entourage of the Persian King. After a while, however, Psamtik attempted to raise a rebellion among the Egyptians. When Cambyses learned of this, Psamtik is reported by Herodotus to have drunk bull's blood and immediately died. Herodotus also relates the desecration of Ahmose II/Amasis' mummy when the Persian king Cambyses conquered Egypt and thus ended the 26th (Saite) Dynasty: Plunder: the Sidonian sarcophagi The Egyptian anthropoid sarcophagi of Sidonian kings Eshmunazar II and that of his father Tabnit were manufactured around the time of the Achaemenid conquest of Egypt. Similar Egyptian sarcophagi, with characteristic plump and squarish broad faces, and smooth unarticulated bodies, are known to have been produced in the area of Memphis, during the reigns of Psamtik II (ca. 595–589 BCE) through the reign of Amasis II (570-526 BCE). The sarcophagi found in Sidon were originally made in Egypt for members of the Ancient Egyptian elite, but were then transported to Sidon and repurposed for the burial of Sidonian kings. The manufacture of this style of sarcophagi in Egypt ceased around 525 BCE with the fall of the 26th dynasty, therefore Elayi posits that the sarcophagi were seized and brought to Sidon by the Sidonians during their participation in Cambyses II's Achaemenid conquest of Egypt in 525 BCE. Whereas the Tabnit sarcophagus, belonging to the father of Eshmunazar II, reemployed a sarcophagus already dedicated on its front with a long Egyptian inscription in the name of an Egyptian general, the sarcophagus used for Eshmunazar II was new and was inscribed with a full-length dedication in Phoenician on a clean surface. According to René Dussaud, the new sarcophagus may have been ordered by his surviving mother, Queen Amoashtart, who arranged for the inscription to be made. The sarcophagi were probably, at least in part, captured as booty by the Sidonian Kings. Herodotus does recount an event in which Cambyses II "ransacked a burial ground at Memphis, where coffins were opened up and the dead bodies they contained were examined", quite possibly providing the occasion on which the sarcophagi were removed and reappropriated by his Sidonian subjects. This is especially the case of the sarcophagus of Tabnit, which was already dedicated to a military man named Penptah and may have been desecrated, whereas the unfinished, not yet dedicated, sarcophagus of Eshmunazar may have been obtained from a Memphis workshop. These sarcophagi (a third one probably belonged to the Queen Amoashtart),