Posted on 12/13/2004 5:36:33 PM PST by blam
I have solved riddle of the Sphinx, says Frenchman
By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent
(Filed: 14/12/2004)
Archaeologists, who are able to tell us who built the pyramids of Ancient Egypt, have puzzled over the riddle of the Sphinx for generations.
The identity of the ruler who ordered the building of the 65ft high, 260ft long limestone half-human statue that has guarded the Giza Plateau for 4,500 years has been lost in the sands of time.
Workers on the Sphinx in a television reconstruction
Now, following a 20-year re-examination of historical records and uncovering new evidence, Vassil Dobrev, a French Egyptologist, claims to have proved that the largest single stone statue on Earth is the work of a forgotten pharaoh.
The most popular theory of the origins of the Sphinx is that it was conceived by Khafre, a king of the Fourth Dynasty whose pyramid sits behind the statue.
However, in Secrets of the Sphinx, a documentary to be broadcast tonight on Channel Five, Dr Dobrev says it was created by Djedefre, Khafre's half brother and a son of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid.
Dr Dobrev, of the French Archaeological Institute in Cairo, said: "It is incredible. The most important image in Egypt, the Sphinx, and we can't say who it was with certainty.
"This is the first time it has been proposed that the Sphinx has been built after the death of Khufu by his son Djedefre who succeeded him."
Khafre, the builder of the nearby second pyramid at Giza who ruled from 2558 to 2532 BC, has traditionally been credited with creating the Sphinx.
He is referred to in the Dream Stella, a stone tablet that tells of a young prince who dreamed that the Sphinx promised to make him king if he cleared the sand from its paws. He built both the pyramid behind the Sphinx and two temples in front of it.
However Dr Dobrev noticed that the causeway connecting Khafre's pyramid to the temples was built around the Sphinx - meaning it was already in existence.
All known statues of Khafre show him with a beard - but the Sphinx has none. Dr Dobrev says fragments of a giant beard found beneath the sphinx that survive in Cairo Museum were a later addition.
Several years ago Rainer Stadelmann, the former director of the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo, suggested an alternative theory, that Khafre's father Khufu - the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza - created the Sphinx.
A small statuette of Khufu, the only commonly acknowledged image of the pharaoh, shows him to have a very square chin, like the Sphinx.
Dr Dobrev says he has uncovered other images of Khufu, none of which have beards, and that this proves the sphinx represents Khufu.
The nemes, the sphinx's headdress, has markings representing two small pleats and one large. Khufu is shown with a similar nemes in at least one other statue.
Dr Dobrev says the Sphinx was built by Djedefre in the image of his father Khufu, identifying him with the sun god Ra in order to restore respect for their dynasty.
George Reisner, a respected American archaeologist in the 1930s, portrayed Djedefre as a plotter whose tomb was built away from Giza because he tried to murder his brother Kawab. Dr Dobrev says Reisner's theory is unsubstantiated. He asks why a carved stone list of donations made to Kawab's daughter would have an emblem of Djedefre on it if he was her father's murderer. He says that Djedefre was a visionary builder who built a sun temple at Abu Roash, six miles from Giza, a structure so far believed by archaeologists to be a pyramid.
Dr Dobrev re-examined graffiti carved by workers at a site called Zawiyet el-Aryan and believes this shows he has uncovered Djedefre's pyramid tomb
Dr Nigel Strudwick, of the British Museum, said: "It is not implausible. But I would need more explanation, such as why he thinks the pyramid at Abu Roash is a sun temple, something I'm sceptical about. I have never heard anyone suggest that the name in the graffiti at Zawiyet el-Aryan mentions Djedefre.
"I remain more convinced by the traditional argument of it being Khafre or the more recent theory of it being Khufu."
Thanks for the link. From the site:
'The Great Sphinx is much less lion-like than generally assumed, and appears to be a dog-cat-human hybrid.'
here's links to three copies of the same paper:
Redating the Sphinx
http://members.aol.com/davidpb4/sphinx1.html
Redating the Sphinx
http://www.earlyworld.de/RedatingtheSphinx.htm
The pyramids and the Sphinx were once under water
http://falundafa-newengland.org/MA/science/pyramids.htm
Heh... that link looks mighty familiar for some reason. ;')
I just took a look at Dr Schoch's new site:
http://www.robertschoch.net/
Schoch's links on the homepage are screwed up. Here's an example of a correct link:
http://www.robertschoch.net/articles.html
how does this explain the extreme weathering on the body of the sphinx?
