KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images(CAIRO) — In a case of mistaken identity, Egypt’s antiquities minister says that a statue pulled from the mud is not of Pharaoh Ramses II, as believed, but could be another king.
BBC News reports that Khaled el-Anani said at a Thursday news conference that the statue was likely Psamtek I, who ruled from 664 B.C. to 610 B.C. It had been thought that the statue portrayed the leader known as Ramses the Great due to its proximity to a temple dedicated to that leader.
However, one of the names of Psamtek I was found engraved on the statue Thursday.
The 29-foot tall artifact was moved from a pool of groundwater to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It was there that the engraving was spotted.
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