Editing Thutmose III (section)

===Mummy===
[[File:Tuthmosis III coffin.jpg|thumb|Sarcophagus of Thutmose III]]
Thutmose III's mummy was discovered in the [[Deir el-Bahri]] [[DB320|Cache]] above the [[mortuary temple|Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut]] in 1881. He was interred along with those of other 18th and 19th Dynasty leaders [[Ahmose I]], [[Amenhotep I]], [[Thutmose I]], [[Thutmose II]], [[Ramesses I]], [[Seti I]], [[Ramesses II]] and [[Ramesses IX]], as well as the 21st Dynasty pharaohs [[Pinedjem I]], [[Pinedjem II]] and [[Siamun]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Museum |first=Egypt |date=2023-08-22 |title=Mummy of Thutmose III |url=https://egypt-museum.com/mummy-of-thutmose-iii/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |website=Egypt Museum |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:Brugsch-ThutmosisIII (photo).jpg|thumb|Mummy of Thutmose III before unwrapping, showing damage by tomb robbers]]
While it is popularly thought that his mummy originally was unwrapped by [[Gaston Maspero]] in 1886, it was in fact first unwrapped by [[Émile Brugsch]], the Egyptologist who supervised the evacuation of the mummies from the Deir el-Bahri Cache in 1881. It was unwrapped soon after its arrival in the [[Egyptian Museum|Boulak Museum]] while Maspero was away in France, and the Director General of the Egyptian Antiquities Service ordered the mummy re-wrapped. So when it was "officially" unwrapped by Maspero in 1886, he almost certainly knew it was in relatively poor condition.<ref>Forbes, Dennis C. <cite>Tombs, Treasures, Mummies: Seven Great Discoveries of Egyptian Archaeology</cite>, pp. 43–44. KMT Communications, Inc. 1998.</ref>

[[File:Thutmose III Head.jpg|thumb|Mummified head of Thutmose III following unwrapping]]
[[File:Openwork Barrel Bead MET scarabgroup 5.top.jpg|thumb|Beads and scarab finger rings of Thutmose III in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].]]
The mummy had been damaged extensively in antiquity by tomb robbers and its wrappings subsequently cut into and torn by the Rassul family, who had rediscovered the tomb and its contents only a few years before.<ref name="Castle Books 2003">Romer, John. <cite>The Valley of the Kings</cite>. p. 182. Castle Books, 2003. {{ISBN|0-7858-1588-0}}</ref> Maspero's description of the body provides an idea as to the severity of the damage:
<blockquote>His mummy was not securely hidden away, for towards the close of the 20th dynasty it was torn out of the coffin by robbers, who stripped it and rifled it of the jewels with which it was covered, injuring it in their haste to carry away the spoil. It was subsequently re-interred, and has remained undisturbed until the present day; but before re-burial some renovation of the wrappings was necessary, and as portions of the body had become loose, the restorers, in order to give the mummy the necessary firmness, compressed it between four oar-shaped slips of wood, painted white, and placed, three inside the wrappings and one outside, under the bands which confined the winding-sheet.<ref name="Maspero">Maspero, Gaston. {{Cite book |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17324/17324-h/v4c.htm |title=''History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12)'' |access-date=11 March 2015 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060523181623/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17324/17324-h/v4c.htm#image-0047 |archive-date=23 May 2006 |date=16 December 2005 }}, Project Gutenberg EBook, Release Date: 16 December 2005. EBook #17325.</ref></blockquote>

Of the face, which was undamaged, Maspero says the following:
<blockquote>Happily the face, which had been plastered over with pitch at the time of embalming, did not suffer at all from this rough treatment, and appeared intact when the protecting mask was removed. Its appearance does not answer to our ideal of the conqueror. His statues, though not representing him as a type of manly beauty, yet give him refined, intelligent features, but a comparison with the mummy shows that the artists have idealised their model. The forehead is abnormally low, the eyes deeply sunk, the jaw heavy, the lips thick, and the cheek-bones extremely prominent; the whole recalling the physiognomy of Thûtmosis II, though with a greater show of energy.<ref name="Maspero"/></blockquote>

Maspero was so disheartened at the state of the mummy and the prospect that all of the other mummies were similarly damaged (as it turned out, few were in so poor a state) that he would not unwrap another for several years.<ref name="Castle Books 2003"/>

Unlike many other examples from the Deir el-Bahri Cache, the wooden mummiform coffin that contained the body was original to the pharaoh, though any gilding or decoration it might have had had been hacked off in antiquity.

In his examination of the mummy, the anatomist [[Grafton Elliot Smith]] stated the height of Thutmose III's mummy to be {{cvt|5|ft|3.58|in|m|order=flip|3}},<ref>Smith, G Elliot. <cite>The Royal Mummies</cite>, p. 34. Duckworth, 2000 (reprint)</ref> but the mummy was missing its feet, so Thutmose III was undoubtedly taller than the figure given by Smith.<ref>Forbes, Dennis C. <cite>Tombs, Treasures, Mummies: Seven Great Discoveries of Egyptian Archaeology</cite>, p. 631. KMT Communications, Inc. 1998.</ref> It resided in the Royal Mummies Hall of the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, catalog number CG 61068,<ref name=Habicht>{{cite journal |last1=Habicht |first1=M.E|last2=Bouwman |first2=A.S|last3=Rühli |first3=F.J |date=25 January 2016 |title=Identifications of ancient Egyptian royal mummies from the 18th Dynasty reconsidered |journal=Yearbook of Physical Anthropology |volume=159 |issue=S61 |pages=216–231 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.22909 |pmid=26808107|doi-access=free }}</ref> until April 2021 when the mummy was moved to [[National Museum of Egyptian Civilization]] along with those of 17 other kings and four queens in the [[Pharaohs' Golden Parade]].<ref name=Parisse>{{cite news |last=Parisse |first=Emmanuel |date=5 April 2021 |title=22 Ancient Pharaohs Have Been Carried Across Cairo in an Epic 'Golden Parade' |url=https://www.sciencealert.com/22-ancient-pharaohs-have-been-carried-across-cairo-in-an-epic-golden-parade |work=ScienceAlert |access-date=5 April 2021}}</ref>