07/21/2025
Mummy of king Thutmose IV (reign c. 1401-1391 B.C.)
▫️Thutmose IV is the father of Amenhotep III, grandfather of and great-grandfather of . Grafton Elliot Smith (1871-1937), upon examining the body of the king, concluded that the king was very ill at the time of death and had seemingly suffered with an illness for a while, sadly describing Thutmose IV as “extremely emaciated”.
The king was balding, his mummy was the first of that time to have pierced ears; his fingernails were manicured. The mummy’s hands were crossed on his chest, in the Osirian position. His height was given as 1.646 m (5 ft 4.8 in) but considering that the feet have been broken off post-mortem, his height in life would have been taller.
His hair, which is parted in the middle, is about 16 cm (6.3 in) long and auburn in colour. His ears are also pierced. Elliot Smith estimated his age to be 25–28 years, or possibly older.
Many decades later in 2012, the Imperial College London examined the body of the late king, and along with knowledge of some of Thutmose’s family dying young (such as his great-grandson Tutankhamun and his two still born daughters), the surgeon examining the king theorized that Thutmose and other members of the family may have possibly suffered with Temporal lobe epilepsy.
Some scholars think that this idea could explain the king’s famous Dream Stele, where he describes the Sphinx of Giza as talking to him, as those with Temporal lobe epilepsy do suffer with visions.
This idea however is a theory at the present and is not an ultimate conclusion. And it must be noted that the reason for the dream stele could have been propagandist, or simply Thutmose certifying his status as a divine ruler…such as Hatshepsut’s writing of her divine birth at Deir el-Bahari. Or… it could have been something the king truly believed occurred to him, without the modern idea that he had an illness causing such a thing.
Read more: https://egypt-museum.com/mummy-of-thutmose-iv/
