Egyptologists: It is Time to Prove Your Claims

World Mysteries ^ | FR Post 12-2-2002 | by Will Hart

[u-89]

There was an article last year about French scientists who made the "poured" block arguement too. I'll have to look around to see if I saved that one.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Just because some people are incompetent to do something does not mean that other aren't competent to do it. It is unlikely that it 20 Egyptologist were tranported back 3000 years they could build a workable sailboat using second millieum BC technology. But other men could. Real L. Sprague de Camp's The Acient Engineers

[Notforprophet]

Ping - you'll enjoy this.

[freedom9]

And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

[blam]

"Ping - you'll enjoy this."

Nah. I'm burned out on Egypt. The action is in South America.

[Notforprophet]

LOL

Well it's got some SA stuff in there too. I thought it most enjoyable with respect to the 'conspiracy' of established scientific dogma parts. Definitely bookmarkeable.

[pabianice]

I rest my case.

[eno_]

Latvians with the knowledge of the initiates bump!

[eno_]

Humans were genetically modern for hundreds of millennia. And yet we are to believe that only in the last 6000 years we acquired civilization? Pre-Egyptian civilization may have been very different, but there almost certainly were stone cities and agriculture and written language. Even stone buildings have trouble lasting more than 10 millennia.

Personally, I think it is a combination of the arrogance of religions (NOTHING could have come before OUR creation-date!) and human denial that our species could have risen up to civilization and then suffered civilization-crushing cataclysms in the more-distant past.

[supercat]

Pretty good set of articles, though it would be helpful if it suggested some practical theories (such as the "concrete" one), since I don't think anyone denies that the pyramids and other such objects exist or that they were built long before the advent of today's power machinery.

I would also take issue with a few points the articles raise. First of all, although modern practice is to break structures into small pieces before moving them, this is not universal. A 2800-ton lighthouse (Cape Hattaras) may only represent a fraction of the pyramid's total weight, but it's considerably larger than any of the blocks the Egyptians had to move. To be sure, the lighthouse was in fact moved by modern machinery, but some of the same principles used there to move a 280-ton lighthouse might have been usable by a large group of people to move a 28-ton rock.

In a different article, the author seems to suggest that each rock must have been dug out of the quarry, then transported, and then put in place, all before the next rock could be dug from the quarry. The author figures that since the rocks couldn't have been moved in the time frame that would imply, that they couldn't have been moved at all. I would think that if one recasts the goal in terms of taking years to move each block (but having many in transit at a time) one gets a somewhat more realistic picture.

Given certain conditions, extremely large objects can be moved with manual labor, albeit very slowly. Use of just about any of the simple machines will suffice, when combined with the "ratchet" principle: build a structure that will let you pry or otherwise lift your load by 1/8", then while it's lifted insert something to hold it in place. Then build a structure to lift it another 1/8", then insert something to hold it in place, etc. This procedure would be too long and boring to make good television, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be done.

By the way, how do the Pyramids compare in altitute to the alleged quarries? A square block can roll (keeping its center of gravity at a constant height) if the ground before it is prepped properly.

I personally find the concrete theory to be the easiest one to believe, but recognize that there may be other ways for manual labor to achieve the results that so obviously exist.

[steve-b]

The ancient Egyptians had wireless. This is proven by the fact that generations of archaeologists have dug it up from the Third Cataract to the Delta without discovering a single wire.

[ErnBatavia]

I remember that show well.

Me too.....good work.

[strela]

I watched a group of adult Scout Leaders try to start a fire using the bow method.

They probably read a book about it and thought they were instant experts. Starting a fire using a bow is hard to do and takes lots of hands-on practice and experience. I managed to do it exactly once, after hours of trying, and I had blisters that lasted for 3 weeks afterward and probably burned 1000 calories in the process.

A disposable lighter or even a book of matches is ever so much easier to put in a little belt emergency kit than all the junk you need to start a bow fire (the right wood (dry of course but not too dry), cordage, tinder, a base, a knife (to cut the notch you need to catch the coal), etc.

If you insist on roughing it and starting a fire using primitive means, use a rub stick (watch Tom Hanks in "Cast Away" use one), or even the lens from your eyeglasses or a discarded bottle.

[Prodigal Son]

this word (non- Word)

Thanks for that. I try to learn something new every day and today- that was it. BTW, my dictionary (the Oxford Popular English) does not have a definition for it.

[Hitlerys uterus]

It was Bob that built the pyramids.

[RaceBannon]

kewel stuff!

[Shooter 2.5]

I knew a guy who could do the bow method in a couple of minutes with his kit. Since he carried it around all the time, my son said it was easier to carry flint and steel. So you're correct.
There are times when it is best to know different methods. I was alway curious to try using a water drop as a lense method.

[strela]

I knew a guy who could do the bow method in a couple of minutes with his kit.

Sounds like the foreman on the ranch I hauled hay for when I was in high school. He could start a fire using a wet bunny rabbit and a harsh word - never could figure out how he got so good at it. I was always too lazy unskilled to do it quickly.

Since he carried it around all the time, my son said it was easier to carry flint and steel.

I have a magnesium bar with a flint rod on it that works great with my Swiss army knife in creating a spark. It hangs on my belt (along with a little emergency kit) when I go hiking.

There are times when it is best to know different methods. I was alway curious to try using a water drop as a lense method.

That's one I've heard of but never tried. Sure seems like it would work on a nice sunny day.

[eldoradude]

Using a ten-hour workday they had to place between 31 and 32 per hour or about 2 blocks per minute.

2 blocks per minute = 120 per hour. Formula for blocks per minute is # blocks per hour divided by 60; 31 or 32 blocks per hour is ~ .517 to .533 blocks per minute. Still impressive. I agree, a good read but if you're trying to convince the masses that are asses - attention to details like simple math are important. Thanks for an interesting post. I have always been amazed at how so many 'learned' men so strongly resist and sabotage new ideas, after all why would you want your name attached to a theory easily proven fallacious by later generations, ie 'The Earth is Flat' theoory.