Certificate of Completion
At the end of this course you will be able to download a personalised certificate of completion from the classroom. A great way to keep track of your learning and celebrate your Egyptological journey.
The World of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III
Professor Aidan Dodson
4 lectures delivered over 2 afternoons. Sunday 24th & 31st August 2025 2pm UK time
We love to see you for the live lectures, but if you have to miss one, don't worry, you can of course catch up (or watch again) at your leisure via the recordings. You will have access to the recorded lectures for a whole month after the last live lecture. Recordings will be available until 1st October.
Over two weekends we will be investigating one of the pivotal eras in Egyptian history: the reigns of Thutmose III and Hatshepsut. During the half-century of their direction of Egypt’s affairs, its physical empire was extended to its greatest limits and the fundamentals of kingship redefined. Extensive building-work also defined the cores of monuments such as the temple of Karnak.
Other notable architectural achievements also included the iconic memorial temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari, and also the sepulchre of Thutmose III, a jewel of a tomb that defined kingly burial places down to the time of Amenhotep III.
The novelty of a female pharaoh and the dynamics of Hatshepsut-Thutmose III have been the material for much academic debate, as well as for novelists and playwrights. In particular the ‘cancellation’ of Hatshepsut towards the end of Thutmose III’s sole reign remains a matter for contention as to its motivation and implementation.
All these aspects will be covered over four lectures, as well as a ‘prequel’ considering the transition of the Theban monarchy from a rump-state, besieged by the Hyksos and the Nubians, to an imperial one under Hatshepsut’s father, Thutmose I.
Sunday 24th August
Lecture 1. Liberation to Domination: the early years of the Eighteenth Dynasty
Lecture 2. Regency and Coregency: the joint rule of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III
Sunday 31st August
Lecture 3. The Conqueror: the sole rule of Thutmose III
Lecture 4. Houses of Eternity: the world of the dead under Hatshepsut and Thutmose III
Professor Aidan Dodson
Aidan Dodson is honorary Professor of Egyptology at the University of Bristol, where he has taught since 1996. A graduate of Liverpool and Cambridge Universities, he was awarded his PhD in 1995, was a elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2003, and was Chairman of the Egypt Exploration Society from 2011 to 2016. The author of some thirty books and over 400 articles and reviews, Thutmose III and Hatshepsut, Pharaohs of Egypt: their lives and afterlives was published by the American University in Cairo Press at the beginning of 2025.
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