Mark E Lehner
University of Chicago, Oriental Institute, Department Member
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Research Interests: Archaeology and Art
This archives media files associated with the <em>ARCE Sphinx Project 1979-1983 Archive</em> project published by Open Context.The included JSON file "zenodo-oc-files.json" describes links between the various files... more
This archives media files associated with the <em>ARCE Sphinx Project 1979-1983 Archive</em> project published by Open Context.The included JSON file "zenodo-oc-files.json" describes links between the various files in this archival deposit and their associated Open Context media resources (identified by URI). These linked Open Context media resource items provide additional context and descriptive metadata for the files archived here.<br><strong>Brief Description of this Project</strong><br>Maps, drawings, and photographs from the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) Sphinx Project, 1979-1983
Research Interests: World Wide Web and Sphinx
This archives media files associated with the <em>ARCE Sphinx Project 1979-1983 Archive</em> project published by Open Context.The included JSON file "zenodo-oc-files.json" describes links between the various files... more
This archives media files associated with the <em>ARCE Sphinx Project 1979-1983 Archive</em> project published by Open Context.The included JSON file "zenodo-oc-files.json" describes links between the various files in this archival deposit and their associated Open Context media resources (identified by URI). These linked Open Context media resource items provide additional context and descriptive metadata for the files archived here.<br><strong>Brief Description of this Project</strong><br>Maps, drawings, and photographs from the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) Sphinx Project, 1979-1983
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Research Interests: Archaeology and Sphinx
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In addition to understanding small-scale societies in their own right "from a complex systems perspective" (Boekhorst and Hemelrijk this volume), workshop participants expressed a goal of using insights about the dynamics of... more
In addition to understanding small-scale societies in their own right "from a complex systems perspective" (Boekhorst and Hemelrijk this volume), workshop participants expressed a goal of using insights about the dynamics of small-scale societies to better understand the "evolution of state-like structures" (Small this volume), or "the 'emergence' trajectories by which a smallscale society, in its environment, may move autonomously from relatively simple (distributed, no ranking or centralized decision making) to complex (ranking/hierarchy, with centralized decision making and a degree of specialization)" (Doran this volume). Small-scale societies are seen as "preceding conditions" to the development of "rank vs. egalitarian ideologies" (Wright this volume) such as are found in archaic states. Ancient Egypt is a salient example of such an archaic state. In the comparative study of civilizations, ancient Egypt has stood out as the quintessence of a centralized nation-state ruling a large territory. Egyptologists often operate through a vision of ancient Egyptian society, whether explicit or assumed, as highly absolutist. Pharaoh's control of society is complete, effected through an invasive and pervasive centralized bureaucracy. Anthropologists, taking their cue from Egyptologists, see Egypt as one of the earliest examples of a unified nation-state, with a redistributive economy centrally administered over the entirety of the Egyptian Nile Valley. I offer a prospectus for approaching Egyptian civilization as a complex adaptive system (CAS) based on loose analogies with concepts of emergent order and self-organization. This a narrative exploration of ways that ancient Egyptian society may be amenable to the kind of agent-based modeling applied to small-scale societies. Although I recognize that in discussions of "complexity theory" there is nothing close to unanimity or an agreed paradigm (Wilson 1998), some of the more general concepts may at least offer insightful new ways to view social complexity in Egypt. My prospectus is a workin- progress. My sources for complex systems studies are "the literature of metaphor (e.g., Cowan et al. 1994), and the popularizations of metaphysics"; that is to say, what follows is most certainly in Morowitz's (1998) category of meta-metaphor (and I will try to refrain from "word magic").
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DURING the clearance of the area at the south base of the Second Giza Pyramid by Abdel Hafez Abd el-'Al in I960, a sealed passage was discovered near the remains of the small satellite pyramid, GI Ia.1 The passage opens in the... more
DURING the clearance of the area at the south base of the Second Giza Pyramid by Abdel Hafez Abd el-'Al in I960, a sealed passage was discovered near the remains of the small satellite pyramid, GI Ia.1 The passage opens in the bedrock 4 m west of the satellite pyramid and ...
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From 1979 to 1983 the American Research Center in Egypt carried out an architectural, archaeological and geo-archaeological study of the Giza Sphinx. Photogrammetry and conventional surveying techniques were used to prepare detailed plans... more
From 1979 to 1983 the American Research Center in Egypt carried out an architectural, archaeological and geo-archaeological study of the Giza Sphinx. Photogrammetry and conventional surveying techniques were used to prepare detailed plans and front and side elevations of the monument. These have made it possible to construct a computer model of the current condition of the Sphinx, and its hypothesized condition in ancient times, both as originally carved in the 4th Dynasty, and as remodelled and renovated during the 18th Dynasty. Careful analysis of surviving detached fragments of the Sphinx allowed details of beard and uraeus to be included in the reconstruction. This process of creating a computer model of the Sphinx is akin to sculpting the statue again in computer memory.
