posted
"The location of tombs discovered in Egypt helps prove the men who built the great pyramids were not slaves after all, say archeologists.
A set of tombs belonging to the workers who built them has been discovered which sheds light on how they lived and ate more than 4,000 years ago.
The thousands of men who built the last remaining wonder of the ancient world regularly ate meat and worked three-month rotating shifts.
They were so well regarded they were also given the honour of being buried in mud brick tombs within the shadow of the sacred pyramids they worked on if they died during construction."
Well it's been known for years now, specifically among those educated in ancient Egypt, that the pyramid builders were not slaves but free citizens who participated in a civic duty. I find even more impressive that not only were the workmen treated well but that they were honored with state burials of their own when they died in labor. Very unlike the Chinese citizens who were forced to construct the Great Wall under the tyrannical rule of the first Emperor under harsh conditions with little food, most of whom died and were buried under the walls.
Then again, I'm not that surprised considering all the evidence found about the Old Kingdom's excellent federal systems and bureaucracy that enabled the pharaoh's people to carry out such large-scale construction projects under ideal working conditions. Even the citizens were able to construct a large reservoir from the Nile under the reign of the first king Mena.
Posts: 26307 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Where did the idea that slaves built the pyramids get its start? Didn't some Graeco-Roman author write that the labor was done during Nile flood when agricultural workers were largely idle? It was national effort that every citizen could be proud of upon completion. No?
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
^ I believe Herodotus was one of the earliest authors who described the pyramid builders as slaves. I don't know if he was exactly the first one to make this claim, but I doubt it. It's understandable why a Greek or Roman would think that, considering that all heavy labor done in their cultures was the work of slaves. Unlike Greco-Roman society, Egypt did not have many slaves nor were they dependent on them. Besides, slaves were generally considered unworthy of building sacred monuments like temples to the gods or tombs and shrines to the pharaohs (who were thought to be gods also). So apparently this is just another one of Herodotus's claims that turns out to be bogus, along with the claim that Khufu's daughter had her queen's pyramid built by earning each and every brick by prostituting herself to a man! So it seems Herodotus is more trustworthy when it comes things he actually witnessed like the Nile river flowing south to north or the Egyptians being black people.
Posts: 26307 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Does Herodotus call the laborers slaves or workmen? He does say they were conscripts, i.e., forced to work, but that's a far cry from owned.
Where did Herodotus get his info? Was it from tour guide priests or pure fabrication?
What about the tale of that pharoah's daughter selling herself to amass funds for her father's pyramid and a block from each trick to set aside for a pyramid of her own. That'd imply payment for somebody.
Are there any records how the contemporary AEs esteemed Khufu or how later generationss remembered him?
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Originally posted by alTakruri: Where did the idea that slaves built the pyramids get its start?
I'm willing to bet it was started by you Jews. Y'all in the habit of making sh!t up: from wild numbers of deaths recorded in the Talmud and of course mother of them all, the holocaust.
Posts: 4254 | From: dasein | Registered: Jun 2009
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A concept that is the diametrically opposite of that of Greece, Rome, the United States, Britain, Portugal...
Posts: 3344 | From: Berkeley | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Only now, is this being parceled out in "western" mass media, the idea that slaves were not builders of the pyramids. Funny. This was long figured out here on ES; I could have told them this some three, four or five years ago, as I had done here. If nothing else, they could have at least gotten a cue from their beloved Zahi.
Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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posted
^ Not just here in Egyptsearch but even the Egyptological community by and large have for a long while now acknowledged that there is no evidence to suggest that construction of the pyramids or other monuments of Egypt were done by slaves but instead by paid citizens. Even Hawass has been repeating this fact over and over to the public in TV programs and broadcasts. I don't know why the media makes this appear like new news just because the tombs of workers were discovered!
Hey, a better question would be when will the truth of ancient Egypt's black African identity be revealed to the general public??
Posts: 26307 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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So it seems Herodotus is more trustworthy when it comes things he actually witnessed like the Nile river flowing south to north or the Egyptians being black people.
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