The Sphinx Essay Research Paper The Great

The Sphinx Essay, Research Paper

The Great Sphinx Debate

A reaserch team has discovered evidence that the Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt, may date from 5000 and 7000 BCE and possibly earlier. In response , archeoligist have thrown mud at geologist, historians

caught in the middle, and the Sphinx , having revealed one secret, challenges us to unravel even greater

ones.

The dicovery originated half a century ago in the work of R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, between 1937

and 1952. Schwaller conducted a survey on the pyrimds and surrounding monuments. Schwaller observed a

physical anomaly in the pyrimid complex at Giza. The erosoin on the Sphinx was quite different from the

erosion on the other structures. Schwaller sugested that the cause of erosion on the Sphynx was water

rather than wind-borne sand. Since no one understood the implacations this study went unnoticed until the

1970’s, when an indepent Egyptologist John West took up the question.

Archaeologists atrribute the Sphinx to the Old Kingdom fourth dynasty ruler chepron, 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 experianced periods of heavy rainfalls in the millennia the marked the post-glacial northward

shift of the tempeture 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 weatering 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 encloser 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 layeers of rocks. Schoch discovered that the encloser floor in front and alongside of the Sphinx had

a weathered depth of six to eight feet. Also that the back of the encloser 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 encloser between

5000 and 7000BCE, 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 signifigantly older than 7000 BCE.

West disaproved 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 chepron.