Robert M. Schoch: Miscellaneous News and Events

The Mystery of the Sphinx Documentary Corrections

Posted 25 June 2024

The Mystery of the Sphinx first aired on NBC, 10 November 1993. I (Robert Schoch) was not shown the film before it aired. When I first viewed it that evening on television, I was stunned to find that I had been left out of the opening credits, despite being assured that I would have a place there. Making matters worse, as I watched the show that fateful evening, I saw a glaring mistake in the diagram used to illustrate our seismic data. This mistake has caused me untold problems. The subsurface weathering around the Sphinx does not get gradually deeper from the back to the front, as shown incorrectly in the diagram that aired; rather, the depth of subsurface weathering is consistent along the sides and front, and it is abruptly (step-like) much shallower at the very rear of the monument. If the incorrect diagram was accurate, it would lead to very different conclusions regarding the origins (time depth) of the Great Sphinx. I show a corrected version in presentations; the data is correct in the original paper that Thomas Dobecki and I published in 1992 (the year before The Mystery of the Sphinx aired); and the data is correct in my subsequent publications. If I had been allowed to view a draft of The Mystery of the Sphinx before it aired, this error could have been easily corrected. Unfortunately, I was never given such an opportunity. And the issues with this film get worse. The original broadcast version of the show was re-edited and expanded for DVD and Internet sales. I had no knowledge of this beforehand and was never consulted before or after. All kinds of additional materials were included in the show, some of which I am very unhappy with and want no association with (such as The Face on Mars and more). I also want to point out that I was not paid for my work on the show, and I have not received any royalties or residuals since (I mention this to clarify any misconceptions). Here is a link to the program that originally aired on NBC in 1993. Of all the postings out there, this is the best one to watch (in my view), if you are interested. However, please keep in mind my comments above.

For details regarding the seismic work carried out by Dr. Thomas Dobecki and Dr. Robert Schoch in the early 1990s, please see Origins of the Sphinx (the 2017 book by Robert Schoch and Robert Bauval). In this book, the section titled Penetrating Below the Surface: Seismic Techniques Applied to the Sphinx (by Robert Schoch, pages 70-86) provides a thorough discussion of the seismic work, including the pertinent original diagrams and data (first published in 1992 in the journal Geoarchaeology vol. 7, no. 6) along with references to the earlier technical literature.

The Timeline of Civilization:
A few summary points and comments
by Robert Schoch

Posted 10 December 2022

I realize that, unfortunately, sometimes I am lumped or associated with theories that I do not support when it comes to the timeline of civilization and related issues. Here, I wish to clarify (in short summary) some of my own thoughts and conclusions regarding this topic. For further elaboration, see my published works – particularly the revised and expanded edition (2021) of my book Forgotten Civilization: New Discoveries on the Solar-Induced Dark Age.

1) Based on the evidence (see Forgotten Civilization) I have concluded that it was not a comet that ended the last ice age and brought down an earlier cycle of civilization. Rather, it was unusual solar activity at the beginning and the end of the Younger Dryas that was the causative factor. At the beginning of the Younger Dryas (circa 10,900 BCE), a solar outburst melted ice dams, dumping fresh water into the Atlantic, which brought about changes in ocean circulation patterns and initiated a 1200-year cold spell. The Younger Dryas ended circa 9700 BCE (the end of the Younger Dryas marks the end of the last ice age) when a solar outburst dramatically warmed the entire Earth.

2) I would point out that those (at least in the technical literature) who advocate a comet-caused catastrophe date the supposed comet to circa 10,900-10,800 BCE (that is, around the beginning of the Younger Dryas), which is over a millennium earlier than the end of the last ice age (9700 BCE) and the demise of early civilization at that time.

3) There is no solid evidence thus far for a unified global civilization before the end of the last ice age, but rather pockets of civilization in Egypt, Turkey, and elsewhere (and yes, they were probably communicating with each other, but that is not the same as a unified global civilization).

4) Gatherers and hunters (which the Göbekli Tepe people, circa 10,000 BCE, may have been technically since there is no evidence that they had agriculture, although this remains an open question) may not be so simple and primitive as the phrase sounds and many modern persons assume. Anthropologists acknowledge complex hunters and gatherers, as is well know from modern analogies such as the sophisticated societies of the Pacific Northwest Coast peoples.

5) Whether or not they had agriculture, the Göbekli Tepe people had true civilization before the end of the last ice age. Something else, something more profound, I suspect, was going on than most people want to acknowledge. Many of the comet advocates and advocates of an alternative historical timeline continue to think in terms of outmoded paradigms (for instance, believing that certain materialistic and economic underpinnings, such as agriculture, are a necessary prerequisite for true civilization) even as they attempt to push back in time the origins of civilization. Some people in the field (both status quo academics and so-called alternative historians) seem incapable of abandoning preconceived ideologies and worldviews.

