rich Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>Dear Archae,
>You have referenced the Morris book previously.
>I understand there are errors in the book... and
>terrible problems with the theory. As for
>positives on the book... if you remove the whole
>concrete part, I found it quite interesting all of
>the architectural problems with the carving
>theory. And moreover, it makes you say Wow to the
>precision and the effort involved with building
>the pyramids. Any thoughts on these aspects of
>that book? You can say something nice, something
>new you learned, even if you dislike the theory.

Do you have some specific examples from Davidovitus & Morris (1988) I have never read her recent book and never referenced to it.

Davidovitus, J & Morris, M. (1988) The pyramids an enigma solved. Hippocrene Books, New York, p. 263.

>2.3 million blocks, 2.5 tons on average...
>hundreds of thousands of bigger blocks that are 15
>tons or larger. 80-ton granite blocks. The
>pyramids are truly remarkeable.

No doubt about that....

>
> ********
>And unrelated to the pyramids...
>
>Here is Hatshepsut's Obelisk... 97 feet tall, 323
>tonnes, ~1500BC

Ancient peoples were carving granite in the Neolithic. It's a skill developed over 1000's of years in ancient Egypt.

>It is truly remarkeable that at such an early
>date, people cut cut 650k pound pieces of stone
>out of a mountain and move them around.

I would think they blew a lot of wealth on it too... Here is a graph showing selective heavy weight transport in ancient Egypt for different times in their history (after Arnold 1991, Table 3.1). It indicates the general trend towards better methods of transport of heavy weight over time.



The ancient Egyptians clearly had the ability to move and carve stone as heavy and hard as granite since it is not a geopolymer, so they should have had been able to both carve and move limestone blocks.

Arnold, D. (1991) Building in Egypt: pharaonic stone masonry. Oxford University Press, New York, 316 p.

Archae Solenhofen (solenhofen@hotmail.com)
c