[cryptonector]

> These Tepe sites give credence to advanced civilization existing before the last ice age.

Before the last glacial period == 100,000 year ago. This is 12,000 years ago. If we assume (big big assumption here) that there's only really a single unbroken line of civilization, and also assume (big big assumption) roughly exponential growth till now, then no, 100kya would be too long ago.

But those two assumptions are not really safe to make. It's just that we _can't_ know yet.

I suspect that the Sphinx water erosion thing is real and correct, and the Sphinx much older than ancient Egypt.

[jstanley]

~12000 years ago refers to the Younger Dryas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas

[cryptonector]

I'm aware.

[tootie]

The water erosion theory is poorly supported and the orthodoxy is supported by an absolute mountain of corroborating evidence. Remember the great sphinx is part of a massive mortuary complex and we have decades of scholarship documenting all of it. Including the quarry that sourced the building material and written records of the dynasties that produced the work. The notion that it was somehow preexisting from a culture that the Egyptians knew nothing about and who left absolutely no other traces despite having the sophistication to organizing a massive public artwork strains credulity. It's not fully impossible but it's an extraordinary claim and it requires extraordinary proof and what we have is the opinion of a few self-promoters.