Egypt tombs suggest pyramids not built by slaves

Reuters via Yahoo! ^ | 01/10/2010 | Marwa Awad

[jerry557]

CAIRO (Reuters) – New tombs found in Giza support the view that the Great Pyramids were built by free workers and not slaves, as widely believed, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Sunday.

Films and media have long depicted slaves toiling away in the desert to build the mammoth pyramids only to meet a miserable death at the end of their efforts.

"These tombs were built beside the king's pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves," Zahi Hawass, the chief archaeologist heading the Egyptian excavation team, said in a statement.

"If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king's."

He said the collection of workers' tombs, some of which were found in the 1990s, were among the most significant finds in the 20th and 21st centuries. They belonged to workers who built the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre.

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Hawass said evidence had been found showing that farmers in the Delta and Upper Egypt had sent 21 buffalo and 23 sheep to the plateau every day to feed the builders, believed to number around 10,000 -- or about a tenth of Greek historian Herodotus's estimate of 100,000.

These farmers were exempted from paying taxes to the government of ancient Egypt -- evidence that he said underscored the fact they were participating in a national project.

The first discovery of workers' tombs in 1990 came about accidentally when a horse stumbled on a brick structure 10 meters (yards) away from the burial area.

[Squawk 8888]

GGG ping

[cripplecreek]

I think it was probably slavery but not necessarily in the way we tend to think of it. They may have gotten paid but that doesn’t mean a freedom to choose to do or not do the work. The captivity itself wouldn’t require guards or walls if they were living isolated without a means of finding their homeland.

[drpix]

I've read similar prior claims: That tombs found for high skilled artisans who were free laborers proved that all workers were free. Now they claim that farmers who provided food,for tax exemptions, prove the same.

My question then and now is, how does that prove that the larger group of menial laborers - those who broke their back querying, transporting & lifting the stones - were free laborer?

[exbrit]

Gee, an early example of shovel ready jobs?

[ClearCase_guy]

I still say reparations are due ...

[cripplecreek]

LOL Union?

Moses was a union rep. LOL

[CodeToad]

Did they labor 55% of the year for the government? We do. We are slaves.

[dayglored]

> Did they labor 55% of the year for the government? We do. We are slaves.

And do -WE- get a burial plot next to the President's???? Oh, no-o-o-o-o... :)

[CodeToad]

Hell, we never get into the house we pay for! At least the slaves got into the pyramid for a peek!

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks Squawk 8888. This is recycled BS from Zahi "Zowie" Hawass, he's been pushing it for years, and failure to toe this line will finish off a career digging in Egypt. "Oh look, they had two acres of bakeries, that means they were given bread to eat, so they must not have been slaves." Y'know, because slaves don't need to eat, even if it takes 20 years to build something. The Israelites were *never in* Egypt, sez Zowie, didn't build anything, only the Egyptians (who were *not* Arabs, but don't mention that to him either) built Egyptian monuments. It'll almost be a relief when the Islamofascists take over Egypt and start destroying everything. Thanks also to Pharmboy, who sent a different story about this new find. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · LiveScience · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[plain talk]

they were likely built by BOTH slaves and free workers.

[SunkenCiv]

• Egypt discovers new workers' tombs near pyramids
  By Paul Schemm, Associated Press Writer

[GSP.FAN]

Hire us it won't get built..

[WoofDog123]

‘free’ then does not mean what free now does.

[SunkenCiv]

an earlier “not by slaves” article:

Who Built The Pyramids?
Harvard Magazine | 8-17-2003 | Jonathan Shaw
Posted on 08/17/2003 5:13:35 PM PDT by blam
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/965696/posts

[eclecticEel]

Wasn’t the Pharoah considered to be a god who owned all land in egypt and everyone in it (except for the priests, who were given special privileges), making the distinction between slave and free somewhat academic?

[SunkenCiv]

The keywords "davidovits" and "jeanpierrehoudin":

• Pyramids were built with concrete rather than rocks, scientists claim

  12/01/2006 3:55:23 PM PST · by Rodney King · 140 replies · 3,250+ views

  UK Times Online | Today | Chalres Bremner

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• Riddle Of The Great Pyramids Of Giza: Professor Finds Some Building Blocks Were Concrete

  12/09/2006 4:41:35 PM PST · by Maelstorm · 38 replies · 1,477+ views

  www.sciencedaily.com | December 9, 2006 | Drexel University

  In partially solving a mystery that has baffled archeologists for centuries, a Drexel University professor has determined that the Great Pyramids of Giza were constructed with a combination of not only carved stones but the first blocks of limestone-based concrete cast by any civilization. Picture of the Great Pyramid (Kheops pyramid). (Taken by Alex lbh in April 2005 / Courtesy of Wikipedia) Michel Barsoum, professor of materials engineering, shows in a peer-reviewed paper to be published Dec. 1 in the Journal of...

