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News of the “discovery” of a 42-foot tall statue of Amenhotep III in Egypt was recently released. This was amusing:
The statue consists of seven large quartzite blocks and still lacks a head and was actually first discovered in the 1928 and then rehidden, according to the press release from the country's antiquities authority. Archaeologists expect to find its twin in the next digging season.
I know it's been a practice of archaeologists to sometime cover up a dig site and throw coins in at the depth to which they dug so future archaeologists know how far down excavations have gone. I also assume that they record these dig sites someplace to keep track of unearthed artifacts. But why would it take over 80 years to go back and unearth this statue?
I recently read a piec about Combat archaeology at Jericho in which the author talked about there being several digs there at long intervals over the past hundred years. He mentioned in the articles that often digs, stop because of lack of funding and are not licked back up again for years. Perhaps that explains why the staue was reburied. I also know that it is common practice for finds to be reburied when they cannot be recovered because reburying them protects them from the elements and people who would steal them for sale on the black market.
