Thutmose II

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Persondata
NAME	Thutmose II
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	{{{Alt}}}
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Pharaoh of Egypt
DATE OF BIRTH	{{{Birth}}}
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ancient Egypt
DATE OF DEATH	{{{Death}}}
PLACE OF DEATH	Ancient Egypt

Preceded by: Thutmose I	Pharaoh of Egypt 18th Dynasty	Succeeded by: Hatshepsut
Thutmose II
Reign	1493 BC to 1479 BC (though disputed)
Praenomen	Aakheperenre Great is the manefestation of Re
Nomen	Thutmose Thoth is born
Horus name	Ka Nekhet User Pekhet The strong bull, the great one of power
Nebty name	Neter Nesyt Divine of kingship
Golden Horus	Sekhem Kheperu Powerful of Forms
Consort(s)	Hatshepsut, Aset
Issues	Thutmose III, Neferure, Meritre
Father	Thutmose I
Mother	Mutnofret
Died	1479 BC
Burial	KV42 (now considered unlikely)

Aakheperenre Thutmose II (d. 1479 BC; sometimes spelled Thutmosis) was the fourth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. He was probably dominated by his wife, Hatshepsut, and did very little in his reign, but did carry out at least two minor campaigns. His reign has generally been dated from 1493 to 1479 BC. Thutmose II's body was found in the Deir el-Bahri Cache above the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut and can be viewed today in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Contents 1 Family 2 Dates and Length of Reign 2.1 Argument for a Short Reign 2.2 Argument for a Long Reign 3 Campaigns 4 Mummy 5 References 6 See also

[edit] Family

Thutmose II was the son of Thutmose I and a minor wife, Mutnofret. He was, therefore, a lesser son of Thutmose I who chose to marry his fully royal half-sister, Hatshepsut, to secure his kingship. While he successfully put down rebellions in Nubia and the Levant and defeated a group of nomadic Bedouins, these campaign were specifically carried out by the king's Generals, and not by Thutmose II himself. This is often interpreted as evidence that Thutmose II was still a minor at his accession. Thutmose II fathered with Hatshepsut, Neferure and Meritre, but also managed to father a male heir, the famous Thutmose III, by a lesser wife named Isis before his death.

Some archaeologists believe that Hatshepsut was the real power behind the throne during Thutmose II’s rule because of the similar domestic and foreign policies which were later pursued under her reign and because of her claim that she was her father’s intended heir. She later had herself crowned Pharaoh after his death early during Thutmose III's reign.

[edit] Dates and Length of Reign

Manetho's Epitome calls Thutmose "Chebron," (which is a reference to his prenomen, Aakheperenre) and gives him a reign of 13 Years, but this figure is highly disputed among scholars. Some Egyptologists prefer to shorten his reign by a full decade to only 3 Years because his Highest Year Date is only a Year 1 II Akhet day 8 stela.^[1] The reign length of Thutmose II has been a controversial and much debated topic among Egyptologists with little consensus given the small number of surviving documents for his reign, but a long reign is usually preferred by scholars. As for the date of his reign, it is still possible to estimate when his reign would have begun by means of a heliacal rise of sothis in Amenhotep I's reign, which would give him a reign from 1493 BC to 1479 BC,^[2] although uncertanty about how to interpret the rise also permits a date from 1513 BC to 1499 BC,^[3] and uncertanty about how long Thutmose I ruled could also potentially place his reign several years earlier still. Nonetheless, scholars generally assign him a reign from 1493 or 1492 to 1479.^[4][5]

[edit] Argument for a Short Reign

Ineni, who was already aged by the beginning of his reign, lived through his entire reign into that of Hatshepsut.^[6] In addition, Thutmose II is poorly attested in the monumental record and in the contemporary tomb autobiographies of New Kingdom officials. A clear count of monuments from his rule, which is the principal tool for estimating a king's reign when dated documents are not avalable, is nearly impossible, because Hatshepsut usurped most of his monuments, and in turn Thutmose III reinscribed Thutmose II's name indiscriminately over other monuments.^[7] In addition, almost all his monuments were usurped or dismantled by later New Kingdom pharaohs, especially Amenhotep III.^{[citation needed]} In 1987, Luc Gabolde published an important study ^[8] which statistically compared the number of surviving scarabs found under Thutmose I, Thutmose II and Hatshepsut. While monuments can be usurped, scarabs are so small and comparatively insignificant that altering their names would be impractical and without profit; hence, they provide a far better insight to this period. Hatshepsut's reign length is known to be 21 Years and 9 Months. Gabolde highlighted, in his analysis, the consistently small number of surviving scarabs known for Thutmose II compared to Tuthmose I and Hatshepsut respectively; for instance, Flinders Petrie's older study of scarab seals noted 86 seals for Thutmose I, 19 seals for Thutmose II and 149 seals for Hatshepsut while more recent studies by Jaeger estimate a total of 241 seals for Thutmose I, 463 seals for Hatshepsut and only 65 seals for Thutmose II.^[9] Hence, unless there was an abnormally low number of scarabs produced under Thutmose II, this would indicate that the king's reign was rather short-lived. On this basis, Gabolde estimated Thutmose I and II's reigns to be approximately 11 and 3 full years respectively. Consequently, the reign length of Thutmose II has been a much debated subject among Egyptologists with little consensus given the small number of surviving documents for his reign.

