Tommi Huhtamaki Wrote:
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> Why do you want to separate the building of a ramp
> from the construction the a pyramid or a temple
> itself? The ramp itself has no significance: no
> one would be building one if it wouldn't help the
> construction of something that has significance.
>
> Why would anyone be designated to building a ramp,
> and not work on many other tasks in the
> construction too? Why would he be a ramp builder
> and not a pyramid builder?
...Industrial organization and specialization.
In ancient times these would have been far less important than now days but a lot of the work entailed a great deal of skill. Even withing a specialty like masonry there are some who are better at some aspects than others and these men would naturally gravitate to what they did best or most enjoyed. Some would shape stone and some would set it. Others might feel more comfortable mixing and applying mortar or making the last configurations to get the block into place.
There were such jobs as "Overseer of the Metal Workers" and "Overseer of the side of the Pyramid". These suggest a division of labor along traditional and time honored specialties. The alternative might be a sort of free-for-all. It seems that merely the existence of an "Overseer of the side of the Pyramid" suggests that there were no ramps. The title clearly suggests that the work between sides was essentially equal or it would be "Overseer of the East side of the Pyramid" to reflect the greater or lesser responsibility dependent on the specific side. There's no work going on on ANY side of the pyramid with ramps since the side is buried under fill and the work takes place on the ramp. So what would the "Overseer of the side of the Pyramid" do? Stand around and report when the ramp fell?
Ramps would have entailed a great deal of effort and resources to build and operate as well as a huge amount of knowledge. Getting the surface as slick as possible that loads could move up and not so slick that they'd slide down would require specialists to build and maintain. Somebody needs to inspect and repair these on a regular basis. With so much work going on it would require several inspectors and a small army of repairmen.
There's also evolution. In order for ramps to have been the means to lift stones we have to believe either enough advancements were made in ramp technogy over a couple hundred years to go from Djoser's to one that required 15 times the work or that the Egyptian state increased in size or willingness to build so much larger. This latter possibility seems unlikely since there were no big changes in size or the economy in this era so this leaves us to wonder what improvements could be made in ramps that would allow such huge increases in output. I suppose more lanes could be added. ...perhaps an off ramp.
But it always comes back to a lack of evidence. Building even one of these without leaving evidence seems a feat in itself. But one is left to assume that they spent a huge percentage of the GDP to build ramps and use them but no one thought to record it and no one was in charge of doing it.
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Man fears the pyramid, time fears man.
