In the Temple of Karnak at Luxor, in Egypt, there’s a small chapel in which one can find some remarkable ancient frescoes that date from the reign of the Queen Hatshepsut, around 1465 BCE. These 3500-year-old works include this detail here, where the ibis-headed god Thoth pours life–symbolized as the ankh–from an amphora. The colours are still, amazingly, vibrant. But there’s more to the story. Do you see above Thoth’s head, and down below on the left of the image? There are parts that are scratched out. After Hatshepsut’s death, her image and her hieroglyphs were erased throughout Egypt, because it was thought unnatural that a woman should have been pharaoh.