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Research Interests: Conversation and Elite
... pyramid of Khufu. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Lehner, Mark. PUBLISHER: P. von Zabern (Mainz am Rhein). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1985. PUB TYPE: Book (ISBN 3805308140 ). VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): x,. SUBJECT(S): Jizah... more
... pyramid of Khufu. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Lehner, Mark. PUBLISHER: P. von Zabern (Mainz am Rhein). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1985. PUB TYPE: Book (ISBN 3805308140 ). VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): x,. SUBJECT(S): Jizah (Egypt); Egypt; ...
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Cet article rend compte en les évaluant des similitudes existant entre les écuelles grossières mésopotamiennes de la Période d'Uruk et le moule à pain (bedja) de l'Ancien Empire égyptien. Formes, pâtes, techniques de fabrication,... more
Cet article rend compte en les évaluant des similitudes existant entre les écuelles grossières mésopotamiennes de la Période d'Uruk et le moule à pain (bedja) de l'Ancien Empire égyptien. Formes, pâtes, techniques de fabrication, contexte archéologique, évolution, sont comparés; puis vient l'examen du pictogramme égyptien utilisé pour désigner le bedja. Sont enfin considérées les implications que peut avoir l'identification de l'écuelle grossière mésopotamienne avec le moule à pain égyptien pour notre connaissance de la formation de l'Etat dans le Proche Orient ancien.
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Tomb and temple - the meaning of the pyramids explorers and scientists the whole pyramid catalogue building a pyramid the living pyramid the legacy of the pyramid.
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Abstract Includes index and bibliographical references.. Appendix I, pottery/by Pamela J. Rose; Appendix II, textiles/by Gillian M. Vogelsang-Eastwood.. Electronic reproduction.. xxii,[72 p., 91] p. of plates ill., maps, plans 32 cm
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The MACHO Project was a collaboration between scientists at the Mt. Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, the Center for Particle Astrophysics at the Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Berkeley campuses of the University of California, and... more
The MACHO Project was a collaboration between scientists at the Mt. Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, the Center for Particle Astrophysics at the Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Berkeley campuses of the University of California, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Our primary aim was to test the hypothesis that a significant fraction of the dark matter in the halo of the Milky Way is made up of objects like brown dwarfs or planets: these objects have come to be known as MACHOs, for MAssive Compact Halo Objects. The signature of these objects is the occasional amplification of the light from extragalactic stars by the gravitational lens effect. The amplification can be large, but events are extremely rare: it was necessary to monitor photometrically several million stars for a period of 10 years in order to obtain a useful detection rate. For this purpose we built a two channel system that employed eight 2048*2048 CCDs, mounted on the 50 inch telescope at Mt. Stromlo. The MACHO project data archive consists of approximately 127,000 two-colour images of fields collected between 1992 and 2003 covering the large and small Magellanic clouds and the galactic bulge and two-colour light-curves for approximately 18 million stars in the LMC and galactic bulge.
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We interpret walls, paths, and material culture excavated at the Heit el-Ghurab site up to 2010 as serving to monitor and control people involved in labor and production connected with building the 4th Dynasty Giza Pyramids.
Research Interests: Ancient History, Geography, Archaeology, Egyptology, Stratigraphy, and 15 moreMaterial Culture Studies, Architectural History, Egypt, Social History, Labor History and Studies, Ancient Egyptian History, Settlement archaeology, Archeological Science, Social Control, Ancient Egypt, ISBN, Giza, PYRAMID, Footprint, and ancient Egypytian pyramids
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This study is the first systematic description of the Great Sphinx of Giza. It is an architectural, archaeological, and geo-archaeological approach, based on five years of field work at the Sphinx between 1979 and 1983. The Sphinx and its... more
This study is the first systematic description of the Great Sphinx of Giza. It is an architectural, archaeological, and geo-archaeological approach, based on five years of field work at the Sphinx between 1979 and 1983. The Sphinx and its site were documented using photogrammetry and conventional surveying techniques. I describe the setting and layout of the site of the Sphinx and review the history of previous research and excavation. The results of eight years of excavation from the 1920s and 30s are documented here for the first time. I review published sources about the history and significance of the Sphinx. I describe the features of the Sphinx and its site on the basis of the field work. This work has lead to the following conclusions: Builders, under the 4th Dynasty pharaoh, Khafre (ca. 2,500 B.C.), quarried a series of terraces and a U-shaped sanctuary for the Sphinx. They extracted the stone in the form of multi-ton core blocks that they used for making the Khafre Valley T...
