Thutmose III
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Menkheperre Thutmose III (also written as Tuthmosis III or Thothmes III; called Manahpi(r)ya in the Amarna letters) (d. 1425 BC), was the sixth Pharaoh of Egypt in the Eighteenth Dynasty, and is regarded as the greatest of Egypt's pharaohs. He ruled from 1479 BC to 1425 BC, according to the Middle Chronology of Ancient Egypt. Older publications in the 1960's and 1970's have suggested that he ruled Egypt from 1504 BC to 1450 BC but this was based partly on the outdated and unsustainable view of a 35 Year reign for Thutmose IV. However, it is known that Manetho gives Thutmose IV a reign of only 9 Years and 8 Months in his Epitome while this king's Highest dated Year is only his Year 8. Finally, Thutmose IV's monuments are comparatively small and minor compared to those of his son Amenhotep III, who enjoyed a reign of 38 Years. Hence, Egyptologists today ascribe Thutmose IV a reign of only c.10 Years and have dated Thutmose III's accession at 1479 BC instead.
Thutmose III was the son of Pharaoh Thutmose II and Isis, a minor wife. When Thutmose II died in 1479 BC, the child Thutmose III became king--in theory. However, he shared power from the beginning of his reign with Hatshepsut, his father's wife, who acted as regent and eventually as the dominant co-ruler and real ruler of Egypt. For approximately 22 Years Thutmose III had little power over the empire while Hatshepsut assumed the formal titulary of kingship complete with a royal prenomen--Maatkare. He married Hatshepsut's youngest daughter, Meritre, with whom he had a son named Amenhotep II. With the death of Hatshepsut, Thutmose III then effectively ruled Egypt on his own for 32 Years until his death in 1425 BC (some sources list his death ranging from 1430 BC to 1425 BC).
Upon his accession to the throne on I Shemu day 4., Thutmose took the prenomen Menkheperre, which is represented in the Amarna letters as Manahpi(r)ya. His praenomen and nomen in Egyptian hieroglyphs can be seen to the right. These are technically transliterated as mn-ḫpr-r dḥwty-ms, which is usually realised to Menkheperre Djehutymes, meaning "Establisher of the form of Ra, Thoth bore him". Due to the influence of Greek transcriptions, Djehutymes is rendered as Thutmose, Thutmoses, or Thutmosis.
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Thutmose's military campaigns
Widely considered a military genius by historians, he was an active expansionist ruler, sometimes referred to as the Napoleon of Egypt, because he was recorded to have captured 350 cities during his rule, conquering much of the Near East, from the Euphrates to Nubia. He was the first Pharaoh to cross the Euphrates, during his campaign against Mitanni.
Thutmose III made a total of seventeen known military campaigns. His most famous campaign was his first when he decisively defeated a large Canaanite coalition under the King of Kadesh at the Battle of Megiddo in his Year 23. According to Thutmose III's Hall of Annals in the Temple of Amun at Karnak, the battle occurred on "Year 23, I Shemu [day] 21, the exact day of the feast of the new moon"(Urk. IV, 657.2)--a lunar date. This date corresponds to May 9, 1457 BC based on Thutmose III's accession in 1479 BC. After victory in battle, he conquered Megiddo after a siege of 7 or 8 Months (see Siege of Megiddo). Thutmose III is consistently regarded as one of Egypt's greatest Warrior Pharaohs and he changed his country into an internationally respected Superpower in the Ancient World. He was also a prolific builder of Temples throughout Egypt.
Moses and the hebrew left the kingdom
Controversy about relationship with Hatshepsut
After the death of her husband Thutmose II, Hatshepsut usurped the throne from Thutmose III and held it until her death. Although Thutmose III was a co-regent during this time, historians have speculated that Thutmose III never forgave his step-mother for denying him access to the throne for the first 2 decades of his reign.
After her death, many of Hatshepsut's monuments and depictions were subsequently defaced or destroyed, including those in her famous mortuary temple complex at Deir el-Bahri. These have traditionally been interpreted to be evidence of acts of damnatio memoriae (condemning a person by erasing him or her from recorded existence) by Thutmose III. However, recent research by scholars such as that of Charles Nims and Peter Dorman have re-examined these erasures and found that the acts which could be dated occurred after the forty-second year of Thutmose's reign. This casts serious doubt upon the popular theory that Thutmose III ordered their destruction in a fit of vengeful rage shortly after his accession. Rather, it is more widely accepted today that Thutmose III may have simply decided to erase the memory of Hatshepsut's from the historical records because under Egypt's deeply conservative and hierarchical political system, only men were supposed to rule the state while women were expected to remain loyal to their husbands and nourish their households. Indeed, prior to Hatshepsut's reign only two other female Egyptian Pharaohs were known to exist: Nitocris and Sobekneferu. Unlike Hatshepsut however, both these queens enjoyed a very brief reign.
Death and burial
Thutmose III's tomb in the Valley of the Kings (KV34) is the first one in which Egyptologists find the complete Amduat, an important New Kingdom funerary text. According to a book by the American Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian, a statement in the Tomb Biography of an official named Amenemheb establishes that Thutmose III died on Year 54, III Peret day 30 of his reign after ruling Egypt for 53 Years 10 Months and 26 Days.(Urk. 180.15) Thutmose III died 1 Month and 4 days shy of the start of his 55th Regnal Year.
During the reign of Pinedjem I in the 21st Dynasty, Thutmose's body was moved with several others to the Deir el-Bahri Cache. His was the first unwrapped when the mummies were unearthed in 1881. His mummy was in poor condition (damage was done in antiquity). He now rests in the Cairo Museum.
Further reading
- Redford, Donald B., The Wars in Syria and Palestine of Thutmose III, [Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 16], Leiden: Brill, 2003. ISBN 9004129898 - treats the military annals of Thutmose III, with regard to his conquests in the Levant
- Cline, Eric H. and O'Connor, David, Thutmose III : A New Biography, University of Michigan Press, 2006. ISBN 0472114670 - incorporates a number of important new survey articles regarding the reign of Thutmose III, including administration, art, religion and foreign affairs
External links
- History of ancient Egypt
- Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt Family Tree
- Tuthomosis III (Egyptology Online)
- Thutmosis III
| Preceded by: Hatshepsut | Pharaoh of Egypt Eighteenth Dynasty | Succeeded by: Amenhotep II |
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