Ancient Grudges in Stone

Hatshepsut, one of Egypt's most successful pharaohs, had her images systematically destroyed after her death by her successor Thutmose III. He waited twenty years before ordering the erasure, hinting at political rather than personal motives.

Akhenaten's religious revolution triggered the same fate: after his death, his successors smashed his images and restored the old gods. These campaigns of damnatio memoriae show that controlling the past has always been a tool of power.