6) The concept of survivors (often interpreted as fair-skinned sophisticates compared to the Indigenous populations) of an advanced global civilization traveling the globe and spreading agriculture, domestication, technology, and other attributes of civilization to local primitive hunter-gatherers after a comet-induced catastrophe circa 10,900-10,800 BCE is, in my assessment, false. There is no evidence to unequivocally support this contention and, to reiterate, both the timing and the causative factor (that is, a comet) are incorrect. People who advocate such a scenario often confuse dates of sites, compressing or expanding them to suit their own theories, and interpret equivocal data to match their own biases (such as assuming that various types of vitrification, minerology, charcoal remains, microspherules, shock lamellae in minerals, and the like, could only be the result of a comet or similar impactor, when in fact all of the same sorts of evidence can be more cogently explained in terms of major solar outbursts). Based on the best evidence, it was solar activity circa 9700 BCE that brought the last ice age to an end along with the demise of an early cycle of civilization. Regarding events during succeeding millennia, the evidence can be, in my assessment, more compellingly interpreted as representing the localized reemergence of sophisticated cultures and civilization in multiple areas combined with a certain level of communication between various societies.

7) Based on the evidence, the height of the last cycle of civilization was circa 10,000-9700 BCE (that is, well after the supposed comet catastrophe that some people promote). There was a dark age after 9700 BCE, what I refer to as a Solar-Induced Dark Age (SIDA), that lasted for a good six millennia before civilization reemerged in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and elsewhere during the fourth millennium BCE.

Controversies Regarding the End of the Last Ice Age: Comet/Impactor or Solar Activity?

Extreme climate/temperature swings and Earth changes occurred at the end of the last ice age, in particular at the beginning and the end of the approximately 1200-year period known as the Younger Dryas. Earth had been gradually warming overall, but then there was a cold spell (strongest in the Northern Hemisphere) around 10,900 BCE, initiating the Younger Dryas, which lasted some twelve centuries until the Earth was abruptly snapped out of the last ice age circa 9700 BCE (the end of the Younger Dryas, corresponding to the end of the last ice age).

What caused the beginning and ending of the Younger Dryas has long been a point of contention, and the debate heated up when a comet theory or impact hypothesis was proposed in the 2000s. Various journalists, popularizers, and writers of semi-fiction and science fiction have picked up on and sensationalized the comet theory despite the weakness of the evidence. I have to admit that at first I was favorably disposed toward such a theory (I write about the effects of comets, meteors, asteroids, and other impactors in some of my earlier books); however, after carefully analyzing the purported evidence put forward to support such ideas, I am not convinced. I believe that solar activity can better explain the major changes at the beginning and end of the Younger Dryas. For the interested reader, I offer a few links below that give some background regarding this controversy.

In a nutshell, I believe that increased solar activity at the onset of the Younger Dryas (circa 10,900 BCE) melted ice dams, causing a massive glacial flood. This allowed large amounts of fresh water from the Arctic to flow south, disrupting ocean circulation patterns, resulting in global cooling and the planet being thrown back into its ice age. This cooling lasted approximately 1200 years. Then, circa 9700 BCE, data indicates that the Sun again erupted ferociously. This warming marks the rapid ending of the Younger Dryas and the end of Earth’s last ice age. Incidentally, a solar event on the order of a micronova could explain impactor events on Earth as well, as the Sun would eject not just plasma, but also dust and debris.

For the interested reader, I present myriad lines of evidence supporting the above comments in my book Forgotten Civilization. I do recommend the 2nd (revised and expanded) edition, released in March of 2021. This 2nd edition bears the new subtitle, New Discoveries on the Solar-Induced Dark Age, referring to the 6,000-year period between the end of the last ice age and the re-emergence of civilization circa 3500 BCE.

Solar events bring together otherwise seemingly disparate mysteries regarding the ancient world, such as underground shelters found worldwide (needed for protection from radiation), the extinction of many large mammals (they could not be sheltered within rock with the few human populations that survived), the rise in ocean levels (from the melting of vast glaciers), and global plasma petroglyphs as first identified by physicist Dr. A. Peratt (indicating that ancient people witnessed and recorded a massive solar event). Searing solar plasma striking vast bodies of water pumped moisture into the atmosphere, which poured down as torrential and protracted rain, explaining the great rains upon the Great Sphinx in prehistory. Etc.

In 2015 I wrote a short article for Atlantis Rising regarding this subject. Unfortunately, the magazine has gone out of business. However, an expanded version appears as Appendix 9 of Origins of the Sphinx.

The following two links give some background on the controversies regarding the comet theory: https://psmag.com/environment/comet-claim-comes-crashing-to-earth-31180 and https://www.sciencenews.org/article/younger-dryas-comet-impact-cold-snap.

The following article discusses the evidence indicating that it was not a comet, but rather a massive glacial flood (which, I would point out, could have been caused by solar activity melting ice dams and glaciers) that changed ocean circulation patterns in the Atlantic, thus initiating the Younger Dryas cooling: https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/07/11/scientists-may-have-solved-huge-riddle-earths-climate-past-it-doesnt-bode-well-future/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6f7d7c278f5c.

Regarding the Hiawatha Crater in northwest Greenland: Reading the actual journal article (from Nov. 2018), and looking at the details of the stratigraphy, it does not appear to me to date to the Younger Dryas. As the authors write: The sum of these tentative age constraints suggests that the Hiawatha impact crater formed during the Pleistocene, as this age is most consistent with inferences from presently available data. (p. 9) The Pleistocene dates from 2.6 million years ago to 11,700 years ago. Impactors collide with Earth, no doubt, and this is evidence of such. But it has yet to be dated to the Younger Dryas, as so many apparently wish it to be.

And here is the latest (as of March 2022), on the Hiawatha Crater, now dated to a time period far removed from the Younger Dryas, as I suspected; indeed, the data indicates it dates to over 50 million years ago.

Awarded an Honorary Professorship

On 28 November 2014 I was awarded, in recognition of my ongoing research into ancient civilizations, the title of Honorary Professor at the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna, Bulgaria.

Boston University's New Institute for the Study of the Origins of Civilization (ISOC)!

I am so pleased to announce that the College of General Studies at Boston University, where I have been a full-time faculty member for over thirty years, has established the Institute for the Study of the Origins of Civilization (ISOC) - in part inspired by my research into the antiquity of civilization (now supported by sites around the world, most notably at the breathtaking Göbekli Tepe in Turkey dated to the end of the last Ice Age). I am pleased to add that I have been appointed the institute's first director.

John Anthony West (1932 – 2018):
A Tribute to My Friend

Even though he had been fighting a battle with cancer for over a year, I was not fully prepared to learn the news that my dear friend John Anthony West (JAW) had parted from this world. There are no words to express the profound sadness and loss that I feel. One of the themes of his research, apart from our work together on the Great Sphinx, was dying and death from the perspective of the ancient Egyptians. I find solace in pondering some of JAW’s own words on the subject. Please click here to read more. And wherever he is now, I wish my friend a blessed journey. I will miss him greatly.

John Anthony West Introducing Robert Schoch at CPAK 2007

This short (4.5 minute) video, posted to ORACUL's YouTube page, offers a humorous accounting by John Anthony West of how he and I became acquainted and came to work together. It is one of Katie's favorite clips. Incidentally, it was also at CPAK 2007 that Katie and I met.

Katie's article regarding Aquarius and the Cosmic Currents

Katie's first published article, which I am proud to share with you, is titled Does the Water Bearer Bring Forth a River of Fire?. It was originally written for the National Council for Geocosmic Research's (NCGR's) eNews publication, the April 14th, 2020, edition. Katie is a student of astrology (see her page on this website for more about her). My research, and the work she and I are pursuing together, led her to question why Aquarius, an astrological Air sign, is also called the Water Bearer. Is the term a warning from the Ancients? Did they possess an understanding of the cosmos that we are only now beginning to reclaim? I lent my name to the initial publishing; however, the writing is entirely Katie's. Click here to read more (and be sure to not miss her three important postscripts).

My Research in a Nutshell

In 2015 I was asked by Boston University to give a master class of my research to a select group of its alumni/alumnae. This video trailer was made by the University for the event. Compressed down to less than two minutes, it encompasses highlights of my research over a quarter century, from my initial work re-dating the Great Sphinx (based on the geological evidence of water erosion on the monument and on the walls of its enclosure, seismic analyses, and much more) to my findings regarding a major solar outburst as a cause of the end of our last ice age and the decimation of the high civilizations of the time. More detail regarding this research can be found in my book, Forgotten Civilization: New Discoveries on the Solar-Induced Dark Age.

For those who might like to share this trailer with others, as an introduction to my research, here is the link to use: https://www.robertschoch.com/misc_news.html#bu_master_class

My Interview with Joe Rogan

In May of 2018, I was interviewed by Joe Rogan for his very popular podcast series. This interview was available on YouTube for many years, and as of October 2020 (the last time Katie and I noticed it posted there), it had been watched by close to 5 million people (with, according to Mr. Rogan, many more millions listening via audio-only downloads). I thank Mr. Rogan for introducing me and my research to his broad and enthusiastic audience. Last I learned, Mr. Rogan moved his programming to Spotify. The interview can still be viewed there, but (as I understand it) one must create an account first.

Memes, Morsels, and More:

In an effort to draw interested people more closely to our work, we spent a little time in recent years making some memes, which we posted to our various social media pages. (We are on Facebook and Twitter primarily; we have Instagram accounts but regrettably find little time to engage there.) For those who may have missed them, please click the following link (or the adjacent photo) to go to the Memes page of this website.