Egyptian statue recently unearthed is not Ramses II - Sensationalist Headlines

[IMG]https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/csz/news/800/2017/egyptianstat.jpg[/IMG] [QUOTE]A massive statue recently unearthed in Cairo and thought to depict one of the country's most famous pharaohs may be of another ancient Egyptian ruler, the country's antiquities minister said Thursday. Khaled el-Anani said the colossus discovered last week in a Cairo suburb by an Egyptian-German team almost certainly depicts Psamtek I, a little known pharaoh from the 26th dynasty who ruled Egypt between 664 and 610 B.C. "We are not going to be categorical, but there is a strong possibility that it's of Psamtek I," el-Anani told reporters in the front yard of the famed Egyptian museum in the heart of Cairo. Sitting just meters (yards) away were parts of the statue, including the torso and a partial head, which were ferried across the city before dawn on Thursday. The statue was thought to be of Ramses II, who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. "There is a possibility, albeit small, that Psamtek I reused an older statue that may be of Ramses II," el-Anani said. He said the size of the statue—with an estimated height of some 9 meters (26 feet) and a weight of seven tons—was typical of Ramses II's era, but that hieroglyphs discovered at the statue's back-pillar after it was unearthed showed that it was of Psamtek I. "We will not be 100 percent certain that it is of Psamtek I, but give us days, weeks or months and we will be certain," he said.[/QUOTE] [url]https://phys.org/news/2017-03-egyptian-statue-ramses-ii.html[/url]

May not be* should be the actual title. They say they're not 100% sure.

It still blows my mind that we know the names of individual people from that long ago.

I love how the cat in the photo is reclined in almost the exact position a sphinx is usually depicted in.

cool its even rarer

[QUOTE=Headhumpy;51984437]I love how the cat in the photo is reclined in almost the exact position a sphinx is usually depicted in.[/QUOTE] I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that.

So it wasn't The Man in Gauze.

They can probably figure out more precisely what era it's from with radiometry.

[QUOTE=nerdster409;51984518]So it wasn't The Man in Gauze.[/QUOTE] That means the slab is worth fuck-all, I'm afraid.

[QUOTE=Zero-Point;51984846]That means the slab is worth fuck-all, I'm afraid.[/QUOTE] Doesn't diminish its cool factor in my opinion. Ancient Egypt is still ancient

[QUOTE=UnknownDude;51984843]They can probably figure out more precisely what era it's from with radiometry.[/QUOTE] can't really do that with rock though and even then, they still will probably never be able to precisely identify who it depicts because there wasn't exactly a standard form for each pharaoh

[QUOTE=Zero-Point;51984846]That means the slab is worth fuck-all, I'm afraid.[/QUOTE] Who cares about what it's worth? Like, I'd rather a historical artifact end up preserved for the public rather than sitting in a private collection because of its value

[QUOTE=gk99;51985130]Who cares about what it's worth? Like, I'd rather a historical artifact end up preserved for the public rather than sitting in a private collection because of its value[/QUOTE] I think he's talking about that scary as shit Courage the cowardly dog episode.

[QUOTE=_Kent_;51984430]It still blows my mind that we know the names of individual people from that long ago.[/QUOTE] I mean, it's not [I]that[/I] long ago, in terms of human history. Recorded history, sure, but that's only a fraction of it.

Thinking about how over 2500 years ago people were going about their business is pretty damn mind blowing

[QUOTE=SirJon;51986171]Thinking about how over 2500 years ago people were going about their business is pretty damn mind blowing[/QUOTE] its also pretty easy to find records of how ancient egyptians went about their lives because of the ostracon dumps and all the papyri which survived (quite a few!), pretty much, where they used stone and clay to make rough copies of a document before transferring them to papyrus.

[QUOTE=_Kent_;51984430]It still blows my mind that we know the names of individual people from that long ago.[/QUOTE] iirc the oldest name recorded was from the autobiography of some Sumerian woman. But then again I learned that on the deGrasse Tyson Cosmos so it's probably bullshit.