this post was submitted on 18 May 2024
187 points (100.0% liked)

World News

46644 readers
3115 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Believe it or not, no aliens were likely involved! Just some very smart humans and a massive amount of labor.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 88 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Scientists may have solved the mystery behind transporting some of the materials to the pyramid site: a dried-up a river

Fixed the title for you.

The construction of the Giza pyramids is still baffling. Some of the stones are purported to weigh 80 tons. That's four or five times more weight than what modern trucks can pull on paved roads.

It's not so farfetched to presume that this ancient civilization employed technology that is lost to time. I'm not talking about aliens and laser beams, but good ol' fashioned mathematics. They could have exploited a principle of leverage and incline that we simply don't understand or recognize. Or perhaps something entirely different from our six simple machines...

The problem with this theory, of course, is that we like to believe that humanity is always progressing and that we are superior to our forebears by default. That is ultimately a subjective opinion.

[–] [email protected] 91 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You'd have a point if the Egyptians didn't already tell us how they moved giant, heavy things over land.

Lots of human labor.

(Relief from the tomb of Djehutihotep in el-Bersheh)

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yes. I'm familiar with this image. Some scientists claim that when just the right amount of water is poured over sand it reduces the friction by about 30%.

Some also claim that there were not hundreds of thousands of laborers at the Giza pyramids, based on evidence discovered in the work camps near the site.

I'm 38 years old and I think I've read about a new theory every year of my life...

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Who are these "some scientists?" Names please.

I'd suggest arguing against what they literally showed us they did is an uphill battle.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"The study was done by Christian Wagner and colleagues at Saarland University in Germany, along with researchers in the Netherlands, Iran and France. The team was inspired by an ancient Egyptian wall painting showing a huge statue being hauled across the sand on a sledge in about 1800 BC. The painting has a detail that has long puzzled Egyptologists: a worker who appears to be pouring water onto the sand in front of the sledge while others appear to be carrying water to replenish his supply."

https://physicsworld.com/a/did-slippery-sand-help-egyptians-build-the-pyramids/

There are hundreds of articles about this theory. It was all the rage a few years ago.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I notice you don't post the names of any of the scientists who believe only a small workforce built the pyramids. Why is that? That's really the one I was curious about.

Because, again, it's kind of hard to argue against what they literally carved into a rock.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Because, again, it's kind of hard to argue against what they literally carved into a rock.

Not arguing with you here, cuz I have no dog in this fight, but you're seemingly ignoring the possibility of the emperor bragging about ~~crowd size~~ the number of slaves workers utilized?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So you're saying that they used some unknown means of pulling big stones over rocks, but rather bragged about one they didn't use even though it would have worked?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not saying they didn't have a lot of slaves, just thinking that they might be exaggerating slave count (as a metric of how powerful they were) while using something like this river (something innocuous that they wouldn't need to brag about) to augment the bodies in use.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

You are making the mistake that slaves built Egyptian religious monuments. They did not. Egyptians did it, not their slaves. They did it out of religious obligation.

Which makes sense. You don't want slaves building your sacred places when slaves can sabotage things.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Again, there are hundreds of articles about the adjacent work camps. Please look at the publications of Zahi Hawass, chief archeologist of Egypt, and Amihai Mazar, a professor of archeology in Jerusalem.

Most claim that there could have been up to ten thousand workers. Some claim that the number of workers was as low as 1600.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not sure why you think 1600 workers mean they couldn't just drag large stones over land on sledges using a significant number of those 1600 workers. I'm not even sure why you think ten thousand workers would have been necessary. Can you explain please?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I never suggested that they couldn't.

Personally, I don't think that the "brute force" argument is the best. I think it's arguing from ignorance.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How is it arguing from ignorance when, yet again, they showed us that they did just that.

Are you saying the carving is a lie? Why would it be?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (19 children)

They also depict gods with the heads of jackals and birds, beings from other planets, their conception of the afterlife, pornography, and obviously exaggerated claims about the power and influence of the Pharoahs.

I'm saying that we should be skeptical. dubitante omnibus, as Descartes would say...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

beings from other planets,

Not that one, no.

load more comments (18 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Ah yes, the ancient Egyptian seven simple machines: lever, wheel, pulley, incline, wedge, screw and Agrav engine.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Isn't this old news? I heard this when Assassin Creed Origins came out and thought it was somewhat historically accurate.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So it's not just me. Maybe the discovery here was just the exact and complete layout, and the BBC misunderstood it the way journalists usually do with science stories?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

It’s impressive is year 2024, we sent robots to other planets and so many other technological achievements … and still dont know exactly how the the Giza piramids have been done .

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Unrelated, but it would be a very cool project to restore the pyramids to the white gold tipped triangles that they used to be.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I didn’t think it was so much a question of how it was done vs how it was done so fast. Iirc, 20 years to build the Great Pyramid?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Nah, must have been aliens! Those boffins just think they're so clever.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I'm really curious when and how quickly the route changed.

load more comments
view more: next ›