From: jfb@draco.macsch.com (John Baskette)
Subject: Re: Nov 3rd NOVA on pyramids
Organization: MacNeal-Schwendler Corp.
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 22:22:44 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.184249.6310@digi.lonestar.org> gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo) writes:

>The problem of accuracy and alignment -- just of the sides with themselves --
>is still unsolved.  I don't know the size of the Nova experiment, but abso-
>lute size is essential to the experiment.  It is one thing to build a 
>pyramid 30 feet tall, another to build one the size of Cheops'.

You are of course correct that size is an important factor.  If I recall
correctly the sides of the Great Pyramid of Cheops are about 750 feet in 
length.  This long baseline makes extremely good accuracy possible.  It is
likely that the Egyptians were more accurate than the Nova experimenters. (I
did not see the show so I don't know how accurate they claimed to be.)

Suppose that you can establish a line of sight to some distant point that is
true north.  Now attempt to align some object along the line of sight.  What
you will discover is that when you try to align an object only a small
distance from you that a very small error in placement will create a fairly
large error in alignment over a greater distance.  When you increase the 
distance of the object from you, the placement error remains fairly 
constant while the accuracy in alignment gets better.

>How many times did they have to take a block back down when they discovered
>it didn't quite match, or take down a whole section of them when they 
>found out the alignment had gotten off?  My suspicion is that given the

My understanding is that the Great Pyrmaid was built one layer at a time.
An accurate alignment over the whole baseline would be established first,
then the first layer of stones would be laid followed by other layers.
The procedure you describe is not a good description of what actually
occurred.

>most modern equipment and technology and unlimited amounts of money we still
>couldn't rebuild the Great Pyramid.  The blocks wouldn't match and the
>interior passages wouldn't link up.  It would be a fiasco, or rather it

As I recall from my reading, the interior passages were carved through the 
stone masonry after the blocks were laid so there is no problem with the
interior passages not linking up because of block mismatch.  The blocks
are not all the identical size, any mismatch is readily corrected by 
cutting one of the blocks some more.

>would be a patchwork of countless repairs and cosmetic coverups of 
>construction blunders.
>
>There was a pyramid opened some years ago that had never been robbed. This
>was supposed to yield the first pyramid mummy.  There was none.  The
>pyramids and the sarcophagi in them were places of initiation.  There are
>peoples to this day whose religious/initiation rites involve placing the
>neophant in a coffin or coffin like structure while he undergoes the
>consciousness-transforming process involving a mystic death experience.
>Don't do this at home.
>
>G.P.

Could you document this claim please?  Use primary sources.  I found that
the Pyramid Power and Pyrmaid Prophecy psuedo-science books do not report
the facts correctly.  I checked the numbers found in one of these books 
with those found in "The Pyrmaids and Temples of Giza" by Flinders Petrie.
The Psuedo-science numbers were not correct.  It appears that they were
fudged to fit the crank theories.

Even if what you say about the mummy is correct, (Perhaps it is, the reason
I am casting doubt is because you seem to be promoting psuedo-science and 
for that reason I am not trusting of any claims you make without good
primary source documentation).  ...if what you say is correct, then this does
not demonstrate that the pyramid chambers and sarcophagi were used for 
anything other than last rites.  Other explanations (a dummy tomb to fool
robbers?  The body was lost so no burial was possible?) can account for the 
difference.  

Are there any reputable Egyptologists who believe based on the archaelogical
evidence that the kind of religious/initiation rites involving placing the
neophant in a coffin in order to have a consciousness-transforming mystic 
death experience were practiced in ancient Egypyt?  Are there any Egyptian
documents like the Book of the Dead that describe such rites?      

I am not an archaeologist and do not know very much about ancient Egypt apart
from some popular reading on the subject and of course the time I checked 
out Flinders Petrie on the Pyramid.  This is the first time I have posted to
this group although I like to read it because many interesting posts about
history show up here.  Anyone, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong
about anything I have said here.

John
Newsgroups: sci.archaeology