NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/sci/archaeol/2807

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-18 | 3.4 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Gerry Palo)
Newsgroups: sci.archaeology
Subject: Re: Nov 3rd NOVA on pyramids
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 18 Nov 92 15:14:10 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Organization: DSC Communications Corp, Plano, TX
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Michael Siemon) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
>(Gerry Palo) writes:
>
>>This is an important but exhausting point of discussion.  Its
>>theoretical resolution would take considerable time, and its
>>practical resolution probably won't happen. Let us agree to
>>disagree.  The main question remains a matter of legitimate
>>contraversy, how the originals were made without our modern
>>technology.  There is a variety of opinion on that too. Another
>>point of controversy was what they were built for.  More
>>disagreement.
>
>Quite aside from crackpot theories aout them, the pyramids *do*
>pose a number of unresolved questions concerning technology,
>logistics and organization.  As the matter was put to me a few
>days ago by Nabil Shwelim, you can get an initial idea of the
>problem with an easy calculation.  There are roughly 2.6 million
>blocks of limestone in the Great Pyramid (aout 2.2 million in
>that of Kephren), and the reign of Khufu/Cheops was purportedly
>23 years [Dr. Swelim has shown that some of the kinglist values
>for the 3rd dynasty are wrong however, so this may not be accurate].
>
>Even taking the absurd limit that the thing was all designed and
>the blocks cut and immediately available on site and all support
>for labor already arranged at the start of this 23 years, and
>not even considering auxiliary construction [such as the ramps
>that have been proposed as means for moving the blocks into place]
>this gives us an interesting result:
>
>    23 years * 365.35 days/year * 24 hours/day = 201618
>
>    2.6 * 10^6 blocks / 201618 hours = 12.9 blocks/hour
>
>throughout the whole bloody reign of Khufu.
>
>Meaning that every 60/12.9 minutes (4 minutes, 40 seconds roughly)
>a rock of several tons weight gets accurately set in place, night
>and day for 23 years.  Or allowing for night, say every 2 minutes.
>
>We are NOT talking about trivial engineering feats here, folks.
>(The things LOOK damn impressive, too, I might add.)
>--
>Michael L. Siemon            Inflict Thy promises with each
>[e-mail]                Occasion of distress,
>                    That from our incoherence we
>                    May learn to put our trust in Thee

Interesting numbers.  One small point.  There is not a shred of
evidence that Khufu's reign was bloody.  That it must have been
is a conclusion based on the assumption that only a bloody reign
could have compelled people to do it, which in turn assumes that
the only way to have done it was using construction principles
that we understand today.  Usually when a tyrant whips his nation
into massive works of slave-built public construction the results
are shoddy, or at least it falls apart in the next generation. But
more pyramids were built again and again in many generations. So,
now we have to add to the puzzle, not only how did they do it, but
how did they do it joyfully?

Gerry Palo ([e-mail])