Thutmose usurped by Ramesside family
This red granite statue of a king wearing the White Crown (Hedjet), was originally from Karnak, and has been recarved with the cartouches (namesake in rectangular-oval casing) of king Ramesses II and his son, the king Merenptah. It is believed this statue originally dates from the 18th Dynasty, and based upon the face and style, it is likely this was originally a depiction of king Thutmose III.
Usurping statues, or recycling statues and other relics or monumental structures with the name of a current king was actually a common practice in Ancient Egypt, and Ramesses II, was most notable for this practice. It was perhaps a way of saving wealth, or identifying with the previous kings.
By the time the Ramesside era took place, Egypt had gone through monumental falls and monumental resurrections. Thutmose III, who Egyptologists often refer to as the Napoleon of Egypt, expanded the empire across the Eastern Mediterranean and held great status.
The descendant of the unifier of the two lands after the Second Intermediate Period, Thutmose III’s military prowess went on to be admired by later kings for generations to come. However, despite his glorious reign, the 18th Dynasty eventually fell after the experimental Amarna age and lead to the end of the Thutmosid line after the death of Tutankhamun.
It was then that Egypt saw the reign of the military kings of the Ramesside age take place. A family who were given the throne by king Horemheb, who was also a military general, who became king after the death of Tutankhamun.
Acknowledging the controversial end of the Thutmosid line, the Ramesside kings therefore took it upon themselves to restore Egypt’s greatness and shine a light on the past kings who kept Egypt in high regard across the known world, such as Seti I’s famous King’s List.
A documentation of previous kings spanning the ages of Ancient Egypt, which left out those rulers who Egypt seemingly may have wanted to forget (rulers of a weakened period, or those controversial figures who went against the cannon of Egyptian rulership), and the renaming of statues of the past great kings.Statues of past kings, may often find themselves recarved with the namesake of a new ruler.
Amenhotep III, a prolific builder of monumental temples and magnificent colossal figures, was one of the rulers who the Ramesside era looked highly upon, and those later kings often took it upon themselves to recycle his work. Therefore, this explains why you may find a statue which dates from the 18th Dynasty, with the recognizable face of Amenhotep or another king, has a namesake of a ruler from a century or two later…
In regard to Amenhotep III, it is probably safe to presume the later Egyptians deemed Amenhotep III, as the last great king of the 18th Dynasty.
