Hello Anthony,

You write, ‘I find the desecration of anyone's sacred site to be disrespectful, distasteful and disgusting. You don't have to like it that I have a different moral compass than you. You don't have to agree with it. Whether you agree or not, it does not make it "utter nonsense".’

If you take the trouble to read my post again you may see that I describe as nonsense not your, um, sensitivities toward certain Ancient sites but your implied argument that it would be wrong for holes to be drilled through the blocks in the QC shafts (and therefore by extension effectively calling for end to all archaeological digs) and that because you know what these shafts were for and why the QC two are sealed it is not necessary to drill through the blocks, etc., etc.
As a reminder for you, I reiterate:
‘By this argument shouldn't we then call an immediate halt to all archaeological excavations throughout the world?
What Anthony is espousing here is utter nonsense.
Specifically, it comes across as: because I know what the purposes of these shafts and the blocks closing off the ones from the QC are, there is no need to examine them further.’

Now, if you do indeed ‘find the desecration of anyone's sacred site to be disrespectful, distasteful and disgusting.’ then I respectfully suggest that hence forth you have nothing to do with any aspect what-so-ever of Archaeology.
But, then, I suppose it is possible that your feelings of distaste and disgust could be outweighed by a desire to know about and understand Ancient cultures - which brings us to the old chestnut: where does tomb-robbing end and archaeology begin?


You write, ‘And your false assertion that "Nobody knows what these shafts were for, or why the QC ones are blocked as they are", is just that: patently false. Dozens, no, hundreds of people know why they are there, what they were designed for, and why the QC shafts are blocked as they are.’

There is nothing at all false in my statement, Anthony, because what you should be stating is: “Dozens, no, hundreds of people think they know why they are there, what they were designed for, and why the QC shafts are blocked as they are.”

Without the support of contemporary textual evidence there is no way anybody can say they know for certain the whys and wherefores of these shafts.
But here you are claiming to know the currently unknowable!
Now, instead of claiming about these shafts that you and others “know why they are there, what they were designed for, and why the QC shafts are blocked as they are.’ why don’t you here and now state clearly what they are there for, what they were designed for and why two of them are blocked.
If, as you would have me and others believe, hundreds of people know these things to be matters of fact, then there is no reason for you to not either here say what they are or provide me and others here with a reference to the paper and or web site that gives the relevant details.
I will not be at all surprised if it transpires that what we are dealing with here is an interesting, carefully reasoned theory (authored by you?) that you and a comparative few other people choose to believe to be a fact.

MJ



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2007 04:54AM by MJ Thomas.