Mummy Thutmose 'III.

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The mummy Thutmose 'III is an ancient Egyptian royal mummy from the 18th dynasty , which was discovered in 1871 by grave robbers in the cachette of Deir el-Bahari in West Thebes . Originally the king ( pharaoh ) Thutmose III. 1425 BC Buried in grave KV34 in the Valley of the Kings . In the 22nd dynasty that was mummy but with numerous other royal mummies from protection from grave robbers in this "hiding" reburied . Today it is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo with the inventory number CG 61068.

Finding circumstances

Recovery of the mummies from the Deir el-Bahari cachette
Drawing of the mummy Thutmose III. based on a photo by Emil Brugsch

In the summer of 1871 the brothers Mohammed, Soliman and Ahmed Abd el-Rassul discovered a shaft grave from the 21st dynasty in Deir el-Bahari , which was filled with coffins stacked at random. It was the hiding place with royal mummies known today as the Cachette of Deir el-Bahari (also DB 320). The Abd el-Rassuls initially kept the find secret, as they lived off the sale of the grave contents by taking selected pieces from time to time on forays into the antiquities trade. Gaston Maspero , who was then director of the Egyptian Museum in Bulaq / Cairo and head of the Egyptian Service des Antiquités d'Egypte , finally noticed that royal pieces were systematically entering the antique trade and carried out research in Luxor from March to April . On April 4, 1881, he had Ahmed Abd el-Rassul arrested by the local police. On June 25, one of the brothers disclosed the location of the grave to the police. Since Maspero himself was not in Egypt at the time, he gave his assistant Emil Brugsch the job of arranging everything that was necessary. On July 6, 1881, Mohammed Abd el-Rassul finally led the delegation to the tomb, which contained more than 30 coffins. These included the mummies of the kings Seqenenre , Ahmose I , Thutmose III. , Seti I and Ramses II. Apparently the grave in which it was 22nd dynasty of priests in a repository for royal mummies converted that to protect against grave robbers here reburied were. To prevent further grave robberies, the "cachette" was cleared within 48 hours. Accordingly, there is no scientifically founded documentation of the find's circumstances today. The contents of DB 320 were temporarily stored in Luxor and finally brought to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The mummy Thutmose 'III. was inventoried as CG 61068, the associated shroud as CG 40001. The original burial place of the mummy was the grave KV34 in the Valley of the Kings .

According to Maspero's description, the mummy was Thutmose III. has already been searched by the Abd el-Rassuls. The 1.60 m long mummy was in poor condition and broken in three places. It was adorned with a bouquet of rushes . The shroud is inscribed with hieroglyphic texts, including the 27th chapter of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the litany of the sun for King Thutmose III, son of Queen Isis , whose name appeared here for the first time. In order to give the burial the necessary rigidity, the undertakers of the 22nd Dynasty used four oars, three on the inside and the fourth on the outside. A hole in the bandages at chest level is believed to have come from the modern grave robbers looking for jewelry.

Georges Nagel doubts Maspero's description that the mummy was still wrapped in the shroud. It may have been rolled up or folded on the mummy. He found that two fragments of cloth that had entered the antique trade and are now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston also belong to the Shroud of Thutmose III. One possible explanation, however, would be that the modern grave robbers were actually only able to remove the two fragments from the shroud, and the position of the shroud prevented them from removing all of the disguise. Another possibility would be that the two fragments were still on the shroud when Maspero described them and were only stolen later.

X-ray analysis

Doubts about the identification of the mummy as Thutmose III. were stated that the buried person had died between the ages of 35 and 40 according to an X-ray analysis , and this was difficult with the presumed 53 years of Thutmose III's reign. is to be reconciled. Therefore it was suggested that the mummy be mistaken for reburial. However, some Egyptologists have expressed doubts about the age determination by radiographic analysis of the bones, since the results obtained by this technique almost always contradict historical sources and an accurate age determination of adults is difficult. In addition, based on biological evidence, the mummy Amenhotep II (CG 61069) is almost certainly the biological son of Thutmose III, which in turn corresponds to historical tradition. The dating and chronological classification of the mummy Thutmose 'III. also supports a classification in his reign. For Dimitri Laboury, the identification of CG 61068 with the mummy of Thutmose III. can hardly be doubted.

Reconstruction of the appearance

The numerous statues of the king allow only limited conclusions to be drawn about the possible appearance, as they are idealized representations (see also development of the royal sculpture of Thutmose III ). In the portrait of Thutmose III. Make up changes in physiognomic details such as the shape of the nose and the revival of the iconography of its predecessors. Nevertheless, some physiognomic features remain absolutely constant: the S-shaped angled chin, the prominent jaw cheek and the position of his cheekbones. The comparison with the mummy, which also has these details, suggests an inspiration from the real appearance of the model.