Geological Evidence of the Sphinx
Dr. Robert M. Schoch
http://www.robertschoch.net/articles/geological_evidence_sphinx.html
"Based on my field observations of the granite ashlars and the underlying limestone blocks, I believe that the limestone core blocks of both the Sphinx Temple and the Valley Temple were exposed to the elements and underwent considerable weathering and erosion before the granite was put into place. In places the backs of the granite facing blocks were cut in an irregular, undulating pattern so that they would complement or match the irregular weathering pattern on the limestone blocks that they were used to refurbish... The general Egyptological community agrees that the granite facing on the Sphinx and Valley Temples is attributable to Khafre... On site I found an inscription carved into the granite of the Valley Temple which according to West... appears, on stylistic grounds, to be an Old Kingdom inscription. It seems a good assumption that the limestone core blocks would have been freshly cut (that is, unweathered) when initially used to construct the temples. Therefore if the granite facing is covering deeply weathered limestone, the original limestone structures must predate by a considerable degree the granite facing. Obviously, if the limestone cores (originating from the Sphinx ditch) of the temples predate the granite ashlars (granite facings), and the granite ashlars are attributable to Khafre of the Fourth Dynasty, then the Great Sphinx was built prior to the reign of Khafre... As mentioned above, the ashlars bear Old Kingdom inscriptions and therefore must be at least as old as the Old Kingdom. But the Old Kingdom inscriptions could conceivably have been carved into still earlier structures."
[in the video, Schoch shows the spot where the inscription occurs, and the translation he gives is, "beloved of, living forever", IOW, two fragments of a longer original, i.e., the granite was quarried from an existing monument and laid over the eroded limestone original; this is actually a weak part of the theory, as the erosion could have occurred prior to the quarrying of the limestone, which was then assembled into the two temples; in that case, the granite could have been obtained from another abandoned structure during, say, the New Kingdom, when the Giza monuments experienced a bit of a renaissance. IMHO, I agree with Schoch et al that the head was recarved; my view is that it was done during the Ethiopian Dynasty / 25th Dynasty]
Heh.... and I thought Swordmaker's use of "dogmatic" was funny...
Earlier populations were much more primitive. They didn't build stuff for one thing. However, there were undoubtedly itinerate Sumerians coming into the area for raw materials.
The Nile valley was a wild place in those days without civilization.
Get your time line together. When Neolithic Semitic speaking Egypt started the old mushroom culture was gone! Did these guys use dope? I don't know. Probably. Everybody used dope in the old days. Now, did they use Soma? Could be. Probably if they traveled to Sumer or the far North they did, or even to the top of a mountain somewhere.
I think you're on to something....
Thanks.
You're welcome. When I said "the same paper", I meant those three links led to the same paper in three different places. Sorry for my confusing choice of words.
Just for you. :')
Pyramid Discovered at Abu Rowash
(not by) Zahi Hawass
Ministry of Culture
Supreme Council of Antiquities
Secretary General Office
http://www.guardians.net/hawass/new_pyramid_discovered_at_abu_ro.htm
[also related]
Djedefre - History
Ancient Egypt dot Org ^ | Last update: 8 May, 2003 | Jacques Kinnaer
Posted on 08/09/2004 4:25:53 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1188269/posts
I thought the “riddle of the Sphinx” was:
What walks with four legs, two legs and three legs?
An American politician trying to elected, or an American attorney trying to win his case.
An American politician trying to elected, or an American attorney trying to win his case.
It DOES rain in Egypt. And presumably has done so over the millenia. And when it rains in the desert - it rains HARD.
Other geologists - MOST geologists - who have examined the weathering explain it as due to wind and sand. So does Hawass.
So that one geologist who buys into the 10,000 year history of the sphinx is pretty alone on the weathering.
As for Djedefre building the Sphynx - its very possible.
With so much damage done to the features it could be hard to identify the image definitively.
As with a lot of Ancient History there is much room for speculation and not as much data as would be optimal.
Thank you for those sites. I have saved them in my favorites.
Ever read the book by Miroslav Verner on the Pyramids?
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