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."
It's Bush's fault.
A Russian name a French Man? Hmmmmmm!
The last 'surge' of the Ice Age melt was 7-8,000 years ago...probably changed the climate.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
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this isn't the topic I'm thinking of, but it is quite pertinent:
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
Khufu And The Chamber Of Secrets
IOL ^ | 11-28-2002 | Owen Coetzer
Posted on 11/28/2002 11:14:44 AM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/797542/posts?page=1
Khufu and the chamber of secrets (new Info!)
IOL ^ | November 28 2002 at 02:24PM | By Owen Coetzer
Posted on 11/29/2002 6:14:21 PM PST by vannrox
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/798093/posts
ah, here's the post I was looking for:
Tomb May Shed Light On 10th Plague
Boston Globe ^ | 11-23-2004 | Charles M. Sennott
Posted on 11/23/2004 6:11:43 PM PST by blam
67 posted on 11/24/2004 9:54:11 AM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1287173/posts?page=67#67
Note that the Sphinx has a jutting chin conspicuously absent on all the members of that family (whose images survive) from Sneferu on down.
...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.
Let me see if I have this straight... The Sphynx was built by Khafre's half brother (and Khufu's son), Djedefre, who followed him as Pharoah... and this Frenchman with the Russian name deduced all this because Khafre's causeway from his Pyramid JOGGED to avoid the already existing Sphynx???? Did Djedefre build it BEFORE he became Pharoah...
NOSE PICKING! He reached in and found a bugger and now is explaining the whichness of the why because of what he found on the tip of his finger!
...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.
What did they stick the tons of beard on with? Egyptian Beard Glue? Gum Arabic???
The cootie in the Cootie Game being played all day by two toddlers.
It has never "rung true" that Napoleon would have permitted such desecration. Napoleon is credited with the CREATION of Egyptology as a science. It was he who brought Champollion to Egypt to study the ruins.
Their guessing is based on the same faulty logic that discusses "anual rings" in polar ice core samples. Glacier Girl was covered in hundreds of feet of snow and ice pack in less than 50 years with hundreds of "annual rings". By faulty science, we'd have to call recent recorded history an utter lie and place WWII back several hundred years. That or admit the scientists are clueless and bs us to look like they know what they're talking about.
You simply check the Carbon 14 levels in the air inside the ice. I don't believe they rely on ice rings.
Sahara's abrupt desertificationGerman scientists, employing a new climate system model, have concluded that this desertification was initiated by subtle changes in the Earth's orbit and strongly amplified by resulting atmospheric and vegetation feedbacks in the subtropics. The timing of this transition was, they report, mainly governed by a global interplay among atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, and vegetation... the model led to the conclusion that the desertification of North Africa began abruptly 5,440 years ago (+/- 30 years). Before that time, the Sahara was covered by annual grasses and low shrubs, as evidenced by fossilized pollen.
by Harvey Leifert
Interesting that Lake Victoria ceased to be, then came back, and all so recently.Evolution in Your FaceLake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, is home to more than 300 species of cichlids. These fish, which are popular in aquariums, are deep-bodied and have one nostril, rather than the usual two, on each side of the head. Seismic profiles and cores of the lake taken by a team headed by Thomas C. Johnson of the University of Minnesota, reveal that the lake dried up completely about 12,400 years ago. This means that the rate of speciation of cichlid fishes has been extremely rapid: something on average of one new species every 40 years!
by Patrick Huyghe
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Djedefre preceded Khafre on the throne. His burial complex at Abu Roash north of Giza was left unfinished, presumably because of his short reign, and was picked apart for building stone over the centuries. Djedefre's brother didn't bother to finish it either, making it plausible that there was an intrafamily struggle of some kind. Menkaure, son and successor of Khafre, wasn't able to build nearly as big a pyramid at Giza, and his successor reverted to a mastaba, constructed some miles south. It's also plausible to suggest that Egypt was coming apart, either due to the squabbles and dynastic struggles, or due to the weather, or due to a massive migration into the Nile Valley by other ethnic groups, or some combination of these.
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