The biggest discovery from Ancient Egypt since Tutankhamun?
The tomb of King Thutmose II has been found, but what does this achievement mean? Is it an archaeological breakthrough of Tutankhamun proportions?
Image: The tomb of King Thutmose II has been discovered near the Valley of the Queens | stock.adobe.com
Think of Ancient Egypt, and you probably immediately picture the gold funerary mask of Tutankhamun. The mask was one of many treasures found buried with ‘King Tut’ when his sarcophagus was uncovered in January 1924.
The burial places of other Ancient Egyptian kings have been found since the 1920s. Arguably the most significant occurred when the tomb of King Thutmose II was recently unearthed.
Thutmose belonged to the same royal dynasty as Tutankhamun — and, like him, both reigned and died young. So, how significant is the tomb of King Thutmose? Could its discovery set off a new wave of ‘Egyptomania’? Here is Sky HISTORY’s take…
Who was King Thutmose II?
Thutmose II was the fourth king of Ancient Egypt’s 18th Dynasty and an ancestor of Tutankhamun.
There is disagreement over whether Thutmose’s reign lasted for 13 years (1493 to 1479 BC) or just three (around 1482 to 1479 BC). Little else is known today about the king, though he did dispatch an army to crush a Kushite rebellion against his rule.
How was the tomb of King Thutmose identified?
Strictly speaking, the tomb — in the western mountain region of Egypt’s Luxor Governorate — was found in 2022. However, it took some time for a British-Egyptian team of archeologists to definitively identify the tomb as Thutmose’s.
The mission was overseen jointly by Britain’s New Kingdom Research Foundation (NKRF) and Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Field director Piers Litherland, who led the British portion of the team, reacted enthusiastically to uncovering the tomb of King Thutmose. 'This discovery solves a great mystery of Ancient Egypt: the location of the tombs of the early 18th Dynasty kings,' Litherland declared.
The tomb lies just over a mile west of Egypt’s famed Valley of the Kings. Litherland admitted that the tomb 'was always thought to be at the other end of the mountain near the Valley of the Kings'.
The actual location is closer to the Valley of the Queens, where many high-ranking female officials of the 18th Dynasty were buried. 'Initially we thought we might have found the tomb of a royal wife,' Litherland recalled.
However, the tomb’s wide staircase and large doorway suggested otherwise. Meanwhile, 'the burial chamber had been decorated with scenes from the Amduat, a religious text which is reserved for kings', Litherland pointed out.
What did archaeologists find in the tomb?
After finding the entrance to King Tut’s tomb in 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter was able to uncover thousands of treasures. It’s one reason why the story of the tomb’s discovery has imprinted itself so firmly in popular culture.
So, you might’ve expected a similar story when archaeologists entered the tomb of King Thutmose. In reality, the burial chamber turned out to be almost entirely empty.
This didn’t take the archaeologists themselves entirely by surprise. A mummified body thought to be Thutmose’s had previously been found elsewhere — in the Royal Cache near the River Nile — in 1881.
Archaeological evidence in the burial chamber itself suggests that it was damaged by flooding, leading its contents to be moved somewhere safer.
This effort was made with some difficulty, judging from fragments of alabaster jars the archaeologists came across in the chamber. It has been speculated that these jars were accidentally broken by workers shifting the king’s remains in the darkness.
King Thutmose II’s overlooked place in history
The jar fragments actually helped to further confirm the tomb as belonging to Thutmose II. That’s because they bore the names of not just the king himself but also Hatshepsut, who history knows as much more than just his wife.
In 1479 BC, Thutmose was succeeded as king by his then-three-year-old stepson, Thutmose III, with Hatshepsut ruling as regent. Several years later, she became a monarch in her own right, co-reigning with Thutmose III.
The success of Hatshepsut’s rule — today seen as something of a golden age for Egypt — has overshadowed the Thutmose II era.
Are we about to see a new age of Egyptomania?
The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb led to a renewed fascination with Ancient Egyptian culture. So, is history about to repeat itself?
The answer could depend on whether more of Thutmose II’s funerary treasures are found. Members of the team responsible for finding the tomb of Thutmose II have hinted that many of those treasures could soon come to light, too.
In the meantime, there’s plenty of fun to be had learning what we already know about Ancient Egypt. By subscribing to the Sky HISTORY Newsletter, you can be kept updated about history-making breakthroughs!
