<HTML>Dear Maat,
Something went wrong with my post to this message board, and my quotes from Robert's earlier posting disappeared. I put the quotes in double-chevron brackets which obviously caused a problem. (html!!)
Here's another attempt with quotation marks around the quoted text:
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Dear Robert,
Thank you for your kind words.
"So when will it sink in Mr. Legon's brains that the 'ventilation' issue has been knocked stone dead by the simple fact that both ends of the QC's shafts were closed?"
A similar problem applies to the star-shaft theory. Why should the apertures of the QC
shafts have been hidden in the wall-surface, so that the ba of the deceased king would
have been unable to find them? This is the exact opposite of the ka-door arrangement,
whereby a very visible false door allowed the ka of the deceased to pass through the solid masonry behind.
"And no, the absurd idea that these shafts were 'intended' to be opened at a later date but then that this was not done because the chamber was 'abandoned' is not a valid argument, but a convoluted type of mental gymnastics to make a theory fit."
I have never put forward this line of argument. In my view, the QC shafts were provisional and would have been opened if the need for ventilation had arisen during the
construction. As things turned out, the additional ventilation was not required so the apertures were never opened, and the channels were not extended to the outside of the pyramid.
This was my original explanation. In DE 33, however, I put a new slant on the air-shaft
theory by pointing out that the ventilation of a tomb was a cultic requirement according
to certain passages in the Book of the Dead, connected with the resurrection of Osiris.
The god Thoth was called upon to provide fresh air for Osiris in his tomb, thus allowing him to breathe again.
Given this symbolic architecture, it hardly matters whether or how well the air-shafts
actually functioned, though we know that the KC shafts were effective.
It is possible that the QC shaft apertures were intended to be opened in a ritual act,
associated with the Opening of the Mouth ceremony. Since the purpose of this ritual was to allow Osiris to breathe again and be revivified, it makes sense to connect it with
the opening of ventilation channels.
Regards,
John Legon</HTML>
