cladking Wrote:
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>
> >
>
> Perhaps as an outsider I have an entirely
> different perspective on the issue but it appears
> to me that there is very little surviving evidence
> from before the first intermediate period.

Compared to later Egyptian culture, yes. Compared to other cultures, not at all. Compare OK surviving texts/structures with those left by, say, the Druids. Thousands of years later, but not a single syllable of their culture in their own words.


> A
> great deal of this evidence consists of grave
> goods, inscriptions from tombs, religious
> artifacts, and like material. While other
> evidence is indeed largely consistent with this it
> still seems that we might be getting a largely one
> sided view of the Egyptians and how they lived.



Ah, but not in the case of the Egyptians. Here we are enormously fortunate to have a culture that did not really differentiate between the living and the dead. In an almost miraculous fashion, the grave goods often mimic everyday life... down to scale models of people doing the most everyday chores and activities. Models of houses, shops, and farm activities are piled in nearly every museum that has an Egyptology section. These people didn't just leave "grave goods", they left perfect testimonials of how they lived every part of their lives.


>
> It seems that understanding the technology (even
> if it can't be duplicated) could be central to
> understanding the culture.

Not if they didn't think so. We have hundreds of texts from this time... many specifically discussing the very structures we investigate for construction techniques and technologies. If it was so important, why is there, apparently, not a word about any of it?


> Even if it's mostly
> irrelevant as you seem to imply, then it's still
> crucial to understanding their artefacts which is
> central to understanding why we have today what we
> do.


Only if the artifacts you are describing are not already understood completely as something else.

>
> No matter how they accomplished their ends, I
> don't believe we'll understand them until we
> understand their technology as well as their
> culture. Culture is always as much an effect of
> knowledge as a cause.

Agreed completely. When you understand their culture, you'll also realize that this geyser nonsense is just that... nonsense.

Anthony

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him think.