Archaeology Magazine — March-April 2018

16 ARCHAEOLOGY • March/April 2018

FROM THE TRENCHES

HEAD IN THE SAND

A

piece of American cinematic history has been

uncovered in California’s Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes.

Researchers have removed the head of a 13 -foot-tall

plaster sphinx built for Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 silent film The

Ten Commandments, one of 21 sphinxes designed by French

artist Paul Iribe for a massive Egyptian Exodus set. Since the

1990 s, efforts have been under way to find remains of the set,

which DeMille deliberately buried to prevent other filmmak-

ers from using it. According to Doug Jenzen, director of the

Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center, rapidly shifting sands will

soon leave the remaining material vulnerable to disintegra-

tion, allowing little time to save evidence of a pivotal moment

in U.S. popular culture. “These silent films were successful

enough that the production companies were willing to experi-

ment at great expense,” he says. “If they had tanked, perhaps

we wouldn’t have Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. If

these movies had flopped, we wouldn’t have the blockbuster

films we have today.”

—MarLey brown

Plaster sphinx, California

Sphinx head, after removal for transport