Mind-Benders of Ancient Egyptian History
A king who made new art look 2,000 years old
Under Psamtik I, whose reign began around 664 BCE, Egyptian artists deliberately revived the styles of the Pyramid Age, copying reliefs and statuary made nearly two thousand years earlier so faithfully that scholars still work to tell the Saite imitations from the Old Kingdom originals.
How we know
Psamtik I reigned c. 664–610 BCE (26th/Saite Dynasty); Saite archaism copied Old Kingdom Pyramid-Age models of c. 2600 BCE — a gap of ~1,936 years (Britannica; UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, "Archaism").
One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.