Dr. Lehner reports on the results of AERA’s excavations of the oldest

phase of the 4th Dynasty settlement site Heit el-Ghurab (“Wall of the

Crow”), 400 meters south of the Great Sphinx. Most of what AERA

has mapped of the so-called “Workers Town” dates to the reigns of

Khafre and Menkaure, builders of the second and third Giza

Pyramids. An older, different layout that lies below was dismantled

when the royal household reorganized the site. AERA hypothesized

the older layout was part of a much larger pyramid city and Nile

Port of Khufu. During field season 2018, AERA tested this hypothesis

by excavating and analyzing broad exposures of the lower phase and

by re-examining “Kromer’s Dump”.