The Inventory Stele: More Fact Than Fiction
Archaeological Discovery, 2018, 6, 103-161 http://www.scirp.org/journal/ad ISSN Online: 2331-1967 ISSN Print: 2331-1959 The Inventory Stele: More Fact than Fiction Manu Seyfzadeh1, Robert M. Schoch2 1Independent Researcher, Lake Forest, CA, USA 2Institute for the Study of the Origins of Civilization, College of General Studies, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA How to cite this paper: Seyfzadeh, M., & Abstract Schoch, R. M. (2018). The Inventory Stele: More Fact than Fiction. Archaeological The Inventory Stele tells a story about Khufu and the Great Sphinx which Discovery, 6, 103-161. contradicts the current mainstream narrative of when the Sphinx was carved. https://doi.org/10.4236/ad.2018.62007 The story’s historical relevance has long been challenged based on its mention of names and certain details which are believed to be anachronistic to the time Received: March 6, 2018 Accepted: April 16, 2018 of Khufu. Here, we address the elements commonly cited by the critics one by Published: April 19, 2018 one and find that they are largely based on misconceptions in part due to er- rors and oversights contained in the two commonly referenced translations Copyright © 2018 by authors and and based on a missing context which relates to the economics and symbolism Scientific Research Publishing Inc. of supplying provisions to the royal house. We reconstruct a more plausible This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International scenario of why and when the text may have been originally composed and License (CC BY 4.0). who its target audience was. From our analysis we conclude that while we http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ cannot rule out a couple of minor modifications of names from the original Open Access th written version we date to the 5 Dynasty, there is no plausible reason to dis- miss the entire account recorded in this Late Period version on those grounds alone and that the events it describes appear more factual than fictitious.
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