A week ago, archaeologists announced that they had found the tomb of ancient Egyptian King Thutmose II near the Valley of the Kings in West Luxor. Now, the expert behind the discovery believes he knows the location of a second tomb.
Thutmose II’s tomb is the first royal burial chamber to be discovered since 1922, when King Tutankhamun’s tomb was found by British archaeologist Howard Carter. Though it was unearthed in 2022, Thutmose II’s tomb has been undergoing further analysis and restoration.
British archaeologist Piers Litherland, who spearheaded the joint Egyptian-British team, believes that there is a second tomb, which could contain the mummy of Thutmose II. This contradicts an earlier finding of a mummy that has long been identified as the Thutmose II at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.
“There are 23 metres of a pile of man-made layers sitting above a point in the landscape where we believe—and we have other confirmatory evidence—there is a monument concealed beneath,” Litherland told The Observer.
The mummy of King Thutmose II was thought to have been previously found at the nearby archaeological site Deir el-Bahari Cachette in the 19th century. Thutmose II was a pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty and is thought to have died prematurely from disease around age 30. Little is known about Thutmose II, however, including he length of his reign, which could have been as little as three or more than 14 years.
The mummy at the Cairo museum was identified as having died at age 30 and was labeled “Aa-en-re”. It was presumed to be Thutmose II, as he was the only king with “en” in his regnal name “Aa-kheper-en-re”, Litherland explained to the Art Newspaper.
“This is the only basis for identifying the mummy as Thutmose II. It is known that several of the mummies were mislabelled so this evidence is pretty shaky. It is only the fact that it has been repeated over and over again which has given it any weight.”
It is also unusual that no other funerary artifacts or belongings of Thutmose II have been recovered.
Archaeological work is expected to continue at the burial site for another two years.
