<story><title>The Great Sphinx of Giza may have have started out as a natural formation</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/11/study-reveals-how-natural-processes-helped-sculpt-the-great-sphinx-of-giza/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tazjin</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s ridiculous that everyone with alternative ideas is labeled a &amp;quot;conspiracy theorist&amp;quot;. For example, there&amp;#x27;s a bunch of people with experience in engineering, material science and so on who&amp;#x27;ve been spending a lot of time doing extensive analysis (high-resolution 3D scans, material analysis with state of the art tools etc.)[0][1][2] of ... granite vases from Egypt.&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;re not coming up with theories saying &amp;quot;aliens made these vases!!!&amp;quot; or something, they&amp;#x27;re saying &amp;quot;we don&amp;#x27;t know how these were made, but with modern knowledge we believe it would not have been possible to make them by hand, and here&amp;#x27;s a list of arguments for why&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Yet they&amp;#x27;re labeled as conspiracy theorists and ridiculed, by people who&amp;#x27;re convinced that whatever they learned in school 20 years ago is the immutable ground truth, or - worse - by people whose careers are based on this ground truth being correct.&lt;p&gt;Maybe another factor is that a lot of people involved in these projects are not from academic career backgrounds, so they&amp;#x27;re excluded on the basis of elitism.&lt;p&gt;[0]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;unchartedx.com&amp;#x2F;site&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2023&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;Danville-Summary-Results-2023-10-01.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;unchartedx.com&amp;#x2F;site&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2023&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;Danvi...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;unchartedx.com&amp;#x2F;site&amp;#x2F;vase-scan-resources&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;unchartedx.com&amp;#x2F;site&amp;#x2F;vase-scan-resources&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;unsigned.io&amp;#x2F;granite-artefact&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;unsigned.io&amp;#x2F;granite-artefact&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Added links for people who aren&amp;#x27;t aware of these things going on.</text></item><item><author>dilippkumar</author><text>&amp;gt; and that therefore wink and nudge something something aliens.&lt;p&gt;You had me till this.&lt;p&gt;The conspiracy theorists actually make very good points. They’ve been vindicated by discoveries at Gobekli Tepi and others that basically demolish the strongest argument the Egyptologists had against a significantly older Sphinx - that no other megalithic structure had been found till then.&lt;p&gt;This is one of those situations where the conspiracy theorists make a far more convincing argument than mainstream, and entertainingly, all the recent discoveries in archeology have only strengthened the positions of the conspiracy theorists.&lt;p&gt;I would look at them again with fresh eyes. The younger dryas impact hypothesis looks especially convincing.</text></item><item><author>presidentender</author><text>When I was a kid we had a pseudoscience documentary about the Sphinx, narrated by Charlton Heston. They took the appealing argument that the surface looks like it&amp;#x27;s been eroded by water and extended that to conclude that it must have been carved by humans before undergoing water erosion, and that therefore it must be older than mainstream archaeology concludes. This, of course, means that every egyptologist is part of a massive conspiracy to hide the truth, and that therefore wink and nudge something something aliens.&lt;p&gt;I like this article better. Natural formation, carve a face on an existing head. No prehistoric levitation of massive stones.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>DoItToMe81</author><text>We do know how the vast majority of these artifacts were made, though. Most of the people &amp;quot;just asking questions&amp;quot; are ignorant of craftsmanship and historical achievements, whereas the &amp;#x27;academics&amp;#x27; are not.&lt;p&gt;Quartz and diorite are harder than granite. Quartz sand abrasion, hand drills utilizing quartz, diorite smoothing tools and melting with hot coals are all techniques recorded by the Egyptians, and have been reperformed by scientists and engineers with similar results.&lt;p&gt;UnchartedX is run by absolute whackjobs who believe an ancient super civilization, despite no iron, no lithium, no artifacts indicating use of electricity, milled these hand crafts with computer guided drills. It&amp;#x27;s even dumber than ancient aliens, because at least aliens could take the evidence of their existence with them.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Great Sphinx of Giza may have have started out as a natural formation</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/11/study-reveals-how-natural-processes-helped-sculpt-the-great-sphinx-of-giza/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tazjin</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s ridiculous that everyone with alternative ideas is labeled a &amp;quot;conspiracy theorist&amp;quot;. For example, there&amp;#x27;s a bunch of people with experience in engineering, material science and so on who&amp;#x27;ve been spending a lot of time doing extensive analysis (high-resolution 3D scans, material analysis with state of the art tools etc.)[0][1][2] of ... granite vases from Egypt.&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;re not coming up with theories saying &amp;quot;aliens made these vases!!!&amp;quot; or something, they&amp;#x27;re saying &amp;quot;we don&amp;#x27;t know how these were made, but with modern knowledge we believe it would not have been possible to make them by hand, and here&amp;#x27;s a list of arguments for why&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Yet they&amp;#x27;re labeled as conspiracy theorists and ridiculed, by people who&amp;#x27;re convinced that whatever they learned in school 20 years ago is the immutable ground truth, or - worse - by people whose careers are based on this ground truth being correct.&lt;p&gt;Maybe another factor is that a lot of people involved in these projects are not from academic career backgrounds, so they&amp;#x27;re excluded on the basis of elitism.&lt;p&gt;[0]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;unchartedx.com&amp;#x2F;site&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2023&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;Danville-Summary-Results-2023-10-01.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;unchartedx.com&amp;#x2F;site&amp;#x2F;wp-content&amp;#x2F;uploads&amp;#x2F;2023&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;Danvi...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;unchartedx.com&amp;#x2F;site&amp;#x2F;vase-scan-resources&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;unchartedx.com&amp;#x2F;site&amp;#x2F;vase-scan-resources&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;unsigned.io&amp;#x2F;granite-artefact&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;unsigned.io&amp;#x2F;granite-artefact&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Added links for people who aren&amp;#x27;t aware of these things going on.</text></item><item><author>dilippkumar</author><text>&amp;gt; and that therefore wink and nudge something something aliens.&lt;p&gt;You had me till this.&lt;p&gt;The conspiracy theorists actually make very good points. They’ve been vindicated by discoveries at Gobekli Tepi and others that basically demolish the strongest argument the Egyptologists had against a significantly older Sphinx - that no other megalithic structure had been found till then.&lt;p&gt;This is one of those situations where the conspiracy theorists make a far more convincing argument than mainstream, and entertainingly, all the recent discoveries in archeology have only strengthened the positions of the conspiracy theorists.&lt;p&gt;I would look at them again with fresh eyes. The younger dryas impact hypothesis looks especially convincing.</text></item><item><author>presidentender</author><text>When I was a kid we had a pseudoscience documentary about the Sphinx, narrated by Charlton Heston. They took the appealing argument that the surface looks like it&amp;#x27;s been eroded by water and extended that to conclude that it must have been carved by humans before undergoing water erosion, and that therefore it must be older than mainstream archaeology concludes. This, of course, means that every egyptologist is part of a massive conspiracy to hide the truth, and that therefore wink and nudge something something aliens.&lt;p&gt;I like this article better. Natural formation, carve a face on an existing head. No prehistoric levitation of massive stones.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>billyoyo</author><text>&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.metabunk.org&amp;#x2F;threads&amp;#x2F;claim-ancient-egyptians-could-not-work-granite-without-high-tech-diamond-tools.12963&amp;#x2F;#post-290360&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.metabunk.org&amp;#x2F;threads&amp;#x2F;claim-ancient-egyptians-cou...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s a nice compilation of evidence showing it&amp;#x27;s completely explainable how they could have made them.</text></comment>