Stele with Pharao’s name found in looting hole

Egyptian antiquities authorities discovered an ancient carved block in a hole in the floor of a an old two-story, mud-brick house  during inspection in the Beni Mansour area of Abydos, in Upper Egypt. The block is engraved with the cartouche of the 30th Dynasty King Nectanebo II (360-342 BC).

Stele with a cartouche of pharaoh Nectanebo II (by Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities)

The block was found at the bottom of the hole, about 4 metres below the floor. The object is covered with a cartouche of Nectanebo II, who ruled during Egypt’s 30th Dynasty and was the last native Egyptian pharaoh before his defeat during the Persian conquest by the Achaemenid Empire. The house where the block was found is now under police supervision. Police caught the suspects conducting the illegal excavation red-handed and have confiscated the house until the completion of investigations. According to the experts the block, measuring 1.40×40 cm,  may have been part of King Nectanebo II’s royal shrine or an extension of a wall of a temple built by the king.

(after Live Science, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities & Ahram Online)

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