Some Anomalies in the History of Magical Miniature Landscapes, Part II

NOT ALL FILM DEPICTIONS... + QUEEN HATSEPSUT

       Not all film depictions of dwarf potted trees are the same. These would generally be plants under 4' in height, in a relatively shallow container, appearing shaped in one of the naturalistic tree styles, and presented in an Asiatic location or decor after approximately the first century C.E. One cinematic portrayal which would otherwise meet the criteria is the 1956 Paramount Pictures film The Ten Commandments. This Cecille B. DeMille biblical epic includes a scene which we would include in Boldly Grow -- if the time-frame of the story was not 15th or 13th century B.C.E. and the location not ancient Egypt. In the scene where the Pharoah Sethi (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) is playing a game of hounds and jackels with Nefretiri (Anne Baxter), a perhaps 3' tall woody-trunked tree planted in a white woven-basket-like container with corner peg feet is visible down the hallway. Apparently just a few feet from an open balcony/window area, the dark wood shows dark green foliage -- not particularly shaped, but the top growth is like a desert bush on a distinctive single-trunked tree. (No, the bush is not burning...) Behind Sethi is then seen the branches and foliage of a similar dwarf potted tree; its white color pot is briefly visible at the end of the scene. The first specimen is visible in most of the scene. Released in the U.S. on October 5, this movie is not held to be completely historically accurate. While we know for certain that palm trees were trimmed by the Egyptians and other peoples of the desert, it does seem within the realm of possibility that some desert plants could have been containerized for decor.

       Now, there is the historical fact that thirty-one young myrrh trees were transported in soil-filled wicker baskets from the fabulous land of Punt on the Somali Coast up north to Egypt for Queen Hatshepsut 's royal garden. The queen is believed to have lived c.1502 - 1452 B.C.E.
       Long sea trips were apparently so rare that the visit to Punt along the coast of the Red Sea, with the fleet needing never to be out of sight of land, was commemorated. The recording of this event in her mortuary temple complex is evidence of its importance at the time, the keeping of these rare fragrant trees whose resin would perpetually be available for the gods.
       The first expedition to Punt had taken place (apparently without returning plants) some six and a half centuries before Hatshepsut; similar expeditions would continue during the three centuries that followed her reign. Her five large and gift-laden ships sailed down the Nile to the Delta, through a pioneer canal cut connecting to the Gulf of Suez, and then down the coast. They returned two years later bearing the trees, lumps of myrrh resin gum, cinnamon wood, monkeys, dogs, a live panther, panther and leopard skins, much gold, baskets, more than three thousand small cattle, a cheetah or hunting leopard from India -- and seven chieftain from Punt with their wives and children. This was the crowning achievement of Hatshepsut's reign which was marked by the peaceful expansion of trade, rebalancing of economy, stabilization of government, and development of art and architecture in Egypt. Those myrrh trees "were planted against the walls in the temple enclosure at Deir el-Bahari in stone pots that had drainage holes in their bases. Now the god could walk with delight in his 'garden of Punt' and Hatshepsut too could walk there with Sennemut [her architect and confidant] and other courtiers, drinking in the fragrance of the perfume-dripping resin. [Native s]ycamore trees were also planted and acacia and persea (the laurel)."

Hatshepsut reigned with three kings and was "king" of Egypt for seventeen years prior to the expedition. She lived for five years after that. Thutmose III, her nephew and third husband, who had not been allowed to rule while she was in charge, became the strongest pharaoh ever to rule Egypt after she died/was murdered. A bold military commander, administrator, statesman, builder, and king, he took credit for the construction of Hatshepsut's beautiful Deir el-Bahari temple when -- twenty years after her death -- he defaced her inscriptions and placed his name over hers on the walls. The places that held her name were carved over with the names of Thutmose III, II, or I. Her name was left in a few places, perhaps by accident. The Punt series of reliefs received little damage, probably because she had not taken an active part in the expedition. However, when the orgy of destruction commanded by the great and long-frustrated Thutmose III was over, almost all of Hatshepsut's images were broken and her name had been chiseled from/covered over on almost all monuments. Even her beloved myrrh trees in the Deir el-Bahari colonnade were uprooted and burned.

(Wells, Evelyn Hatshepsut (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc.; 1969), pp. 70, 108, 123-4, 238, 240, 243, 248, 265, planting quote from pg. 245; other sources state the trees were frankincense; The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyclopedia of Plants and Earth Sciences (Bellmore, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1988), Vol. 6, pg. 680, which also has a b&w illustration of bas-relief of the trees (reproduced above left); right-hand image from The Ancient Egypt Site, From A to Z, Punt; cf. Peter Brown's article "The Cultural Background of Bonsai," Bonsai, BCI, Vol. XXX, No. 4, July/August 1991, pg. 14, "Only one tree was lost..."; also, James, Peter and Nick Thorpe Ancient Mysteries (New York: Ballantine Books, 1999), pg. 344; and James and Thorpe Ancient Inventions (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994), pg. 266). Some imply that while these were in the early stages of container plant technology, these undoubtedly were not the first specimens ever dug up and transplanted after being moved a distance, containerized only for the period of transport.)

The April 2009 National Geographic cover story, "The She-King of Egypt" by Chip Brown with photographs by Kenneth Garrett, pp. 88-111, is about Hatshepsut. A section in color of a potted myrrh tree is on pg. 42 (same as color above?). Can an approximate age of the trees transplanted be derived from the relative height and size of the specimens? (The text only of the article can be found here.)

And then there is this:

"At the edge of the Nile River, during the visit to the temple of Kom Ombo, dedicated to Sobek (the crocodile-headed god), I found an enormous limestone block with a series of hieroglyphics whose main image shows a woman carrying a collection of three trees in one thin flowerpot. This was possibly an offering to a god or a representation of the numerous commercial expeditions to the country of Punt, present Sudan, that queen Hatsepsut ordered to be carried out during her reign."

This picture is from an article by Pedro Galbán, "El bonsai de la reina Hatsepsut" at http://bonsaimania.com/articulos/bonsai_reina_hatsepsut.htm. The above is our English translation of the original Spanish description of the picture. The shallowness of the container raises many questions. Is this, indeed, what it seems to be: a depiction of what can be interpreted by us as three foot-tall plants growing in a very shallow container? Or is this merely a trio of spear-head-like objects being carried balanced on or otherwise attached to a thin plate or board? What is the actual connection of Hatsepsut (1502 - 1452 B.C.E. ) with this temple which dates from Queen Cleopatra VII (51-30 B.C.E. )? Any Egyptologists out there with additional information regarding this?