In terms of physical appearance, too, it is difficult to distinguish between reality and the athletic ideal of a king in the representations. Nevertheless, the statues and the mummy indicate that it was quite large and quite imposing in appearance, at least by ancient standards. Typical features of the statues are broad chest and shoulders, short torso, flat and narrow waist, muscular arms and legs, and wide feet and hands. Based on the reconstruction of the mummy, the body height is estimated at 1.71 m, which is larger than all other kings of the 18th Dynasty with the exception of Amenhotep I.

literature

  • James E. Harris, Edward F. Wente: An X-Ray Atlas of the Royal Mummies. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1980, ISBN 978-0-226-31745-8 .
  • Edward F. Wente, James E. Harris: Royal Mummies of the Eighteenth Dynasty. A Biologic and Egyptological Approach. In: CN Reeves: After Tutankh'amun. Research and Excavation in the Royal Necropolis at Thebes (= Studies in Egyptology. ) Kegan Paul, London / New York 1992, ISBN 978-0-7103-0406-3 , pp. 2-20.
  • Dimitri Laboury: A propos de l'authenticité de la momie attribuée à Thutmose III (CG 61068). In: Göttinger Miscellen. (GM) 156, 1997, pp. 73-79.
  • Gaston Maspero : Les momies royales de Déir el-Bahari. Leroux, Paris 1889.
  • Gaston Maspero: Report on the trouvaille de Deir el-Bahari. In: Bulletin de l'Institut Egyptien. 2nd series, No. 2, 1881, pp. 142-143.
  • Georges Nagel: Le linceul de Thoutmes III. Caire, Cat. N ° 40.001. In: Annales du service des antiquités de l'Égypte. No. 49, pp. 317-329.
  • Robert B. Partridge, A Rosalie David: Faces of Pharaohs: Royal Mummies and Coffins from Ancient Thebes. Rubicon Press, London 1994, ISBN 978-0-948695-38-4 .
  • Grafton Elliot Smith : The Royal Mummies. Cairo 1912; Reprint 1912: Duckworth, London 2000, ISBN 0-7156-2959-X , pp. 32-36.
  • Gitta Warnemünde: The mummy hiding place in the cachette of Deir el-Bahari. In: Kemet 2, 2006, pp. 33-38.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gaston Maspero: Les momies royales de Déir el-Bahari. Paris 1889.
  2. ↑ Gitta Warnemünde: The mummy hiding place in the cachette of Deir el-Bahari. In: Kemet 2, 2006, pp. 33-38.
  3. ↑ a b c Dimitri Laboury: A propos de l'authenticité de la momie attribuée à Thutmose III (CG 61068). In: Göttinger Miscellen. (GM) 156, 1997, pp. 73-79.
  4. ^ Gaston Maspero: Report on the trouvaille de Deir el-Bahari. In: Bulletin de l'Institut Egyptien. 2nd series, No. 2, 1881, pp. 142-143.
  5. ↑ Gaston Maspero: Les Momies Royales de Déir el-Baharî. Paris 1889, pp. 547-548.
  6. ^ Georges Nagel: Le linceul de Thoutmes III. Caire, Cat. N ° 40.001. In: Annales du service des antiquités de l'Égypte. 49, pp. 317-329.
  7. ^ Edward F. Wente, James E. Harris: Royal Mummies of the Eighteenth Dynasty. A Biologic and Egyptological Approach. In: CN Reeves: After Tutankh'amun. Research and Excavation in the Royal Necropolis at Thebes (= Studies in Egyptology. ) London / New York 1992, pp. 2-20; James E. Harris, Edward F. Wente: An X-Ray Atlas of the Royal Mummies. Chicago 1980.
  8. ↑ Luc Gabolde: La chronologie du règne de Thoutmosis II, ses conséquences sur la datation des momies royales et leurs répercussions sur l'histoire du développement de la Vallée des Rois. In: Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture. 14, 1987, p. 73.
  9. ↑ Dimitri Laboury: A propos de l'authenticité de la momie attribuée à Thutmose III (CG 61068). In: Göttinger Miscellen. 156, 1997, p. 74 and notes 5 and 6.
  10. ^ Edward F. Wente, James E. Harris: Royal Mummies of the Eighteenth Dynasty. A Biologic and Egyptological Approach. In: CN Reeves: After Tutankh'amun. Research and Excavation in the Royal Necropolis at Thebes London / New York 1992, p. 9.
  11. ^ Edward F. Wente, James E. Harris: Royal Mummies of the Eighteenth Dynasty. A Biologic and Egyptological Approach. In: CN Reeves: After Tutankh'amun. Research and Excavation in the Royal Necropolis at Thebes London / New York 1992, p. 0.
  12. ↑ Dimitri Laboury: Royal Portrait and Ideology: Evolution and Signification of the Statuary of Thutmose III. In: Eric H. Cline, David O'Connor: Thutmose III. Ann Arbor 2006, pp. 281-282. For a detailed comparison between statues and mummies, see Dimitri Laboury: La statuaire de Thoutmosis III: Essai d'interprétation d'un portrait royal dans son contexte historique. (= Aegyptiaca Leodiensa. 5) Liège 1998, pp. 647-652.
  13. ↑ Arielle P. Pozloff: The Artistic Production of the Reign of Thutmose III. In: Eric H. Cline, David O'Connor: Thutmose III. Ann Arbor 2006, p. 294.
  14. ^ Robert B. Partridge: Faces of Pharaohs. Royal Mummies and Coffins from Ancient Thebes. London 1994, pp. 77-80.