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We see evidence of increasing ability to build larger and larger pyramids over time in Egypt. The construction method is pretty well known by now, big ramps of
by JJMcJ 7y ago
We see evidence of increasing ability to build larger and larger pyramids over time in Egypt.
The construction method is pretty well known by now, big ramps of gravel to roll/push stones up. Gravel spread around, contruction times vs. number of people on site, well known.
Another example a group of university students hauled a Stonehenge sized rock from a likely quarry to Stonehenge site in a couple of weeks.
We forget what human labor can do.
- irrational 7y ago>We see evidence of increasing ability to build larger and larger pyramids over time in Egypt. That's not totally true, is it? The first pyramid was Djoser's pyramid in saqqara in about 2650BC. The first true pyramid was build around 2590BC (around 60 years later). The largest and greatest of the pyramids was built around 2570BC (only about 80 years after the first pyramid). Things really went downhill from there, but the Egyptian civilization lasted for another 3000 years.
- xenadu02 7y agoThe point is they clearly perfected their techniques over time. We have evidence of failures and mistakes too. There is nothing about the ancient pyramids that lies beyond human capability. There are plenty of videos on youtube of 1-4 people moving 15-ton stone blocks around. Occam's razor: the simplest explanation is humans built the pyramids and no aliens were involved.
- ianai 7y agoOT, but more and more I wonder how prevalent fossil fuels are. We wonder at just how frequent life occurs. But fossil fuels have basically catapulted us in energy production over a very short time.
- carterehsmith 7y agoWell before pyramids, they built "mastabas". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastaba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastaba And before that, they "buried their dead in pit graves dug out from the sand" (same article) That _does_ indicate an increase in sophistication over time, from pit graves, to mastabas, to pyramids.
- irrational 7y agoI don't know if it was really an increase in sophistication. It was more evolution than revolution. You can see that the mastabas were just more elaborate pit graves. The first pyramid (the step pyramid) was originally a mastaba which was enlarged, then had a smaller mastaba added above it, then a smaller mastaba above that. The true pyramid was basically filling in the voids on the sides of the step pyramid.