:  If you want a guide on how to list your books with Australian library suppliers, please look at this guide here.