From: alan@lancaster.nsc.com (The Hepburn)
Newsgroups: sci.archaeology
Subject: Re: The Great Pyramid of Giza
Date: 20 Nov 92 19:43:18 GMT
Organization: National Semiconductor Corporation

In article <Bxyq15.6zL@acsu.buffalo.edu>, v064lnev@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Avatar) writes:
|> 
|> 	"The natural tendency of a traditionally trained archeologist is to fit
|> his finds into the fashionable preconcieved matrix of ideas regarding the shape
|> of prehistory that it is a long, slow, upward gradient leading inexorably from
|> primitive man to the summit of modern society's achievements.  It is his very
|> ability to do so that has gained him his qualifications as an archeologist. 
|> Consequently, had earlier civilizations left behind aircraft runways, say, then
|> it is likely that they would be classified as 'ritual causeways'; an
|> earth-and-stone-built chamber for screening off radioactive waste or machinery
|> would of course take on an unintended role as a 'tomb'; an astronomical
|> observatory-cum-computer would immediately start a new life as a temple; and
|> skyward-facing navigational markings for airships would become 'magic designs
|> for the appeasement of the gods'." -unknown author
|> 
|> 	I believe that this is precisely the case with regards to the Great
|> Pyramid of Giza.  Lets consider the facts, shall we?
|> 
|> 	The pyramid stones, some of which weighed up to 70 tons, were so finely
|> cut and positioned as to give joints of less than a fiftieth of an inch in
|> thickness.

With care, this is attainable by anyone with the desire to do a good job.

|>             Not to mention that the tools employed by the Egyptians, at the
|> time, were not of sufficient hardness to even dent some of the types of stone
|> used in the construction. 

I believe that the Nova programme showed using chisels made of bronze on
the sandstone blocks successfully.  It seems to me that the people in charge
of the original construction would have the foresight to use tools that would
work for the task at hand;  ie using softer chisels on the sandstone and saving
the (probably) scarcer bronze tools for the "heavy" chiselling.

|>                            Next, a fine cement was then run into these joints
|> so expertly as to give an even coverage of areas as big as five feet by seven.

Again, seemingly a relatively simple task for an experienced stonemason.

|> The pyramid's now almost totally despoiled original outer casing of polished
|> limestone (all twenty-one acres of it) was levelled and honed to the standard
|> of accuracy normal in modern optical work.

So now we have a mirror finish to the pyramids?  Again, an average stonemason
of the time could most likely put a fairly fine surface onto something that size
just by taking his time on a job that he wanted to be proud of.

|>                                             As a geodetic marker and an orbital
|> observatory, the Great Pyramid is so perfectly oriented with the cardinal
|> directions that modern compasses are adjusted to it.

I thought compasses were adjusted to magnetic north.  Does the pyramid shift its
position with the changing magnetic pole?  If I lay out a house, or a street, or
anything using the sun to mark positions, then it seems to me that I will be
aligning with true north.  Nothing mysterious here; just simple surveying.

|>                                                         Furthermore, this
|> spectacular pyramid is sited at the exact center of the geometrical quadrant
|> formed by the Nile Delta. 

Again, this should be a simple task for anyone versed in surveying.  Nothing
magical about it.

|>                            Using the Sacred Cubit, nearly every one of the
|> Pyramid's basic external and internal measurements can be expressed as a
|> function of the quantity pi and 365.242.  The quantity pi, by the way, had
|> supposedly not been discovered yet, and 365.242 is the number of days in the
|> solar tropical year. 

Let's see:  I want to make some measurements.  I construct a rolling wheel and
start marking revolutions of that wheel.  My measurements will be related to pi
and the diameter of that wheel, whether or not I even know what pi is.  Just
because pi had not yet been discovered does not mean that the relationship did
not exist.  Using the sun as a surveying tool, it makes sense that the sun
will affect the surveying results.  Was the solar tropical year 365.242 days
when the pyramid was built, or is that today's value?

|>                       And lastly, though archeologists all consider the pyramid
|> to be a tomb, not one corpse has ever been found within the structure, nor is
|> there any evidence to indicate that their ever were.

Translation of hieroglyphics and the body of knowledge built up over decades
of study of Egyptology notwithstanding, of course!


-- 
Alan Hepburn           "An ignorant person is one who doesn't know
National Semiconductor       what you have just found out."
Santa Clara, Ca              
alan@berlioz.nsc.com                              Will Rogers
Newsgroups: sci.archaeology