Not concrete!
Posted on 12/01/2006 3:55:23 PM PST by Rodney King
The Ancient Egyptians built their great Pyramids by pouring concrete into blocks high on the site rather than hauling up giant stones, according to a new Franco-American study.
The research, by materials scientists from national institutions, adds fuel to a theory that the pharaohs’ craftsmen had enough skill and materials at hand to cast the two-tonne limestone blocks that dress the Cheops and other Pyramids.
Despite mounting support from scientists, Egyptologists have rejected the concrete claim, first made in the late 1970s by Joseph Davidovits, a French chemist.
The stones, say the historians and archeologists, were all carved from nearby quarries, heaved up huge ramps and set in place by armies of workers. Some dissenters say that levers or pulleys were used, even though the wheel had not been invented at that time.
Until recently it was hard for geologists to distinguish between natural limestone and the kind that would have been made by reconstituting liquefied lime.
But according to Professor Gilles Hug, of the French National Aerospace Research Agency (Onera), and Professor Michel Barsoum, of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the covering of the great Pyramids at Giza consists of two types of stone: one from the quarries and one man-made.
“There’s no way around it. The chemistry is well and truly different,” Professor Hug told Science et Vie magazine. Their study is being published this month in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society.
The pair used X-rays, a plasma torch and electron microscopes to compare small fragments from pyramids with stone from the Toura and Maadi quarries.
They found “traces of a rapid chemical reaction which did not allow natural crystalisation . . . The reaction would be inexplicable if the stones were quarried, but perfectly comprehensible if one accepts that they were cast like concrete.”
The pair believe that the concrete method was used only for the stones on the higher levels of the Pyramids. There are some 2.5 million stone blocks on the Cheops Pyramid. The 10-tonne granite blocks at their heart were also natural, they say. The professors agree with the “Davidovits theory” that soft limestone was quarried on the damp south side of the Giza Plateau. This was then dissolved in large, Nile-fed pools until it became a watery slurry.
Lime from fireplace ash and salt were mixed in with it. The water evaporated, leaving a moist, clay-like mixture. This wet “concrete” would have been carried to the site and packed into wooden moulds where it would set hard in a few days. Mr Davidovits and his team at the Geopolymer Institute at Saint-Quentin tested the method recently, producing a large block of concrete limestone in ten days.
New support for their case came from Guy Demortier, a materials scientist at Namur University in Belgium. Originally a sceptic, he told the French magazine that a decade of study had made him a convert: “The three majestic Pyramids of Cheops, Khephren and Mykerinos are well and truly made from concrete stones.”
The concrete theorists also point out differences in density of the pyramid stones, which have a higher mass near the bottom and bubbles near the top, like old-style cement blocks.
Opponents of the theory dispute the scientific evidence. They also say that the diverse shapes of the stones show that moulds were not used. They add that a huge amount of limestone chalk and burnt wood would have been needed to make the concrete, while the Egyptians had the manpower to hoist all the natural stone they wanted.
The concrete theorists say that they will be unable to prove their theory conclusively until the Egyptian authorities give them access to substantial samples
The large structures (including pyramids) constructed during the time of Israelite servitude in Egypt were made of mud brick, and in the case of those pyramids, were built in the Fayyum. Mud bricks do use straw.
Speaking of straw, your talk about lime kilns is a straw man argument. Nowhere in the article is there any mention of lime kilns.
They also say that the diverse shapes of the stones show that moulds were not used.Non-sequiturs make me eat lampshades.
toungue in cheek while scurrring off.
In the Fall 2002 issue of KMT Anthony P. Sakovich showed his systematic approach to estimating the number of stones (some larger, some smaller) in the Khufu pyramid, arrived at a figure of 4 million, and Zahi's response was to say that Khufu's consisted of perhaps one million stones, and each was, on average, less than 2 tons each.Great Pyramid's Stones CountedA new study conducted by the Supreme Council for Antiquities in Egypt has determined that the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza consists of one million limestone rocks.
by Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
December 2002
The number is under half of the previously estimated amount of 2.3 million stones, indicating that the Egyptian pyramid builders were even more organized and efficient than previously thought.
Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council, said that the Great Pyramid was considered to be a national project that all Egyptians took part in, according to an Egyptian State Information Service report last week. The report also mentioned that Hawass and his team analyzed the administrative organization and work scheme used in the construction of the 450-foot tall monument.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Then try to get the necessary amount of lime without kilns. Doing it in the open fires is so much less efficient that the amount of fuel required would need to be multiplied several fold. Besides, the pottery kilns had already been in existence, so the crude technology was available - but nowhere near the scale suggested.
'Heck, he should have ran for God." -Well, since he invented the Constitution, he ought by right to be listed among the Founders. The others were merely writing it down at his dictation.
I find the building of the pyramids quite unbelievable. How did they feed all those people.
I know, it was Karl Rove's idea.
Actually the pyramid was built over a small knoll. This will account for some of the pyramids volume.
they have a strange terrain there, then - flat saucer-like ground and few former knolls, close to one another, nowadays all made into large pyramids. And where are all the smaller knolls?
Egyptians had war chariots - without wheels??
They had wheels in India at that time.
Maybe the Egyptians didn't have fire, either??
The man who holds back science.
I'm a builder by trade, and I have studied the detailed construction of the Great Pyramid (in print only). To have been built strictly with human labor is not possible. This becomes very clear when one considers the weights, dimensions, and accuracy involved.
I'm glad to see our good friend Zowie made it into the thread. He is the embodiment of mainstream disinformation.
This explains the decline and fall of the Egyptian empire. Their concrete masons went union.
Could you possibly be less specific?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.