Research Interests: Archaeology and Sphinx
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Council of Antiquities (SCA) inspectors in our excavation program from February 7 to April 2,
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Research Interests: Archaeology and Art
L'auteur discute ici l'idee de J.A. West et R. Schoch selon laquelle le Sphinx aurait ete edifie entre 7000 et 5000 av. J.-C. (et non autour de 2500 av. J.-C., comme il est communement admis), et serait donc le seul temoignage... more
L'auteur discute ici l'idee de J.A. West et R. Schoch selon laquelle le Sphinx aurait ete edifie entre 7000 et 5000 av. J.-C. (et non autour de 2500 av. J.-C., comme il est communement admis), et serait donc le seul temoignage d'une civilisation anterieure a l'Ancien Empire et inconnue des archeologues.
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Tomb and temple - the meaning of the pyramids explorers and scientists the whole pyramid catalogue building a pyramid the living pyramid the legacy of the pyramid.
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This article assesses the settlement structures in the Menkaure Valley Temple (MVT) in the wider context of settlement at the southeastern base of the Giza Plateau, including the Khentkawes Town (KKT), adjacent to the MVT, as well as... more
This article assesses the settlement structures in the Menkaure Valley Temple (MVT) in the wider context of settlement at the southeastern base of the Giza Plateau, including the Khentkawes Town (KKT), adjacent to the MVT, as well as domestic structures in other pyramid temples and enclosures, mainly those of Raneferef (Fifth Dynasty) and Wedjebten (Sixth Dynasty). I look at the hypothesis that the MVT and KKT together formed one pyramid town. From extensions of the KKT to the east, discovered in the last few years, doorways opened north to the adjacent Central Field East cemetery, which developed in a Fourth Dynasty quarry during the Fifth Dynasty, contemporary with the main occupation of the KKT and MVT. Seen in these wider architectural, settlement, and cemetery contexts, the occupation of the MVT court appears as one node, like that of the Raneferef court, in a complex network of affiliations of pyramid towns and tem- ples, including a tight relationship between the foundations of Khafre, Menkaure, and Khentkawes I.
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I review evidence that has come to light over the last 30 years to model water transport infrastructure at the Giza Pyramids during the 4th Dynasty, and suggest matches with landscape and waterscape terms in the Wadi el-Jarf Papyri,... more
I review evidence that has come to light over the last 30 years to model water transport infrastructure at the Giza Pyramids during the 4th Dynasty, and suggest matches with landscape and waterscape terms in the Wadi el-Jarf Papyri, Journal of Merer, from the time of building the Khufu Pyramid.
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A twenty-hectare swath of Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty settlement that central authorities laid out at the low, southeastern base of the Giza Plateau as housing and infrastructure for building pyramids shows distinct components that reflect... more
A twenty-hectare swath of Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty settlement that central authorities laid out at the low, southeastern base of the Giza Plateau as housing and infrastructure for building pyramids shows distinct components that reflect how they mobilized labor into collective action for building on a colossal scale through already existing social bonds and home-based fellowships from districts, villages and neighborhoods. Correlation between this architectural footprint, builders' graffiti, and recently discovered papyrus day logs with district signs suggests links to larger national networks. Ensconced alongside the major Nile port of its time, community members served in both ships' crews and work gangs with links to broader interregional networks. It is possible that immigrants from source countries who specialized in procurement and transport of exotic products contributed to ethnic diversity in the distinct components of "downtown Egypt." Brought together in a central settlement much larger and denser than any at home, each occupant experienced an exponential increase in social interactions. But we see hints that, as authorities multiplied social clusters for collective action and established procurement networks of broad spatial range, they preserved home-based fellowships. It may have been true for downtown Egypt at the pyramids that, regardless of a city's size, everyone lived in villages and neighborhoods.
Research Interests: Anthropology, Social Sciences, State Formation, Collective Action, Urban Studies, and 9 moreIrregular/Informal Settlements Studies, Anthropology of the State, Neighborhood Effects, Settlement archaeology, Prisons, Labor Organizing and Worker's Rights, Team Dynamics, Sociology of the State, and Pyramids of Giza
Mark Lehner, Mohsen Kamel, Ana Tavares, Richard Redding, Daniel Jones, James Taylor, Ashraf Abd El-Aziz, Freya Sadarangani, Yukinori Kawae, Mary Anne Murray, Anna Wodzinska, and Jessica Kaiser report on the results of 2009 field season at... more
Mark Lehner, Mohsen Kamel, Ana Tavares, Richard Redding, Daniel Jones, James Taylor, Ashraf Abd El-Aziz, Freya Sadarangani, Yukinori Kawae, Mary Anne Murray, Anna Wodzinska, and Jessica Kaiser report on the results of 2009 field season at the 4th Dynasty Khentkawes Town (KKT) and Heit El-Ghurab settlement sites.
