Hi Mark,
Thanks for your detailed answer.
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Khufu's successor, Djedfre, may have been quite happy for the ceremonial determination of the orientation to have been performed in a traditional manner, so less precise than the very precise alignment required by his father which may have been pursuant to a representation of a celestial mystery or mysteries.
According to measurements, the Djedefre pyramid is the most "poorly" oriented pyramid of the 4th dynasty:
1. Snofru built the Meidum pyramid with an average azimuth of -24';
2. Snofru moved to southern Dahshur where he built Bent pyramid with an average azimuth of about -10';
3. Then to northern Dahshur and built Red pyramid with azimuth of -9' (only one side measured);
4. Khufu built Great pyramid in Giza with an average azimuth of -3';
5. Djedefre built his pyramid in Abu Rawash with an average azimuth of -49';
6. Khafre returned to Giza and built pyramid with avg. azimuth of -5';
7. Menkaure continued in Giza and received avg. azimuth of +14';
8. Shepseskaf built the mastaba in southern Saqqara with azimuth about +30' (measurement for the temple).
Thus, if we consider the data as a whole there is a clear linear trend from the initial maximum deviations to the west at the beginning of the dynasty to the maximum deviations to the east at the end of the dynasty.
The Djedefre's value (-49') forms a negative peak, which is several times larger than other values in absolute value (i.e. the maximum deviation from the cardinal directions).
It is difficult for me to assume that Djedefre was somewhat worse than all other kings of the 4th dynasty in order to be content with the much less qualitative orientation procedure for his pyramid.
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Khufu's pyramid was made to such an exacting standard that it is not surprising that astronomical alignments have been proposed since 1840. Khafre's pyramid could have been aligned to Khufu's pyramid. Djedfre did not have such a simple opportunity having chosen to build elsewhere.
The above list indicates that most of the pyramids were built in a new place (No. 1, No. 2, No. 4, No. 5) or at a considerable distance from the nearest existing one (No. 3, No. 8), and thus there was no possibility for builders to “copy" alignment from another building, but nevertheless all mentioned pyramids are oriented relative to the cardinal points much better than the Djedefre pyramid.
Thus, Djedefre's alleged “difficulties” in connection with his relocation to Abu Rawash do not explain phenomenon of his pyramid in my opinion.
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It would certainly have been easier for Khafre to align his pyramid to Khufu's pyramid than to the pole of the night sky.
Then why didn’t Menkaure do the same?
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The Oxford radiocarbon study used samples from museums, so this sample would have been an ideal to choice to date the end of Khufu's reign. Was it one of the samples?
Surprisingly, no.
Oxford radiocarbonists used only 3 samples for 4th dynasty - 2 samples from Snofru's funerary complex (Meidum) and 1 sample from Khafre's complex (Giza). During processing, the Khafre's sample was excluded from consideration and did not participate in the construction of a chronological model.
You can see full list of samples
here
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In 1970 it was reported that the haifa grass rope from Khufu's funerary boat had a radiocarbon date of 2150 BC plus or minus 105 years assuming a half-life of 5750 years, but after a (stuiver-suess?) correction a date of 2536 BC plus or minus 105 years, as published on page 16 of Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. A. 269, with the article on pages 11 to 18 (according to my hand written notes of an article not in my possession having referred to a hard bound copy of the journal.)
Thank you. I'll try to find this report.
Alex.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2020 12:16PM by keeperzz.