Why do mainstream archaeologists disagree so sharply over the age of the Great Sphinx?

The older-date case, associated especially with geologist Robert Schoch, argues that the Sphinx’s body and enclosure display deep, rounded and undulating erosion more consistent with prolonged rainfall than with the arid conditions prevailing at Giza for much of the last several millennia. On this reading, the oldest core predates the Fourth Dynasty by thousands of years, although the inference depends on interpreting erosion and climate rather than a direct date.

• Robert Schoch argues that heavy erosion on the Sphinx body and enclosure is best explained by rainfall and water runoff.
• Schoch’s interpretation implies that the oldest portions could date to roughly 7000–5000 BCE or, in his later formulation, near 10,000 BCE.
• The alternative case treats the arid climate of the last several thousand years as difficult to reconcile with the observed erosion.
• A less radical alternative, associated with Colin Reader, places the Sphinx in the Early Dynastic period and attributes the erosion to runoff during a wetter phase.

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