[allmendream]

From what we know of Egyptian society, there were simply not enough slaves to provide that type of labor force. Slaves were a luxury item for the well to do, and they didn't want their slaves off hauling stones.

The vast majority of the population of Egypt were farmers, and there is an “off” season for farming, when they could be conscripted or compelled or otherwise temporarily “enslaved” to build the Pyramids.

L. Sprague DeCamp in “the Ancient Engineers” talked about how it was most likely to have happened. He also mentions a very salient point about stone age technology and pyramids; without ‘post and lintel’ construction, the only tall imposing building you CAN make is, by necessity, a pyramid.

So much for the ‘cosmic significance’ of pyramids.

[drpix]

Slaves may have been a luxury for private citizens but not for Pharaohs. Pharaohs commanded the most powerful army of the time. The captives from military victories and conquests supplied plenty of slaves for the throne. Ancient accounts abound with tallies of slaves “won” by such conquests.