Ronald Wrote:
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> I looked for some pictures of statues from Queen
> Hatshepsut. They all portray a slender woman. But
> is this proof that Queen Hatshepsut really was a
> slender woman ?

As Greg noted, the clothing of Tutankhamun seems to indicate he was less than a perfect male specimen. According to analysis done by textiles expert Gillian Eastwood Volgelsang, Tutankhamun's dimensions were as follows:

"From the clothing, it appears his bodily dimensions in life were

31 in. chest
29 in. waist
43 in. hips"

He was, in the vernacular, "pear-shaped." However, his skeletal dimensions indicate nothing of the specific condition from which he suffered, though some, particularly Alwyn Burridge, have speculated that both Tutankhamun and his putative father, Akhenaten, suffered from Marfans Syndrome.

However, Tutankhamun was not particularly tall and thin, even by ancient Egyptian standards (he was about 5' 6"), about 1.5 inches taller than Amenhotep III, his putative grandfather. He also did not have 'wide hips' (from a skeletal viewpoint, that is) which can be a trait of Marfans. He appears to have had large fatty deposits on his hips, however.

I am not aware of any genetic basis for saying that Marfans sufferers have particularly 'large hips' by adipose (fat) deposits. Marfans Syndrome is a disorder of the connective tissue, which affects the heart, eyes, lungs, muscles, skeleton, and joints of an individual. The heart condition requires that its sufferers not engage in strenuous activity, but by no means are they required to be sedentary, or chair/bed bound, which might lead to large adipose deposits on the hips.

Yet, in the case of Hatshepsut, we are dealing with an older individual, one who came into power probably in her twenties, and who ruled for about 22 years as ruler (ostensibly as co-regent with Thutmose III, it is now believed). So, in her forties at death, the queen would have been fairly elderly by her culture's standards, and possibly about the same age as Amenhotep III at the time of his death. As was the case with many royal families, its participants were given the best of food (read: high meat diets, more fats), coupled with a more sedentary lifestyle than their subjects, which seem to have led (particularly in the case of Amenhotep III) to obesity. At Amarna, there were several representations of the obese Amenhotep III, two of which are reproduced below:


Image of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye at Amarna, possibly a stela for worship of the elder king. British Museum, BM57399

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Triad statue of a King, Queen and Princess. From right to left: Amenhotep III, Tiye, and a young daughter. Established as Amenhotep III in Johnson 1996. Petrie Museum, UC 004
So, simply because a king's statues show them as slender doesn't always reflect reality, but an idealised version of how a king was thought to appear for political propaganda purposes (youthful, in good health, and strong). Similiarly, in modern times, photographic and rendered images of Lenin, Mao Tze-dung, and Evita Peron, et al., were often airbrushed and idealised as well, to present the image of a "perfect" leader - always youthful, handsome, and strong/competent.

Reference:

Arnold, D. 1996. The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art/Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Representations of age in Amarna art)

Berman, L., ed. 1990. Art of Amenhotep III: Art Historical Analysis Papers Presented at the International Symposium Held at the Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland Ohio 20-2. Indianopolis: Indiana University Press/Cleveland Museum of Art.

Burridge, A. 1996. Did Akhenaten Suffer from Marfan's Syndrome? Biblical Archaeologist 59/2: 127-128.

Burridge, A. L. 1993. Akhenaten: A New Perspective. Evidence of a Genetic Disorder in the Royal Family of 18th Dynasty Egypt. JSSEA 23: 63-74.

Eaton-Krauss, M. 1981. Miscellanea Amarnensia. Chronique d'Egypte 56/112: 245-264. (On subtle changes in body rendering to denote age during the Amarna period)

Griffis-Greenberg, K. 2001. A Mysterious Triad at the Egyptian Museum. The Ostracon: Journal of the Egyptian Study Society 12/1: 7, 19. (On Amarna style in body rendering)

Iversen, E. 1955. Canon and Proportions in Egyptian Art. London: Sidgwick and Jackson.

Johnson, W. R. 1996. Amenhotep III and Amarna: Some New Considerations. JEA 82: 63-82. (On delineation of body types between Amenhotep III and Akhenaten to denate political/religious propaganda.)

Müller, M. 1988. Die Kunst Amenophis' III und Echnatons. Basel: Verlag für Ägyptologie.

Schäfer, H. 1986 (1974). Principles of Egyptian Art. E. Brunner-Traut. J. Baines, transl. Oxford: Griffith Institute.

__________. 1923. Kunstwerke aus El-Amarna. (2 Vols.). Berlin: Iulius Bard.

HTH.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom