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Ground-penetrating radar has helped archaeologists identify wonders buried beneath the surface.
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Now, a study by Japanese and Egyptian researchers reveals the discovery of an L-shaped structure along with an accompanying anomaly right next to the Great Pyramids of Giza.
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Although it is impossible to know for sure what the anomaly is, the researchers guessed that the L-shaped discovery could be an entrance to a deeper structure.
In the world of archaeology, few tools have revolutionized the field as much as ground penetrating radar (GPR). This geophysical technique uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. Similar techniques discovered Viking longships in Norwayrevealed lost civilizations in the Amazon jungleand even entire Roman cities without ever putting a shovel in the dirt.
And GPR has once again brought close to one of the most well-excavated sites in the world—the Great Pyramids of Giza.
Researchers led by Motoyuki Sato of Tohoku University used GPR—along with a method known as electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), which uses electrical resistance to map underground structures—to discover what is being described as an “L-shaped anomaly” in the western cemetery near the world-famous pyramids.
According to the team’s research paper, published in the journal Archaeological Surveythe structure is approximately 6.5 feet from the surface, measures 33 feet in length, and was backfilled after construction.
“The Western Cemetery in Giza is known as an important burial place of members of the royal family and high-class officials,” the paper reads. “In the initial survey by GPR and ERT we found an anomaly to the north of the survey site. The area of the anomaly could be roughly established, but the structure and location were not clear.”
Beneath this L-shaped structure was an anomaly, located 16 to 33 feet down, that the researchers described as “highly electrically resistant.” Such an anomaly could have a few explanations, but the team identified two main possibilities—a mixture of sand and gravel, or “sparse spacing with air gaps.” While we know that the surrounding area (built roughly 4,500 years ago, around the same time as the adjacent pyramids) is full of flat-roofed tombs known in Arabic as mastabathe stretch of sand where the anomaly was found was not excavated as intensively, mainly because the area had no impressive structures to warrant a thorough investigation.
So, what exactly could this L-shaped structure and its lower anomaly represent? Talk to Living ScienceSato said the structure is probably unnatural, as the shape is too strong.
“It could have been a gateway to the deeper structure,” Sato and his colleagues wrote in the paper. That deeper structure sounds suspiciously like a tomb. “We believe that the continuity of the shallow structure and the large structure at depth is important. From the survey results, we cannot determine the material that causes the anomaly, but it may be a large archaeological structure under the surface.”
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