Thutmose I
Third pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt
The 18th Dynasty’s third monarch was a commoner by birth and a military warrior by profession. His father’s name is unknown, but his mother’s name was Semiseneb, which was a very popular name throughout the Second Intermediate Period and the early 18th Dynasty. He legitimised his power by marrying Ahmose, who may have been Amenhotep I’s sister and daughter of Ahmose I and Queen Ahmose Nefertary (who still maintained the title “God’s Wife of Amun throughout her grandson’s tenure).
on the other hand, have speculated that Ahmose I was Thutmose I’s sister. He may have also served as a co-regent under Amenhotep I, and he was undoubtedly a powerful military leader during his predecessor’s reign. Thutmose, we’re informed, was his birth name, which means “Born of the deity Thoth,” albeit this is a Greek translation. Djehutymes I was his Egyptian name, although he was also known as Thutmosis I, and his thrown name was A-Kheper-ka-re (Aakheperkara).
King Amenhotep I, second ruler of Dynasty 18th
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Military achievements
Nubia revolted against Egyptian control after Thutmose’s accession. Thutmose journeyed up the Nile and engaged in the fight, personally murdering the Nubian monarch, according to Ahmose, son of Ebana’s tomb memoirs. Prior to returning to Thebes, he had the Nubian king’s body hanging from the prow of his ship. Following that battle, in his third year, he conducted a second expedition against Nubia, during which he ordered the canal at the first cataract, which had been built by Sesostris III of the 12th Dynasty, to be deepened in order to make it easier to go upstream from Egypt to Nubia. This aided Nubia’s integration into Egypt’s kingdom.
Dragging a Statue of Thutmose I
The men hauling Thutmose I on a sledge imply that he is shown as a statue. His dark complexion was previously thought to reflect the ebony wood from which the statue may have been carved, but it is more likely to do with the king’s deified position. During the rule of monarchs, cults were formed to worship them. Thutmose I’s cult lasted for centuries after his death, which is an unusual occurrence, and this statue of the monarch is at the heart of a tableau representing offerings and ceremonies in his honour. The colour black, like the black silt of the Nile Valley, denotes rebirth and renewal, hence royal figures are frequently represented with a dark complexion. (It is now in MET Museum, NYC “Dragging a Statue of Thutmose )
The Monuments of Thutmose I
Thutmose I was the first king to expand the temple significantly. The fifth pylon, as well as a wall around the inner sanctuary and two flagpoles flanking the entry, were erected by Thutmose along the temple’s main route. He also constructed a fourth pylon and a new enclosing wall outside of this. He built a hypostyle hall between pylons four and five, complete with cedar wood columns.
This building is thought to resemble a papyrus marsh, an Egyptian emblem of creation, and was prevalent in ancient Egyptian temples. He erected huge sculptures along the room’s perimeter, each wearing the crown of Upper Egypt and the crown of Lower Egypt alternately. Finally, he constructed four additional flagpoles and two obelisks outside the fourth pylon, though one of them, which has since collapsed, was not inscribed until Thutmose III did so nearly 50 years later.
““The construction efforts of Thutmose I had a great impact on the arrangement of the temple for years to come. Scholars have generally attributed both the fourth and fifth pylons to the king, as well as a corresponding stone enclosure wall, which together still form the core area of the temple. Thutmose I originally lined the court of the fifth pylon with a portico of 16 fasciculated columns. By erecting the first pair of granite obelisks at Karnak in front of the fourth pylon (the temple’s main gate at the time), Thutmose began an association of obelisks with the god Amun-Ra that may have bolstered the divinity’s rising universality. His act was emulated and outperformed (with taller and larger obelisks) by a number of 18th and 19th Dynasty rulers. [Source: Elaine Sullivan, UCLA, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
Death and burial
The original burial site of Thutmose I is still a point of contention. His name appears on sarcophagi from two Valley of the Kings tombs (KV 20 and KV 38), but there is no consensus on which was the first or if either was dug for Thutmose. The king’s body might be among those in the royal stockpile, although this is also questionable. Two Thutmose I coffins, usurped for Pinudjem I (one of the chief-priests of Anum at Thebes in the 2nd Dynasty), held an unnamed corpse, which might be the king’s remains. Ineni, one of his top officials, explains his role in monitoring the excavation of Thutmose’s tomb: ‘I oversaw the excavation of his Majesty’s cliff tomb in private; none saw, none heard.’ His cryptic description of the tomb as a heret, which is commonly interpreted as ‘cliff tomb,’ might point to a location in the Valley of the Kings, but the question remains unanswered.
There is no known tomb for Thutmose I, although bricks bearing his name—and some containing both his and Hatshepsut’s—have been found near Deir el-‘valley Bahri’s temple.’ Hatshepsut built a chapel in her temple to honour Thutmose I, although this does not rule out the possibility that he had a funeral cult prior to her reign. Rather, she honoured her ancestors within her funeral temple, which served as both a ‘family’ shrine and a temple honouring the deity Amun and the king’s union. This ‘ancestor worship’ was visible in the monuments of Ahmose and Amenhotep I at Abydos, and non-royal tomb chapels from the contemporaneous and mid-i8th Dynasties commonly incorporated niches or scenes venerating living and departed family members
F.A.Q
Thutmose I ruled for 12 years and 9 months, according to a certain Mephres in his Epitome (or 13 Years). At Karnak, two dated inscriptions bearing his cartouche from Years 8 and 9 of his reign were discovered engraved on a stone block, corroborating this information.
Thutmose launched a riverborne expedition deep into Nubia, beyond his predecessor’s boundary, in his second year, expanding Egypt’s dominion in Nubia and also penetrating deep into Syria.
The mummy formerly considered to be Thutmose I has been shown to be that of a thirty-year-old man who died as a consequence of an arrow wound to the chest, according to Zahi Hawass.
Thutmose I was the first monarch to be buried in the Valley of the Kings with certainty. Ineni was tasked with excavating this tomb and, most likely, constructing his funeral temple.
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