Psammuthes, or Psammuthis, was a pharaoh of the Twenty-ninth Dynasty of Egypt during 392/1 BC.
Biography of Psammuthes
The place of this king in the dynasty is a matter of debate. Although he is mentioned in three other epitomes of Manetho’s Aegyptiaca (Africanus, Eusebius and the Armenian version of the latter) and the Demotic Chronicle, the sequence of kings is different among these sources, and it is unclear if Psammuthes succeeded Hakor or vice versa.
According to a hypothesis of the Egyptologist John D. Ray, upon the death of Nepherites I in 393 BC, the throne passed to his son and successor, which is likely to have been Hakor. However, in his Year 2, a usurper, Psammuthes (a Hellenized form of the Egyptian name Pasherienmut), seized power and deposed Hakor while proclaiming himself pharaoh.
Both Manetho and the Demotic Chronicle give Psammuthes a reign length of a year, agreeing with the highest date given by archaeological records, a Mother of Apis stele recording his “Year 1, the fourth month of Peret”. Before the year 2 of Psammuthes, and thus before the “official” year 3 of Hakor, the latter in some way resumed power and then continued to date his monuments since his first coronation date, simply pretending that the usurper never existed.
Nevertheless, some archaeological records mentioning Psammuthes have survived: the Mother of Apis stele from the Serapeum of Saqqara, a block from Akhmim, and other findings from the Theban region. Psammuthes is generally credited with having ordered the construction of a chapel in Karnak, which was later usurped and finished by Hakor. It is also possible, however, that the chapel was started by Hakor before his deposition and further restored by him during his second reign.
