The Archaeology of the Sphinx - A fundraising online Zoom lecture
Date: Saturday 195th October 2024 at 2.00 pm
By
Dr Mark Lehner
Cost:Cost: £5.00 Members and £8.00 Visitors
Venue: Online
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Image of Sphinx map (top right) courtesy AERA
Abstract
Before the launch of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) Sphinx Project in 1979, no scale drawings of the Sphinx had ever been made. Directed by Dr. James Allen with Dr. Mark Lehner as field director, this project produced the first detailed scale plans of the Sphinx—a master plan, top plans, elevations, sections, and profiles. It also mapped masonry repairs, the adjacent temples, the Sphinx amphitheater, and the structural geology of the site. This stone by stone mapping of the Sphinx, Sphinx Temple, and the adjacent Khafre Valley Temple helps us answer questions such as Who Built the Sphinx?
Biography
Mark Lehner is the Director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates, Inc. (AERA), an American nonprofit organization to promote Egyptian archaeology. He received his PhD in Egyptology from Yale University in 1991. Lehner is an Associate at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures of the University of Chicago. During forty years of archaeological work, Lehner mapped the Great Sphinx and Giza plateau and discovered the Lost City of the Giza Pyramids. AERA sponsors annual excavations of the pyramid builders’ settlements near the Sphinx and Pyramids with an interdisciplinary and international team of archaeologists, surveyors, geochronologists, botanists, and faunal specialists who focus on the everyday lives of ancient Egyptians. Since 2005 AERA has directed archaeological field schools to train young archaeologists working for the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities at Giza, Luxor, and Memphis on behalf of the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE) a consortium of U.S. universities and museums. Lehner’s research interests include settlement archaeology; archaeological method and interpretation; ancient quarrying and construction; irrigation and water transport infrastructure, ancient society and economy and complexity studies applied to the social sciences.
