The Head of Amenhotep III, from the New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, circa 1390-1352
Good news from Egypt: A 13-meter-long carving of Amenhotep III, granddaddy of the more famous Tutankhamun, has resurfaced.
A team of archeologists from Egypt, which presumably kept working amidst the epic change their society was going through, have brought to light a statue of the ninth king of the 18th Dynasty (1390-1352 B.C.), Amenhotep III.
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The figure, broken in seven large blocks of quartzite, was found near the the temple of Luxor during routine works. The last time it saw the light of the day was in the 1070s.
According to Zahi Hawass, Minister of State for Antiquities, the statue is one of the pair that adorned the northern entrance of the 3400-year-old funerary temple, reportedly the largest of its kind ever built.
The finding (and its twin figure, not yet recovered) were unearthed previously more than 30 years ago, by two Egyptologists, Labib Habachi and Gerhard Haeny.
“These Egyptologists documented both statues and left them on site, hidden in the sand,” Hawass said in a statement reported by Discovery News.
NewsFeed is desperate to know what went through the heads (perhaps also missing?), of the two Egyptologists who first documented this and other findings and then left them in the sand.
(More on TIME.com: Archaeologists Unearth the World’s Oldest Wine Press)