<HTML>Hi John,
How are you these days? Sorry if my response to offended you. The 'offense' (if there is any) was aimed at John Wall.
You write: "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."
You've lost me now. I thought that this is the same as what I said you said (phew). In any case, your argument is untenable however you may wish to put it. This is because the shafts in the QC extend well above the chamber itself. If 'ventilation was not rrequired', as you say, then why were the shafts extend to such heights above the chamber? Clearly when the roof of the chamber was completed, they would have known if ventilation was needed or not. In that case we would expect them to have dropped the idea of the shaft at this point. But they didn't, thus giving the shafts another function than 'ventilation'.
I like you idea about the link with the notion that Thoth provides "air" for the defunct Osiris. But it's a long shot, no? In any case, the fact that the entrance of the shafts were closed does not change their astral symbolic function.
Anyway, it OK to have different views on this. Vive la difference.
Keep well.
RB</HTML>