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Mark Lehner, Mohsen Kamel, Ana Tavares, Mary Anne Murray, Jessica Kaiser, Yukinori Kawae, Kosuke Sato, Hiroyuki Kamei, Tomoaki Nakano, and Ichiro Kanaya report on the activities and results of the 2008 season of the Giza Plateau Mapping... more
Mark Lehner, Mohsen Kamel, Ana Tavares, Mary Anne Murray, Jessica Kaiser, Yukinori Kawae, Kosuke Sato, Hiroyuki Kamei, Tomoaki Nakano, and Ichiro Kanaya report on the activities and results of the 2008 season of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project, deployed by Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), including excavations at the Khentkawes Town and laser scanning of the Djoser Step Pyramid at Saqqara.
Research Interests: Urban Geography, Urban History, Urban Planning, 3D Laser scanning (Architecture), Old Kingdom (Egyptology), and 9 moreBioanthropology, Settlement archaeology, Human Osteology, Urban Design, Harbour Archaeology, 3D Laser Scanning (Archaeology), Giza, Ancient Ports and Harbours, and Saqqara necropolis
We report on the activities and results of the 2006 and 2007 field seasons of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project in the 4th Dynasty (c. 2500 BC) settlement sites of the Khentkawes Town and at Heit el-Ghurab, as well as geophysical survey,... more
We report on the activities and results of the 2006 and 2007 field seasons of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project in the 4th Dynasty (c. 2500 BC) settlement sites of the Khentkawes Town and at Heit el-Ghurab, as well as geophysical survey, laser scanning of the Khentkawes Monument, and geomorphological studies at Giza.
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We report on the results of archaeological work during season 2005 in the 4th Dynasty (c. 2500 BC) settlement sites at the Heit el-Ghurab and in the Khentkawes Town.
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We report on the activities and results of the 2004 season of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project in the 4th Dynasty (c. 2500 BC) settlement site of Heit el-Ghurab at the Giza Pyramids.
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We report on the project history, survey, ceramics, and the Main Street and Gallery III.4 excavations of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project in the 4th Dynasty (c. 2500 BC) Heit el-Ghurab settlement site, located about 400 meters south of... more
We report on the project history, survey, ceramics, and the Main Street and Gallery III.4 excavations of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project in the 4th Dynasty (c. 2500 BC) Heit el-Ghurab settlement site, located about 400 meters south of the Great Sphinx at Giza.
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I reexamined the tomb of the Queen Mother Hetepheres I, the so-called Trial Passages, the unfinished pyramid GI-x, the queen's pyramid GI-a and other features of the northern Eastern Field in relation to Khufu's Great Pyramid (GI) and... more
I reexamined the tomb of the Queen Mother Hetepheres I, the so-called Trial Passages, the unfinished pyramid GI-x, the queen's pyramid GI-a and other features of the northern Eastern Field in relation to Khufu's Great Pyramid (GI) and hypothesized changes of plan in the early layout of this part of the Giza Necropolis.
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The Great Pyramid of Giza, more than 4,500 years old, remains a never ending source of fascination. For years people have scrutinized it, theorized about construction methods, and speculated about hidden chambers. We at AERA are also... more
The Great Pyramid of Giza, more than 4,500 years old, remains a never ending source of fascination. For years people have scrutinized it, theorized about construction methods, and speculated about hidden chambers. We at AERA are also trying to understand how the Great Pyramid was built. We map the builders’ marks in the surface around the base of the pyramid.
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If we had clear-cut lines and corners, we could give precise coordinates for the pyramids to those who believe this is meaningful in terms of the builders’ intentions. But, could the builders have measured distances to an accuracy of... more
If we had clear-cut lines and corners, we could give precise coordinates for the pyramids to those who believe this is meaningful in terms of the builders’ intentions. But, could the builders have measured distances to an accuracy of millimeters or centimeters over hundreds of meters, given sighting by eye without our telescopic instruments and challenges such as the stretch and sag of a rope?
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The 2012 Glen Dash Foundation Survey took AERA back to its beginnings: the Giza Plateau Mapping Project, launched by Mark Lehner and David Goodman in 1984 to create an accurate map of the natural and man-made features of the entire Giza... more
The 2012 Glen Dash Foundation Survey took AERA back to its beginnings: the Giza Plateau Mapping Project, launched by Mark Lehner and David Goodman in 1984 to create an accurate map of the natural and man-made features of the entire Giza Plateau. Despite the intense interest in the pyramids over the centuries, no one had yet produced a good topographic map that showed the precise locations of the pyramids and other monuments at Giza. Mark and David laid the groundwork for the map with a survey control network. But the map was never completed— more urgent projects demanded our attention. Thanks to the Glen Dash Foundation, the GDFS picked up where Mark and David left off. During Season 2012 the GDFS team collected much of the data needed to finally create the map.