Hermione Wrote:
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> Rather than address each of the points you raise
> (something I am now rather weary of doing), can I
> confine myself to observng that the whole
> "pyramids as granaries" tradition is examined and
> discussed in Colavito's "Legends of the Pyramids"
> -
> [www.amazon.co.uk]
> I can assure that, if you could get hold of a
> copy, you would find it informative.
>
> This, for instance, is Colavito's description of
> how the tradition developed in the early mediaeval
> era:

I like Colavito because he writes interesting things about interesting topics. He's a very good researcher so even though his reporting is hardly "balanced" it does tend to be reasonably comprehensive. He has some insights and these are all very admirable traits in a writer.

>

Quote

Sometime before the year 500 CE, a student
> of Julius Honorius, a Roman teacher, took notes
> about his master’s geography lecture and recorded
> that Honorius had told his students that the
> pyramids were the “storehouses of Joseph.” The
> claim appears again in the commentaries of
> Pseudo-Nonnus in the first half of the 500s.
> Gregory of Tours wrote in 594 CE in the History of
> the Franks 1.10 that Joseph’s granaries were made
> of stone, wide at the base, and narrow at the top.
> Although he had never seen the pyramids, they are
> clearly his inspiration. In 825 CE, the monk
> Dicuil, writing in the Liber de Mensura Orbis
> Terrae 6.13, described the monk Fidelis’s visit to
> the pyramids and identified them as Joseph’s
> granaries. The claim appears as well in the
> commentaries of Nicetas of Heraclea in the
> eleventh century and the Byzantine Etymologicum
> magnum of the twelfth century (among other
> sources); in both, the word pyramid is falsely
> said to derive from the Greek word for grain
> because of Joseph.
>
> The reason for this belief is a little unclear.
> Some of it is likely due to sheer ignorance at the
> end of antiquity, when Egypt was slowly falling
> out of the increasingly isolated West’s orbit.
> (pp. 61-62)

>
> And, like so many other baseless traditions
> connected with the pyramids, the granaries
> tradition at times finds itself pressed into some
> very odd forms of service, as mentioned here:
>
>

Quote

In 2015, Dr. Ben Carson, a physician who
> was then the frontrunner for the 2016 Republican
> presidential nomination and later served as a
> cabinet secretary under President Donald Trump,
> faced a controversy when a 1998 video emerged
> showing him embracing the idea that the pyramids
> were Joseph’s granaries. He called this his
> “belief” and supported the assertion with claims
> lifted directly from ancient astronaut books but
> revised for a religious worldview. Carson claimed
> that the pyramids had “hermetically sealed”
> chambers—a medieval Arab legend, but not a true
> one—and wrongly described popular ancient
> astronaut writers as “various scientists” who
> supported the idea that aliens built the pyramids
> (p. 195).

But like all of us he thinks he knows far more than he really does. Being well versed in modern beliefs hardly gives him the inside track on truth or ancient reality.

In this case I do tend to agree with him that the idea the pyramids were granaries seemed to "evolve" suggests that this is not necessarily true but I believe this applies even more strongly to the belief that they were tombs.

What ancient historians believed is really of very little import since there are no first or second hand reports which would be far more believable. All accounts are obviously relayed through many hands.

> Briefly, the pyramids were not granaries, Joseph's
> or anyone else's.

I certainly agree they were not necessarily granaries but by the same token they are not necessarily anything but a granary either. I seriously doubt the primary function of any pyramid great or otherwise was as a granary however it would hardly be surprising if a secondary function of one or more was as a granary or similar type of purpose. I don't believe the question here is if they were granaries or not. Rather I think the question is were any great pyramids intended or used as a tomb and to this question I would suggest that none were. I say this not because I believe they were granaries, power plants, or alien landing pads but because I believe there would be extensive contemporary evidence they were tombs if they had been intended as tombs. I don't believe the builders would say the pyramid was "Khufu" and then used it as his tomb. I don't believe they'd say they didn't bury Khufu and that his grave was in the sky and then inter him in G1. I don't believe the evidence that exists is in any way consistent with the builders' beliefs that the pyramids are tombs. It is on this basis and their actual words that leads me to believe G1 was principally intended as a "time capsule" and a mnemonic but every pyramid varied in purpose.

Once you reject the idea that they would commit vast resources to building tombs for kings who lived eternally the pyramids and their builders look much different. Once you believe these required little effort then the guys with dirty hands look like very different people.

You ask where's the evidence they were granaries but then nobody can produce any direct evidence of any type that they were tombs!!! How is this even possible when there is unanimity they were tombs???? It's very hard to get agreement on much of anything in the real world. I can't even get agreement to use words that I define yet everyone agrees that pyramids were tombs! This is astounding and strongly implies it is axiomatic rather than true knowledge. Yet people won't even agree it is an assumption.

____________
Man fears the pyramid, time fears man.