• Scientists Say Pyramids Could Be Concrete

  04/23/2008 1:23:56 PM PDT · by blam · 50 replies · 548+ views

  Physorg | 4-23-2008 | UPI

  Scientists are taking a new look at Egypt's pyramids to see if some of the blocks could have been made from concrete. Linn W. Hobbs, a materials science professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told The Boston Globe there is a chance ancient Egyptians could have cast the blocks from synthetic material instead of carving them from quarries. Scientists have long believed Romans were the first to use structural concrete. Undergraduates in MIT's Materials in Human Experience class are building a scale-model pyramid made of quarried limestone and blocks cast from...

• Egypt's Pyramids Packed With Seashells (Not Concrete)

  05/01/2008 2:02:14 PM PDT · by blam · 43 replies · 62+ views

  Discovery Channel | 5-1-2008 | Jennifer Viegas

  Many of Egypt's most famous monuments, such as the Sphinx and Cheops, contain hundreds of thousands of marine fossils, most of which are fully intact and preserved in the walls of the structures, according to a new study. The study's authors suggest that the stones that make up the examined monuments at Giza plateau, Fayum and Abydos must have been carved out of natural stone since they reveal what chunks of the sea floor must have looked like over 4,000 years ago, when the buildings were...

• A new angle on pyramids: Scientists explore whether Egyptians used concrete

  05/01/2008 11:04:55 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 31 replies · 934+ views

  Boston Globe | April 22, 2008 | Colin Nickerson

  At MIT, Hobbs and two colleagues teach a course called Materials in Human Experience... The MIT pyramid will contain only about 280 blocks, compared with 2.3 million in the grandest of the Great Pyramids... Hobbs describes himself as "agnostic" on the issue, but believes mainstream archeologists have been too contemptuous of work by other scientists suggesting the possibility of concrete. "The degree of hostility aimed at experimentation is disturbing," he said. "Too many big egos and too many published works may be riding on the idea that every pyramid block was carved, not cast." ...In 2006, research by Michel W....

• Architect claims to solve pyramid secret

  03/30/2007 4:57:51 PM PDT · by Man50D · 52 replies · 1,027+ views

  Yahoo News | March 30, 2007 | LAURENCE JOAN-GRANGE

  A French architect claimed Friday to have uncovered the mystery about how Egypt's Great Pyramid of Khufu was built — with use of a spiral ramp to hoist huge stone blocks into place. The construction of the Great Pyramid 4,500 years ago by Khufu, a ruler also known as Cheops, has long befuddled scientists as to how its 3 million stone blocks weighing 2.5 tons each were lifted into place. Ending eight years of study on the subject, architect Jean-Pierre Houdin released his findings and a computerized 3-D mockup showing how workers would have erected the pyramid at...

• Architect Says Pyramid Built Inside Out

  03/31/2007 9:48:03 AM PDT · by Clintonfatigued · 37 replies · 781+ views

  AOL News | March 31, 2007 | Tim Hepher

  A French architect said on Friday he had cracked a 4,500-year-old mystery surrounding Egypt's Great Pyramid, saying it was built from the inside out. Previous theories have suggested Pharaoh Khufu's tomb, the last surviving example of the seven great wonders of antiquity, was built using either a vast frontal ramp or a ramp in a corkscrew shape around the exterior to haul up the stonework. But flouting previous wisdom, Jean-Pierre Houdin said advanced 3D technology had shown the main ramp which was used to haul the massive stones to the apex was contained 10-15 meters beneath the outer skin, tracing...

• Egyptologists use high-tech software to analyze construction of Great Pyramid

  10/21/2008 6:14:48 AM PDT · by Mike Fieschko · 16 replies · 1,436+ views

  physorg.com | October 21, 2008 | Sumathi Reddy and Nia-Malika Henderson

  Using cutting edge technology, Egyptologist Bob Brier of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University delved into the only standing wonder of the ancient world, the Great Pyramid, and uncovered the mystery behind cracks in the massive Egyptian structure, unearthing a new room along the way. Brier, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin and a team of software specialists from Dassault Systems in Paris used 3-D modeling software to determine that the burial chamber's stone support beams cracked as final construction of the Giza wonder was near completion 4,500 years ago. The team discovered that the cracks occurred when three...

• Update: Return to the Great Pyramid [ Bob Brier & Jean-Pierre Houdin ]

  07/14/2009 4:59:29 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 46 replies · 1,525+ views

  Archaeology | Volume 62 Number 4, July/August 2009 | Bob Brier

  All of the current theories -- a long, straight ramp, a ramp that corkscrewed around the outside of the pyramid, or cranelike shadoufs (used in Egypt until recently for irrigating fields) -- have serious flaws... architect Jean-Pierre Houdin and I presented a radical new theory: that blocks of stone were raised to the very top of the pyramid on an internal ramp. We gave what we felt was strong evidence for the theory, which explains a French team's microgravemetric survey in the 1980s that recorded variations in the density of the pyramid... an image from the survey may show a...

[SunkenCiv]

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The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How One Man's Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt's Greatest Mystery by Bob Brier and Jean-Pierre Houdin Kindle Edition Paperback

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[SunkenCiv]

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Why the pharaohs built the Pyramids with fake stones by Joseph Davidovits chapter one PDF (free) search Amazon

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