The Sphinx: Dramatising Data … and Dating

Authors

  • G. Vandecruys Everselkiezel 73 3550 Heusden–Zolder,

Abstract

Geology and archaeology, carefully entwined, form the basis for deciding on a date of construction for the Great Sphinx at Giza. Over a decade after Robert Schoch’s controversial Pre–Dynastic proposal, Colin Reader takes up the debate again in the new millennium, and suggests a less extreme re–dating to the Early–Dynastic era. In tracing the data that forms the backbone for the ‘older Sphinx’ theories, I have found that a model of groundwater seepage leading to increased salt weathering rates explains the currently visible erosion morphology without requiring a change in the accepted chronology. On the archaeological side, several surrounding Giza monuments place an important limit on the possibility for an older Sphinx

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Photograph showing the degradation on the chest of the Sphinx

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Published

2020-11-30

How to Cite

Vandecruys, G. (2020). The Sphinx: Dramatising Data … and Dating. PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology, 3(1), 1-13. Retrieved from https://archives.palarch.nl/index.php/jae/article/view/931