Hi Graham,
> I merely looked at the practical side of things
> and made another suggestion. It was based on my
observation that the hoe didn't look like a very
> good substitute for a square. It clearly shows the
> digging arm curved inwards. A hoe is made like
> that but here's the twist ... so is a large
> compass. Straight arm compasses are great if they
> are small but as size increases there is this
> propensity for the weight to bare down on the
> point, to make it slip. Anyone who has made those
> big holes in their sheet of paper when the arms of
> the compass are fully extended will know what I am
> talking about.
Yes, I have still some very lively memories from school.... *LOL* That time took me off maths and geometry for life!
>
> But yes the hoe does have the same inward curve.
> It also might have the same rope with loops to act
> with some degree of tention (I checked with other
> examples and it is a twisted rope, with two loops,
> one each end).
Look atthe vertical part of the hoe, though. It looks as if it could be moved up and down in the end of the curved side of the hoe. What if they had made markings on the hoe, and all the guy had to do is to pull the rope and tighten it veritaclly to match the mark and, tada, 90 degrees angle! Isler in his Book "Sticks, Stones and Shadows" talks a lot about how the Egyptians eventually got their poles in the 90 degree angle abd were able to correctly measure time and orient. This kind of a hoe system could be a derivation of that, eh?
>
> Frankly I see both hoe and compass as
> interchangeble.
Agreed.
>
> There is another aspect to consider. Note the
> small stone placed as a marker against the wall.
> This hoe could be swung from that marker to scribe
> an armslength radii, another stone is placed and
> so on as the workman progresses. The workman would
> carry a few stones in his kilt or have them
> strapped to his belt or body. Can you see any?
No I can't, but the image is not best possible either. What we'd see as small stones could be paint having fallen down. But the idea is good. Maybe moving little stones are the reason for GP's concave outer walls.
>
> Someone has to measure the wall in cubit multiples
> (as acuurately as possible). You cannot do that
> with cubit rods laid end to end unless you first
> level the site.
>
> >Still, there is a possibility, that this tool
> opened their eyes on many things concerning the
> circle. Why not admit >that?
>
> Do I have to?
*LOL* Abosolutely not. As I said in an earlier thread already, I don't understand the urgency of existence versus non-existence of equivalence of Pi in the AE. I personally would not put it past the AEs to have figured it out, seen that their high-god was a circle, but I don't see that changing anything, not do I see the importance of it as far as the culture is concerned.
Btw, you didn't answer in the earlier thread when I asked you how you knew Thoth's arm was human. The question sounds silly, but seen that the Eye of Horus was like Humpty Dumpty and so were Seth's testicles, surely Thoth's arm was in the same cathegory from the human POV. In other words, not human and not whole.
Care to give it a try here?
Ritva