Redding, dear friend, mentor, colleague, and fellow team member, passed away a month before he tu... more Redding, dear friend, mentor, colleague, and fellow team member, passed away a month before he turned 76. News of Richard's passing spread quickly through Egypt where Richard worked and taught young Egyptian archaeologists for more than thirty years. By the end of that day, postings began to appear on Facebook all over Egypt, America, and Europe from both senior colleagues in archaeology and former students who are now Inspectors in Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA). Richard was an archaeologist who analyzed animal bone, but that does not encompass the depth and breadth of his research. He always put his results in a wider context of the societies and economies of ancient cultures. That came from his training at the University of Michigan anthropology department. Richard started drilling down on animal bones as a child. (Later, in a lab, he would literally drill and smash bone to see how it broke and splintered long before turning up under an archaeologist's trowel.) He would wander the woods, notice bones, and bring them home. His mother was less than delighted. As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan (U of M), Richard first majored in chemistry. One day in the basement of U of M's Museum of Anthropology, he pulled open a drawer full of animal bones and exclaimed: "Wow, this is it!" Knowing Richard, this makes total sense. After seeing those bones in a drawer and realizing someone valued bones as much as he did-for science no less-Richard switched his major to anthropological archaeology, biological sciences, and geology. He would go on to excavate and survey in Iran,
This archives media files associated with the <em>ARCE Sphinx Project 1979-1983 Archive<... 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
This archives media files associated with the <em>ARCE Sphinx Project 1979-1983 Archive<... 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
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), May 31, 1991
This study is the first systematic description of the Great Sphinx of Giza. It is an architectura... 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.
Redding, dear friend, mentor, colleague, and fellow team member, passed away a month before he tu... more Redding, dear friend, mentor, colleague, and fellow team member, passed away a month before he turned 76. News of Richard's passing spread quickly through Egypt where Richard worked and taught young Egyptian archaeologists for more than thirty years. By the end of that day, postings began to appear on Facebook all over Egypt, America, and Europe from both senior colleagues in archaeology and former students who are now Inspectors in Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA). Richard was an archaeologist who analyzed animal bone, but that does not encompass the depth and breadth of his research. He always put his results in a wider context of the societies and economies of ancient cultures. That came from his training at the University of Michigan anthropology department. Richard started drilling down on animal bones as a child. (Later, in a lab, he would literally drill and smash bone to see how it broke and splintered long before turning up under an archaeologist's trowel.) He would wander the woods, notice bones, and bring them home. His mother was less than delighted. As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan (U of M), Richard first majored in chemistry. One day in the basement of U of M's Museum of Anthropology, he pulled open a drawer full of animal bones and exclaimed: "Wow, this is it!" Knowing Richard, this makes total sense. After seeing those bones in a drawer and realizing someone valued bones as much as he did-for science no less-Richard switched his major to anthropological archaeology, biological sciences, and geology. He would go on to excavate and survey in Iran,
This archives media files associated with the <em>ARCE Sphinx Project 1979-1983 Archive<... 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
This archives media files associated with the <em>ARCE Sphinx Project 1979-1983 Archive<... 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
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), May 31, 1991
This study is the first systematic description of the Great Sphinx of Giza. It is an architectura... 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.
This article assesses the settlement structures in the Menkaure Valley Temple (MVT) in the wider ... 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.
Lake Khufu: On the Waterfront at Giza – Modeling Water Transport Infrastructure in Dynasty IV, 2020
I review evidence that has come to light over the last 30 years to model water transport infrastr... 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.
Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 2019
A twenty-hectare swath of Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty settlement that central authorities laid out at... 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.
Mark Lehner, Mohsen Kamel, Ana Tavares, Richard Redding, Daniel Jones, James Taylor, Ashraf Abd E... 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.
Mark Lehner, Mohsen Kamel, Ana Tavares, Mary Anne Murray, Jessica Kaiser, Yukinori Kawae, Kosuke ... 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.
We report on the activities and results of the 2006 and 2007 field seasons of the Giza Plateau Ma... 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.
We report on the results of archaeological work during season 2005 in the 4th Dynasty (c. 2500 BC... more 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.
We report on the activities and results of the 2004 season of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project in... more 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.
We report on the project history, survey, ceramics, and the Main Street and Gallery III.4 excavat... 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.
I reexamined the tomb of the Queen Mother Hetepheres I, the so-called Trial Passages, the unfinis... 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.
The Great Pyramid of Giza, more than 4,500 years old, remains a never ending source of fascinatio... 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.
If we had clear-cut lines and corners, we could give precise coordinates for the pyramids to thos... 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?
The 2012 Glen Dash Foundation Survey took AERA back to its beginnings: the Giza Plateau Mapping P... 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.
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Papers by Mark E Lehner