The Smithsonian article was just used as an example of evidence that there are in fact writings from the time of Khufu that show why, how, and when the Great Pyramid was built.
That one article is not the end-all-be-all of sources, but it is one where people can click on it and read some of the things we were discussing.
The research and hard work done by Egyptologists over the years can not be summed up in a single thread on Freerepublic, but your claims that no one knows because there isn’t any contemporaneous writing can be shown to be objectively wrong.
I appeal to the work of Lehner and Hawass and those others who have actually done archeology to discover information about the pyramids. You rely on those sources for some issues, and dismiss them when it doesn’t fit your narrative.
The conditions of the workers and how they were treated is built up entirely from the work of Lehner and Hawass who discovered the city of workers and pieced together the story of them from the finds.
These same men have confirmed in their work that Khufu did indeed order his tomb built, it was a ten to twenty year project, and this was the purpose of the Great Pyramid.
I am not “in thrall” with the Smithsonian magazine, I just recognize the authority of those that have spent 40+ years doing the actual work.
The thread in question had nothing to do with Lehner, Hawass, the Great Pyramid, or anything like that. It had to do with a mistaken belief that the pyramids were built by Joseph to store grain.
But you had to come in here and try to set everyone straight on why they, and 90% of Egyptologists, were wrong by dropping spurious and outright false fact.
And you got called on it.
Tough crap. Maybe you should have passed on the opportunity to show off.
Good Grief! - Such acrimony is why discussions are becoming more and more impossible and pointless on FR.