Prince Thutmose grinding grain

This graywicke figurine showcases the crown prince Thutmose, son of Amenhotep III & his Great Royal Wife, Tiye, grinding grain.
The figure dates from around 1390 -1352 B.C., during the reign of his father Amenhotep III. Prince Thutmose served as a priest of Ptah in ancient Memphis. His full royal titles were “Crown Prince, Overseer of the Priests of Upper and Lower Egypt, High Priest of Ptah in Memphis and Sm-priest (of Ptah).“
Thutmose was the eldest son of the royal couple (Amenhotep III & Tiye), however Thutmose died before he could ever take the throne. Prince Thutmose disappears from the public records and appears to have died some time during the third decade of Amenhotep III’s kingship. The death of Thutmose, meant his younger brother, then known as Amenhotep IV became the successor to their father’s throne.
Amenhotep IV would be the son to become king, later renaming himself Akhenaten, and delivering Egypt with the start and ultimately the failure of Atenism.

Thutmose wears the side lock of youth, with a wig of short hair. Adorned upon his back is the skin of a leopard, signifying his priestly status. Grinding grain may seem like a peculiar thing for a royal to be depicted doing, however, foods stemming from Egyptian agriculture held an important spiritual purpose as well as a physical one. Foods such as bread were offered to the divine and the deceased eternally and represented a source of spiritual sustenance, both at temples and in tombs. In this pose, Thutmose would be performing his priestly duties of providing for the Gods eternally, and possibly for himself too.