[edit] Argument for a Long Reign

Thutmose's reign is still traditionally given 13 or 14 years. Although Ineni's testemony can be interpreted to say that Thutmose reigned only a short time, it also calls Thutmose a "hawk in the nest," indicating that he was a child when he assumed the throne,^[10] and he did leave behind a number of children, which indicates that he lived at least long enough to start a family. The German Egyptologist, J. Von Beckerath, uses this line of argument to support the case of a 13 Year reign for Thutmose II. ^[11] Alan Gardiner noted that at one point, a monument had been identified by Georges Daressy in 1900^[12] which was dated to Thutmose's 18th year, although it's precise location has not been identified.^[13] This inscription is now usually attributed to Hatshepsut, who certainly did have an 18th year. von Beckerath observes that a Year 18 date appears in a fragmentary inscription of an Egyptian official and writes that the date likely refers to the figure of Maatkare, Hatshepsut's prenomen, which had been altered from Aakheperenre Thutmose II, with the reference to the deceased Thutmose II being removed.^[14] Finally, von Beckerath also notes the curious fact that Hatshepsut celebrated her Sed Jubilee in her Year 16 which he believes would have occurred 30 Years after the death of Thutmose I, her father, who was the sole source of her claim to power. This would create a gap of 13-14 Years where Tuthmose II's reign would fit in.^[15]

[edit] Campaigns

Upon Thutmose's coronation, Kush rebelled, as it had the habit of doing upon the transition of Egyptian kingship. The Nubian state had been completely subjugated by Thutmose I,^[16] but some rebels from Khenthennofer rose up, and the Egyptian colonists retreated into a fortress built by Thutmose I.^[17] On account of his relative youth at the time, Thutmose II dispatched an army into Nubia rather than leading it himself, but he seems to have easily crushed this revolt with the aid of his father's military generals.^[18]

Thutmose also seems to have fought against the Shasu Bedouin in the Sinai, in a campaign mentioned by Ahmose Pen-Nekhbet.^[19] Although this campaign has been called a minor raid, there is a fragment which was recorded by Kurt Sethe which records a campaign in Upper Retenu, or Syria, which appears to have reached as far as a place called Niy where Thutmose I hunted Elephants after returning from crossing the Euphrates.^[20] This quite possibly indicates that the raid against the Shasu was only fought en route to Syria.^[21]

[edit] Mummy

Thutmose II's mummy was discovered in the Deir el-Bahri cache, revealed in 1881. He was interred along with those of other 18th and 19th dynasty leaders including Ahmose I, Amenhotep I, Thutmose I, Thutmose III, Ramesses I, Seti I, Ramesses II, and Ramesses IX, as well as the 21st dynasty pharaohs Psusennes I, Psusennes II, and Siamun.

The mummy was unwrapped by Gaston Maspero on July 1, 1886. There is a strong familial resemblance to the mummy of Thutmose I, his likely father, as the mummy face and shape of the head are very similar. The body of Thutmose II suffered greatly at the hands of ancient tomb robbers, with his left arm broken off at the shoulder-joint, the forearm separated at the elbow joint, and his right arm chopped off below the elbow. His anterior abdominal wall and much of his chest had been hacked at, possibly by an axe. In addition, his right leg had been severed from his body.^[22] All of these injuries were sustained post-mortem, though the body also showed signs that Thutmose II did not have an easy life, as the following quote by Gaston Maspero attests:

He had scarcely reached the age of thirty when he fell a victim to a disease of which the process of embalming could not remove the traces. The skin is scabrous in patches, and covered with scars, while the upper part of the skull is bald; the body is thin and somewhat shrunken, and appears to have lacked vigour and muscular power.^[23]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• History of Ancient Egypt
• Family tree of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
• List of pharaohs