The latest riddle of the sphinx

Previewing the Article

“How old are you?” That would be an easy question to answer, but not when scientists are asking it of the world-famous Great Sphinx of Egypt. The Sphinx remains silent, keeping its secret. But a range of specialists - archaeologists, geologists, geophysicists and engineers - are using high-tech science to try to determine its age.

For some readers, the headline on this article may raise three questions: (1) What’s a sphinx? (2) What’s a riddle? (3) What was the original riddle of the sphinx?

The sphinx, an imaginary animal, was created by ancient cultures and used in their art and leisure. In some folklore, the sphinx had the head of a human being, a bird, or a goat and the body of a lion. The oldest, largest and most well-known sculpture of a sphinx lies in a desert near Giza, Egypt. It is called the Great Sphinx. For thousands of years, it has guarded the tombs of the pharaohs (Egyptian kings). The Great Sphinx has a human face and the Egyptian royal headdress, over the body of a lion.

The riddle (puzzling question) of the sphinx comes from ancient Greek mythology. The sphinx lived on a high rock just outside the ancient city of Thebes, asking anyone who passed this riddle:

“What goes on four legs in the morning, on two at noon and on three in the evening?” None of the passerby could answer, and the sphinx killed them all. Then Oedipus solved the riddle and ended the reign of terror. Can you answer it?

Before You Read

Before you read the article, discuss these questions.

1. Have you ever visited Egypt and seen the Great Sphinx? If so, describe it and nearby pyramids. If no, try to find some information about this well-known sculpture.

2. What mythological creatures are you familiar with in your own native culture or others you have studied?

As You Read

The words erosion and weathering, both used in this article, refer to the gradual wearing away of the earth’s surface as the result of natural processes. Weathering is erosion caused by weather-related forces such as wind, windblown sand, rain, snow, floods and waves. As you read, look for information about how weathering of the Great Sphinx provides clues to its age.

The latest riddle of the sphinx

by John Noble Wilford

New York Times Service

New York - Unwrapping an enigma to find the riddle inside, geologists studying the Great Sphinx of Egypt have found patterns of weathering and erosion that they say show the imposing monument was created thousand years earlier than is generally thought.

Robert M. Schoch, a Boston University geologist who directed the research, reported that an ancient civilization carved the Sphinx between 5000 B.C. and 7000 B. C., long before the dynasties of pharaohs. Archeologists have long contended that it was built by Pharaoh Khafre about 2500 B. C.

Schoch suggested that Khafre had merely restored the Sphinx, a mythological creature with the body of a lion and a human head, and perhaps made some alterations. The monument, 66 feet high and 240 feet long (about 20 to 74 meters), stands at Giza with the Great Pyramids.

The research findings were announced Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in San Diego. They immediately drew fire from Mark Lehner, an Egyptologist at the University of Chicago who is a leading expert on the Sphinx.

5 The Associated Press quoted Lehner as saying there was “overwhelming evidence”, including samples of rock from the same quarry used for the Sphinx and other monuments at the site, to support Khafre’s role in the construction. Lehner was travelling in Egypt and could not be reached for further comment.

In a telephone interview, Schoch defended his research methods, which involved the use of sound waves to probe the subsurface rock and identify the depth and the distinctive pattern of weathering attributed to water.

He worked with Thomas L. Dobecki, a geophysicist at McBride-Ratcliff & Associates, a seismic surveying concern in Houston, and John Anthony West, an independent Egyptologist who had developed the theory that the Sphinx was much older than archaeologists had said.

If their findings are substantiated by other research, archaeologists may have to revise their interpretation of the Middle East before the rise of the Egyptian civilization in about 3000 B.C.

Little is known of these Neolithic cultures, but if some were capable of engineering projects on the scale of the Sphinx they can have no longer be viewed as simple hunters and gatherers.

10 The massive stone wall and tower of Jericho, dating back to the 9th millennium B.C., are among the few artefacts in the region that tend to support the notion that some of these early cultures might have been capable of conceiving and executing a construction project on the scale of the Sphinx.

Schoch, an associate professor of science, said that subsurface limestone at the front and sides of the Sphinx showed structural signs of water weathering as deep as six to eight feet. Limestone at the back of the Sphinx, carved from the bedrock, shows weathering only four feet deep.

