Thutmose II was the fourth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, and his reign is thought to have lasted for 14 years, from 1493 to 1479 BC (Low Chronology), or just 3 years, from around 1482 to 1479 BC. Little is known about him, and he is overshadowed by his father Thutmose I, half-sister and wife Hatshepsut, and son Thutmose III. There are relatively few monuments that refer to Thutmose II.
He died before the age of 30, and a body claimed to be his was found in the Royal Cache above the Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut. His tomb, in the Western Wadis near the Valley of the Queens, was found in 2022 and confirmed to be his in 2025. The tomb was built under waterfalls, leading to periodic flooding, which damaged the tomb throughout the ages. His mummified body was relocated in ancient times, and its final resting place is disputed.
Family
The name Thutmose II is read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis II, Thothmes in older history works in Latinized Greek, and derives from Ancient Egyptian: /ḏḥwty.ms/ Djehutymes, meaning "Thoth is born".
Thutmose II was the son of Thutmose I and his minor wife, Mutnofret, who was probably a daughter of Ahmose I.Dodson & Hilton 2004: 126, 131 He was, therefore, a lesser son of Thutmose I and chose to marry his fully royal half-sister, Hatshepsut, in order to secure his kingship. Because Mutnofret was a princess and Thutmose I was common born, they most likely married only after Thutmose became king,Cooney, Kara (2016). Hatszepsut. Kobieta która została królem [The Woman Who Would be King] (in Polish). WAB. pp. 44-45, 48. . hence their son would be born after his father's coronation, and probably after his half-sister Hatshepsut, who was the pharaoh's daughter by his primary wife.Cooney, Kara (2016). Hatszepsut. Kobieta która została królem [The Woman Who Would be King] (in Polish). WAB. p. 95. note 6. . That would mean Thutmose II was in his early teens when he became pharaoh himself. While he successfully put down rebellions in Nubia and the Levant and defeated a group of nomadic Bedouins, these campaigns were specifically carried out by the king's generals, and not by Thutmose II himself.Nadig, Peter (2016). Hatszepsut (in Polish). Prószyński i S-ka. p. 100. . This is often interpreted as evidence that Thutmose II was still a minor at his accession.
Thutmose II fathered Neferure with Hatshepsut, and Thutmose III, by a lesser wife named Iset.Cooney, Kara (2016). Hatszepsut. Kobieta która została królem [The Woman Who Would be King] (in Polish). WAB. pp. 101, 120 & 122. .
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 that were later pursued under her reign and because of her claim that she was her father's intended heir. She is depicted in several raised relief scenes from a Karnak gateway dating to Thutmose II's reign both together with her husband and alone. She later had herself crowned pharaoh several years into the rule of her husband's young successor Thutmose III; this is confirmed by the fact that "the queen's agents actually replaced the king's name in a few places with her own cartouches" on the gateway.Betsy Bryan, p. 236
If Thutmose II had indeed been born after his father's coronation, he would either have been in his early teens (short reign) or early twenties (long reign) upon his death.
Reign Dates and length of reign The Epitome by Manetho refers to Thutmose II as "Chebron" and credits this ruler with a reign of 13 years. The Greek name may reflect a version of the prenomen, Aakheperenre. Egyptologists debate whether Thutmose II had a short or long reign. Some suggest a short reign of three years, based on his highest attested date is Year 1, II Akhet day 8 stele. There are only a small number of surviving documents, and a minimal amount of scarabs attested to this king.
It is still possible to estimate when Thutmose II's 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 to 1479 BC, although uncertainty about how to interpret the rise also permits a date from 1513 to 1499 BC,Helk, Wolfgang. Schwachstellen der Chronologie-Diskussion. pp. 47–49. Göttinger Miszellen, Göttingen, 1983 and uncertainty about how long Thutmose I ruled could also potentially place his reign several years earlier still. Nonetheless, scholars in the 20th century were assigning him a reign from 1493 or 1492 to 1479.
Alternatively, Thutmose could have ruled around two or three years, from 1482 to 1480/1479 BC.
Argument for a short reign
Ineni, who was already aged by the start of Thutmose II's reign, lived through this ruler's entire reign into that of Hatshepsut. 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 available, is nearly impossible because Hatshepsut usurped most of his monuments, and Thutmose III in turn reinscribed Thutmose II's name indiscriminately over other monuments.Grimal, Nicolas. A History of Ancient Egypt. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988. p. 216. However, apart from several surviving blocks of buildings erected by the king at Semna, Kumma, and Elephantine, Thutmose II's only major monument consists of a limestone gateway at Karnak that once lay at the front of the Fourth Pylon's forecourt. Even this monument was not completed in Thutmose II's reign but in the reign of his son Thutmose III, which hints at "the nearly ephemeral nature of Thutmose II's reign".Betsy Bryan, pp. 235–236. The gateway was later dismantled and its building blocks incorporated into the foundation of the Third Pylon by Amenhotep III.
In 1987, Luc Gabolde published a study that 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 into this period. Hatshepsut's reign is believed to have lasted for 21 years and 9 months. Gabolde highlighted, in his analysis, the consistently small number of surviving scarabs known for Thutmose II compared to Thutmose 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. 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.
Kara Cooney argues for short reign, no longer than 3 years, by judging that there were "hardly any temples with his name on them, no campaigns, no mortuary complex of any worth", and points that all known children of Thutmose II were toddlers at the time of his death, which suggests his untimely death before they could grow up.
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.
Argument for a long reign
Thutmose's reign is still traditionally given as 13 or 14 years. Although Ineni's autobiography can be interpreted to say that Thutmose reigned only a short time, it also calls Thutmose II a "hawk in the nest", indicating that he was perhaps a child when he assumed the throne. Since he lived long enough to father two children—Neferure and Thutmose III—this suggests that he may have had a longer reign of 13 years in order to reach adulthood and 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.J. Von Beckerath, "Chronologie des Pharaonischen Ägypten", Münchner Ägyptologische Studien 46 (Philip von Zabern, Mainz: 1997) Alan Gardiner noted that at one point a monument had been identified by Georges Daressy in 1900,G. Daressy, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte 1, 1900, 90(20) dated to Thutmose's 18th year, although its precise location has not been identified.Gardiner, Alan. Egypt of the Pharaohs. p. 180 Oxford University Press, 1964 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 notes that the date likely refers to Hatshepsut's prenomen Maatkare, which had been altered from Aakheperenre Thutmose II, with the reference to the deceased Thutmose II being removed. There is also the curious fact that Hatshepsut celebrated her Sed Jubilee in her Year 16, which von Beckerath believes occurred 30 years after the death of Thutmose I, her father, who was the main source of her claim to power. This would create a gap of 13 to 14 years where Thutmose II's reign would fit in between Hatshepsut and Thutmose I's rule.J. Von Beckerath, "Chronologie des Pharaonischen Ägypten", Münchner Ägyptologische Studien 46 (Philip von Zabern, Mainz: 1997), p. 121 However Kara Cooney proposes Hatshepsut was celebrating 30 years of her father's dynasty (11 years for Thutmose I, 3 years for Thutmose II and 16 for Thutmose III) which would suggest short reign for her husband after all.
Von Beckerath additionally stresses that Egyptologists have no conclusive criteria to statistically evaluate the reign length of Thutmose II based on the number of preserved objects from his reign.J. von Beckerath, "Nochmals zur Regierung Tuthmosis' II", Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 17 (1990), pp. 65–74