When Archaeologists Dug Up A Californian Sand Dune, They Discovered An Astonishing Artifact

The dig took place at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes, the longest system of faultless coastal dunes on the planet. Since at least the 1980s archaeologists have been interested in the sandy expanse, having caught wind of a secret bounty hidden beneath its mounds. And now, after many years of planning and digging, their efforts have landed them an astounding prize: a relic seemingly a few thousand miles – and years – from its home.

Certainly, the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes have proved bountiful in recent years, with excavators rescuing a slew of small wares from its sandy expanse. But while the diverse array of artifacts recovered from the region is indeed impressive, most would agree that the dunes’ most stunning treasure – which was retrieved in 2017 – blows all of those out of the water. And perhaps even more deserving of awe than the relic itself is the story of where it came from.

The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes stretch for the best part of 20 miles, so it’s a wonder that any of its hidden treasures have been unearthed – let alone such a momentous prize. The vast region, with its endless sandy mounds rising and falling, must surely make for tricky navigating. Wind constantly breezes through the area, which molds the dunes and pushes some of them up to 500 feet high. And, at its lower points, the park has yellow shrubbery, freshwater pools and ocean waves crashing into the shoreline.

Despite its harsh landscape, though, the region has been inhabited for many centuries. In the 18th century, Spanish explorers arrived, and Spanish commander Don Gaspar de Portolà and his expedition crew spent a night out on the dunes. Fast-forward two centuries and the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes took on a completely different set of inhabitants. Creative types, intellectuals and even naturists flocked to the sandy stretch between the 1920s and ’40s. They claimed that the natural area emanated a creative energy, inspiring them to publish a magazine called The Dune Forum.

Those living amid the glorious, stimulating landscape of the dunes called themselves Dunites. But they weren’t alone in their affinity for the coastal lands. Black gold, you see, was spotted bubbling up from beneath the dunes in 1948, and the oil company Unocal wanted its piece of the pie. Soon after, the Guadalupe Oil Field opened for business.

Unocal’s work, though, did little to preserve the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes. Instead, its drilling caused over 12 million gallons of petroleum to spill beneath the sand. It took until 1994 for the company to acknowledge the spill and take steps to clean it up. Surprisingly, these restorative efforts are still ongoing; in 2015 it was estimated that the clean-up could take another decade.

Certainly, as time has gone on, people have realized that the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes are worth protecting. It was in the 1970s, in fact, that the first modern measures came into place to safeguard the sandy 18-mile stretch. One major change disallowed off-highway vehicles, such as ATVs, from traversing the delicate dunes.

And while the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes may have been adversely affected by human intervention, their natural beauty is certainly resilient. The great landscape was formed by powerful natural forces, after all. The nearby Santa Maria River brought sediment to the Pacific’s edge, combining with the sand that sat there. Ocean winds then whipped these materials into a sea of towering peaks.

It was nearly two millennia ago that this dune-building process started, but the region’s slopes show no sign of flattening soon. Indeed, the Guadalupe-Nipomo’s Mussel Rock Dune nearly reaches a staggering 500 feet high, with its sandy summit the tallest out of all its fellow mounds. And, while Mussel Rock and its neighboring dunes are treasures all on their own, they hide some natural wonders within them too.

For instance, the dunes stand around a body of fresh water called Oso Flaco Lake. The region’s unique topography – with this natural reservoir, the ocean’s edge and the sprawling dunes – creates a special ecosystem along this stretch of California coast. Indeed, in the 75-acre Oso Flaco Lake area alone, more than 200 species of birds make their homes.

And it’s not just winged species flocking to the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes. Along with hundreds of interesting birds, the sandy mounds attract the California red-legged frog, lizards and the coast garter snake. Mammals make a home there, too; visitors could happen upon bobcats, black bears or mountain lions.

Alongside the countless animals that inhabit the vast coastal region, roughly 20 endangered plant species thrive in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes. These particular strains have to be durable enough to withstand burial beneath the sand as well as saltwater spray, windy weather and isolation. Considering these conditions, then, it’s surprising just how many plants and animals flourish there.

And it’s not just flora and fauna you might be surprised to find within the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes. Since the early 1980s, at least, experts have gone to great lengths to excavate the dunes. Their curious mission, you see, has been to dig up Egyptian relics along the California coastline – despite being over 6,000 miles away from Egypt.

But those digging in the region aren’t simply relying on pot luck. In fact, archaeologists have used ground mapping to give themselves a good idea of what’s beneath the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes – and where to find it. Unfortunately, though, they can’t just excavate the objects that appear on their screens. Their approach must take into account both what they’re digging up and the environment in which it’s buried.

Specifically, many of the artifacts ensconced beneath the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes were crafted from plaster. After decades spent under the sand, they lost their solidity and took on the consistency of a squidgy blue cheese. As such, archaeologists from Applied EarthWorks, Inc., who were responsible for the excavations on the dunes, opted to first harden the relics in place before retrieving them from the sands.

This long, arduous process proved problematic for those interested in completing the Guadalupe-Nipomo project. Crucially, the Dunes Center had to work hard to gather funding for any archaeological digs in the region. Sometimes, though, nature proved a valuable ally, playing right into their hands.

Sand dunes, you see, don’t stay in one place; winds shift them and reshape them every day. Indeed, the Guadalupe-Nipomo mounds tend to move a number of feet with every passing year. These gradual movements, slowly but surely, can expose bits of the very relics that archaeologists have seen on their radars. But these fragments are just a small sample of the real treasures hiding below.