“The dramatic weathering we found on the body of the Sphinx is not seen on other structures in the immediate vicinity”, Schoch said, “even of them many appear to have been cut or built from very similar or identical limestones and are supposed to have been built during the same period”.

Schoch said this suggested that at first the front of the body and head of the Sphinx were carved free from the surrounding bedrock. The rear of the creature remained merged with the surrounding rock.

It is a “reasonable hypothesis”, Schoch said, that Khafre repaired and refurbished the Sphinx and the two nearby temples, the Sphinx Temple and the Valley Temple, and also had the back, or western end, of the Sphinx carved out and freed from the cliff.

15 Since the monument was built by excavating surrounding limestone, exposing the core out of which the Sphinx was carved, the rock floor has presumably been exposed directly to weathering since the construction began.

The patterns, Schoch said, had all the marks of being “precipitation induced” weathering.

And since the effects were detectable at such great depth, he said, it indicated that work on the Sphinx had begun in the period between 10000 B. C. and 5000 B. C., when the Egyptian climate was wetter.

I. Getting the Message

A. After reading the article, indicate if each item is true (T) or false (F).

___ 1. The latest scientific research shows that the Great Sphinx is much younger experts previously thought.

___ 2. Geologist Robert Schoch believes that the Great Sphinx was built at least 7,000 years ago.

___ 3. In order to determine the age of the rock inside the Sphinx, scientists had to drill holes in it.

___ 4. By studying the depth of the weathering caused by water, scientists are trying to find out when the Sphinx was carved.

___ 5. The weathering patterns found on the front of the Sphinx resemble those on nearby stone structures.

___ 6. One hypothesis is that the carving of the Sphinx was finished several centuries after it was begun.

___ 7. Schoch’s theories about the age of the Sphinx have been confirmed by later research.

___ 8. The importance of Schoch’s theory is that our ideas about the achievements of early civilizations may change.

B. What is the importance of these dates?

3000 B.C. ____________

5000 - 7000 B.C. _______

9000 B.C. _____________

II. Expanding Your Vocabulary

A. Getting Meaning from Context

Use context clues to determine the meaning of each word, found in the paragraph(s) indicated in parentheses. Choose the right definition.

1. enigma (1):	puzzling question small piece of sculpture
2. contended (2):	a. agreed b. argued
3. mythological (3):	a. modern b. taken from legends
4. overwhelming (5):	a. very much b. surprising
5. revise (8):	a. visit someone again b. change something, but not completely
6. dramatic (12):	a. important and very noticeable b. theatrical
7. merged (13):	a. under b. combined with
8. presumably (15):	a. supposedly b. certainly
9. detectable (17):	a. capable of being discovered b. buried

B. Studying Word Parts

Match underlined word part with its definition.

1. archaeologist a. a person who studies

2. Egyptologist a. under, below, beneath

3. excavating, exposing a. ancient, the beginning

4. geologist a. speech, story, legend

5. mythological a. earth, on the earth

6. subsurface a. out, from, away from

III. Making Sense of Sentences

Some statements that include an if-clause are about a possibility, something that could happen in the future.

If it rains tomorrow, we won’t take a walk.

Other if-clauses are about imagining that something impossible (or not true) happened or could happen.

If I had four hands, I could do a lot more work.

Reread the if-statements in paragraphs 8 and 9. Are they telling about something possible or impossible?

1. If Robert Schoch is correct, ___ .

2. If Mark Lenner is correct, ___ .

3. If archaeologists knew which pharaoh built the Sphinx, ___ .

4. If the Sphinx had been made of wood or clay, ___ .

5. If I ever take a trip to Egypt, ___ .

Which of the five statements above are about possibilities?

IV. Talking and Writing

Discuss the following topics. Then choose one of them to write about.

1. In your native country, are there any very old structures that people come to see? Choose one and tell what and where it is, how and when it was built and why people find it interesting today.

2. What scientific or historical puzzles do you know about? How are scientists or other specialists trying to solve them? Examples could be the origin of old structures or monuments and how they were built. Why do you think these puzzles interest people? Are they worth the effort to solve?