Robert Schoch
Boston University geologist; proponent of an older Sphinx
- Position
- Associate professor of natural sciences, Boston University College of General Studies (from 1984)
- Education
- PhD in geology and geophysics, Yale (1983)
- Known for
- Sphinx water erosion hypothesis (from 1991)
- Claim
- Sphinx core body dates to c. 10,000–5,000 BCE
- Reception
- Rejected by most Egyptologists and geologists
The geologist who argued from weathering patterns that the Great Sphinx is thousands of years older than Egyptologists accept.
What is Robert Schoch known for?
Robert M. Schoch is an American geologist who has taught at Boston University's College of General Studies since 1984. He earned his PhD in geology and geophysics at Yale and published peer-reviewed work on fossil mammals.
In the early 1990s, working with the author John Anthony West, he examined the Great Sphinx at Giza. At the 1991 meeting of the Geological Society of America he argued that deep, rounded weathering on the Sphinx and the walls of its enclosure was caused by prolonged rainfall, which would mean the core of the monument was carved in a wetter period, roughly 10,000 to 5,000 BCE, rather than around 2500 BCE under the pharaoh Khafre.
Most Egyptologists and geologists disagree. Mark Lehner and others point to the archaeological context tying the Sphinx to Khafre's pyramid complex and the absence of any older culture at Giza capable of the work, and geologists have offered other explanations for the weathering. Schoch has since written popular books on lost civilizations and ancient catastrophes. Writers such as Graham Hancock cite his work.
His water-erosion argument for an older Sphinx is noted as a claim most specialists reject.
Sources
- Wikipedia, 'Robert M. Schoch'Reference
- Robert M. Schoch, 'About' (author's site)Primary text
- Wikipedia, 'Sphinx water erosion hypothesis'Reference
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