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A research team has discovered evidence that the Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt, may date from 5000 and 7000 BCE and possibly earlier. In response, archeologist have thrown mud at geologist, historians caught in the middle, and the Sphinx, having revealed one secret, challenges us to unravel even greater The discovery originated half a century ago in the work of R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, between 1937 and 1952. Schwaller conducted a survey on the periods and surrounding monuments.
Schwaller observed a physical anomaly in the pyramid complex at Giza. The erosion on the Sphinx was quite different from the erosion on the other structures. Schwaller suggested that the cause of erosion on the Sphinx was water rather than wind-borne sand. Since no one understood the implications this study went unnoticed until the 1970 's, when an indecent Egyptologist John West took up the question. Archaeologists attribute the Sphinx to the Old Kingdom fourth dynasty ruler chevron, though others belive that the Sphinx dates as far back as 10000 BCE.
This is the side that I'm defending because of all of the convincing evidence that has been found. On the Sphinx the edges were rounded and deep fissures were prominent. On the other structures the surfaces showed only the sharper abrasion of wind and sand. Egypt experience periods of heavy rainfalls in the millennia the marked the post-glacial northward shift of the temperature zone. This period lasted from about 10000 to 5000 BCE and by its end the Sahara had turned from green savanna into a desert.
A shorter but more intense period of rainfall lasted from about 4000 to 3000 BCE. Westy thought that flooding from the post-glacial transition caused the distinctive watering on the Sphinx which meant that the Sphinx must have been carved during or before the transition. Robert Schoch, a geologist, joined West in his investigation on the dating of the Sphinx. Archeologist agreed that the lower half of the Sphinx may have been eroded by the flood waters, but Schoch observed that the upper level and the enclosed walls, of the Sphinx was the most heavily eroded, not the bottom half. The degree of the subsurface weathering could be measured by bouncing sound waves off of deeper layers of rocks. Schoch discovered that the enclosed floor in front and alongside of the Sphinx had a weathered depth of six to eight feet.
Also that the back of the enclosed had weathered only half as far. Behind the Sphinx had been excavated during the Old Kingdom but he concluded that the sides and front of the monument were twice as old. Schoch estimated the date of the Sphinx and most of its enclosed between 5000 and 7000 BCE, far earlier than the date assumed by archeologist. Schoch noted that the weathering could have been non-linear, slowing as it got deeper because of the increasing mass of rock overhead. On this assumption, the Sphinx could have been significantly older than 7000 BCE. West disapproved one piece of supposed evidence.
With the help of a New York City police artist, Detective Sgt. Frank Domingo. WEst compared the head of the Sphinx with a known head of chevron. Sergeant Domingo generated profiles of the two heads by computer and by hand and found a very different facial structure in the profile of the Sphinx compared to the profile of chevron.
The difference is easily seen To the problem of the archeological context for an earlier Sphinx, Schoch replied that urban centers had to existed in the eastern Mediterranean at Catal Huyuk from the seventh millenium and at Jericho from the ninth millennium BCE. At Jericho there were large stone walls and a thirty foot tower. No such settlement had been found in Egypt itself but clearly there was civilization in the region. More evidence could be under millennia of the Nile river silt. An advanced civilization may not have been necessary. A Neolithic culture was able to erect Stonehenge in Britain.
Astronomist soon joined the debate over the Sphinx and brought more evidence of a possible earlier civilization. In 1993 Graham Hancock had a hunch that the curios harking back to the epoch of 10, 500 Bce the period builders was an invitation to them to consider the actual age of the Sphinx. If this hypothesis is true, then the Sphinx must be an "original" time-marker that remote epoch using a celestial tag. Hancock pointed out that the First Time date of 10500 BCE also denoted the begining or First Time of the Age of the Leo. This is the time when the lion constellation would have risen at dawn before the sun on the day of spring equinox.
This event brought the celestial lion to rest due east, thus in perfect element with the Sphinx. The Sphinx, in other words was made to look at his own image in the horizon- - and consequently at his own "time." Hancock pointed out that 10500 BCE was no random date. A " luck turn of the spade" form one of the laborers unearthed part of ananceint complex of underground galleries and pathways. It looked as if part of the area had already been excavated some years ago but the, for reasons unknown, it was covered up again. This was evident by the blotches of moder mortar and iron bars that were left embedded in the ceiling of the ancient pathways, probably in an attempt to reinforce the relics. But why the vestiges were covered up again, and why and how they came to be West has suggested that an ice age date for the Sphinx raises anew the question of a lost ice age civilization, possibly the Atlantis of ancient legend.
The evidence dating the Sphinx to an earlier time period doesn't prove such legends. But if the hypothesis of rainfall erosion is true, it does call the known chronology of African and indeed world civilization into question. The evidence for an earlier Sphinx raises additional questions: If the Sphinx complex is so much older who built it and why? Should we be more tentative in what we assume about the first half of the last ten thousand years?
If so, how should that affect what we know about the second half? Some answers may come in the next few years as the new findings are examined and tested. Until then, the Sphinx challenges us to rethink our history and keep an open mind. Bibliography:
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