In 2017 archaeologists proved that when they got the chance to dig into the dunes. And even with radar imaging and the previous artifacts uncovered, those at the job site could barely believe what they found. Hidden beneath the sand in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes was a 300-pound sphinx head. No kidding.

And the curious relic was in exceptional condition. Indeed, executive director of the Dunes Center, Doug Jenzen, couldn’t believe the fine state of the vast sphinx’s head. He said in a statement, “The piece is unlike anything found on previous digs. The majority of it is preserved by sand with the original paint still intact.” The relic also flaunted “extremely intense colors.”

Of course, the sphinx was far from Ancient Egypt, where one might expect to dig up such a culturally specific remnant of the past. Still, archaeologists knew that they would find something with an Egyptian twist hiding beneath the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes. And that’s because of one final piece of the land’s history: it once served as a movie set for a famous Prohibition-era film.

In the 1920s, you see, director Cecil B. DeMille chose the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes as the backdrop for his blockbuster silent film The Ten Commandments. The biblically inspired picture included modern-day scenes of brothers interpreting the holy text in different ways as well as segments set in Ancient Egypt.

And for those scenes of the old world, the towering Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes masqueraded – quite convincingly, it must be said – as the Egyptian deserts. Of course, DeMille needed more than just sand to bring these biblical lands to life. A massive set – which included four massive Pharaoh statues and a whopping 21 sphinxes – was built near the Pacific coast.

It took well over 1,500 workers to build the set for The Ten Commandments, but their hard work wouldn’t be saved once shooting ended. Huge portions of the set indeed ended up buried in the sand, sparking much rumor and speculation as to how – and why – they were so callously discarded. Some even say that the crew used dynamite to break it all down before nature encased it beneath the shifting dunes.

Another theory posits that DeMille himself was responsible for the fate of the set. In the 1920s, you see, lower-budget filmmakers would stake out abandoned high-budget props to make their movies more high-quality. Some contend that the visionary director didn’t want anyone pilfering his epic plaster scenery, so he had it hidden in the sand.

Of course, it could have been nature that pushed the sphinxes, pharaohs and countless other props beneath the towering mounds. As mentioned earlier, strong, unforgiving winds tear across the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes, carrying with them corrosive saltwater. The deserted set, then, may have simply crumbled in this bitter environment and become submerged under the shifting hills.

Whether it was man or nature that buried the magnificent set, it would remain hidden from view for six decades after its use. It was then that investigator Peter Brosnan, a filmmaker himself and a big fan of DeMille’s work, set out to find it. The famed director of The Ten Commandments, you see, left clues in his autobiography about where precisely he filmed the biblical epic.

Brosnan eventually tracked down the location and found himself in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes. There were a few problems, though; he didn’t have the money necessary to take on such a huge excavation. And, as previously mentioned, the softened remains of the movie’s set would require hardening before they could emerge from the ground.

To add a further complication to the project, the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes have many protections that preserve them after the disastrous oil drilling and ATV joy-riding of the past. It took Brosnan several decades to get Santa Barbara County’s permission to dig into the sand in search of these age-old relics of Hollywood cinema.

So, even with Brosnan pinpointing the location of The Ten Commandments’ set, it took years for the digs to begin. In the 1990s, the first round of excavations uncovered small remnants from the movie that was once filmed there. For instance, archaeologists found Prohibition-era liquor bottles, smoking paraphernalia and, somehow, a slice of burnt toast preserved under the sand.

In 2012 the team made their first sphinx prop-related discovery. At that time, they found another one of the figures’ heads, but it crumbled as they tried to remove it from the ground. And when they tried to recover the rest of the statue’s body, they found that, sadly, it too had deteriorated after nearly a century in the sand.

And that’s precisely why the 2017 discovery of such a well-preserved sphinx proved so exciting for the archaeologists at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes. The figure emerged from the ground sporting its original terracotta color. And, quite remarkably, it measured in at the best part of ten feet tall.

With the 2017 find, excavators certainly had a stroke of good luck. Not only had they found the massive sphinx in the first place, but it had ended up buried completely by sand, preserving it against the elements and allowing water to drain through. Any contact with dirt, for example, and the entire plaster-based statue would have moistened and crumbled like the others.

Still, the excavation team didn’t take any chances in removing the second sphinx that they found; they coated its insides with a foam spray, which strengthened the plaster statue. But even without the extra layer of protection, the team found the sphinx to be in good condition with many of its details still visible.

Specifically, Jenzen noted the colorful paints that bedecked the orange-hued statue. This feature was interesting, considering that The Ten Commandments was recorded in black and white. These strokes of bright color served a purpose, though: they made the details stand out, even when projected in shades of gray.

And although the sphinx retrieved from beneath the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes may not be an actual relic of ancient Egypt, it still has an important place in history. Jenzen explained to Quartz, “Movie sets just don’t exist anymore from that Golden Age of Hollywood. This represents an opportunity to save a piece of American history before it’s destroyed.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given Jenzen’s belief in the significance of the relic, he and the rest of the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes team had big plans for it once it was safely above ground. After restoring the plaster statue to its former glory, they displayed it at the Dunes Center museum, which visitors can find in downtown Guadalupe, California.

Even with such a major relic uncovered, the excavation team showed no signs of slowing down. They hoped to continue their digs into the dunes, just so long as they could get funding to do so. Jenzen told LiveScience that it cost over a whopping $130,000 per permit when they wanted to helm an excavation into the dunes.

To pass the time until more artifacts can be retrieved, film buffs can see some of Brosnan’s work in uncovering the film set in his 2016 documentary called The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille. The flick features those who lived near the dunes when the legendary director filmed The Ten Commandments – just before he left such incredible pieces of Hollywood history behind.