| SENENMUT A Handsome Man of Egypt? By Marianne Luban |
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| Mummy of "Unknown Man C" How does a man of humble origins rise to the position of the greatest commoner in ancient Egypt during the reign of a woman-king? Well, it certainly wouldn't hurt for him to be the tallest and handsomest person around, the one who beat out all the competition for the ruler's attention by virtue of his splendid appearance. Senenmut, the chief servant of Hatshepsut, had numerous titles--too many to mention here--and among them was "guardian" of the queen's daughter, the Princess Neferura. It is suspected that he was also the lover of Hatshepsut, the widow of King Thutmose II, but that tantalizing possibility has not been proved. Some years ago, in an "End Paper" in Kmt Magazine, Katalin Kreszthelyi of Hungary suggested that a mummy found in the Deir el Bahri Cache could be none other than Senenmut, himself, based upon a perceived facial resemblance. At that time, I was skeptical but, after doing an artistic facial reconstruction of Unknown Man C, it seemed to me that the artists of the period may have, indeed, been struggling to approximate the streamlined features of this mummy. There now remains little doubt in my mind that Unknown Man C can very well be Senenmut. Since the mummies of the parents of Hatshepsut's favorite have been found, he is, at least theoretically, able to be confirmed or rejected as being their son. GO TO NEXT PAGE |
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