Posted on 12/01/2006 3:55:23 PM PST by Rodney King
The Ancient Egyptians built their great Pyramids by pouring concrete into blocks high on the site rather than hauling up giant stones, according to a new Franco-American study.
The research, by materials scientists from national institutions, adds fuel to a theory that the pharaohs’ craftsmen had enough skill and materials at hand to cast the two-tonne limestone blocks that dress the Cheops and other Pyramids.
Despite mounting support from scientists, Egyptologists have rejected the concrete claim, first made in the late 1970s by Joseph Davidovits, a French chemist.
The stones, say the historians and archeologists, were all carved from nearby quarries, heaved up huge ramps and set in place by armies of workers. Some dissenters say that levers or pulleys were used, even though the wheel had not been invented at that time.
Until recently it was hard for geologists to distinguish between natural limestone and the kind that would have been made by reconstituting liquefied lime.
But according to Professor Gilles Hug, of the French National Aerospace Research Agency (Onera), and Professor Michel Barsoum, of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the covering of the great Pyramids at Giza consists of two types of stone: one from the quarries and one man-made.
“There’s no way around it. The chemistry is well and truly different,” Professor Hug told Science et Vie magazine. Their study is being published this month in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society.
The pair used X-rays, a plasma torch and electron microscopes to compare small fragments from pyramids with stone from the Toura and Maadi quarries.
They found “traces of a rapid chemical reaction which did not allow natural crystalisation . . . The reaction would be inexplicable if the stones were quarried, but perfectly comprehensible if one accepts that they were cast like concrete.”
The pair believe that the concrete method was used only for the stones on the higher levels of the Pyramids. There are some 2.5 million stone blocks on the Cheops Pyramid. The 10-tonne granite blocks at their heart were also natural, they say. The professors agree with the “Davidovits theory” that soft limestone was quarried on the damp south side of the Giza Plateau. This was then dissolved in large, Nile-fed pools until it became a watery slurry.
Lime from fireplace ash and salt were mixed in with it. The water evaporated, leaving a moist, clay-like mixture. This wet “concrete” would have been carried to the site and packed into wooden moulds where it would set hard in a few days. Mr Davidovits and his team at the Geopolymer Institute at Saint-Quentin tested the method recently, producing a large block of concrete limestone in ten days.
New support for their case came from Guy Demortier, a materials scientist at Namur University in Belgium. Originally a sceptic, he told the French magazine that a decade of study had made him a convert: “The three majestic Pyramids of Cheops, Khephren and Mykerinos are well and truly made from concrete stones.”
The concrete theorists also point out differences in density of the pyramid stones, which have a higher mass near the bottom and bubbles near the top, like old-style cement blocks.
Opponents of the theory dispute the scientific evidence. They also say that the diverse shapes of the stones show that moulds were not used. They add that a huge amount of limestone chalk and burnt wood would have been needed to make the concrete, while the Egyptians had the manpower to hoist all the natural stone they wanted.
The concrete theorists say that they will be unable to prove their theory conclusively until the Egyptian authorities give them access to substantial samples
It's one thing to be a Renaissance Man, but to figure out this and make Spaghetti-O's is pretty dammned impressive.
They probably used a combination of natural and man made materials. Just like we do today.
Possible theory. It's known that the Romans had concrete and ancient people used mud bricks.
Southwestern Asia (Middle East) had batteries.
good memory.
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TREASURES FOUND IN THE GRAND CANYON
http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/text/0000tx09x.html
There was a good article once about a battery in ancient iraq... i posted it on FR I think.
This was printed in a semi-reputable newspaper? I think that sentence de-legitimizes the rest of the article. The wheel had been in use in Egypt for thousands of years before the first pyramid.
The Romans has "IV's" They called the FOURS tho.
Lime from fireplace ash...
The trouble with this theory is that ancient Egypt did not have much in terms of fuel - no extensive forests. And out of reeds and few palm trees it would not be easy to organize lime kilns on any noticeable scale, let alone for the pyramids. They had enough fuel for pottery kilns, primitive metallurgy on modest scale, and that was about it. And the large pyramids were built fast, too - each one during a single reign.
Appreciated. Will search.
Amen to that. If one reads and studies the construction of the Great Pyramid, it's quite fascinating.
We need to call in the mythbusters. (OK, not quite the same, but I'd bet Jamie and Adam would love to build a pyramid)
http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2005/06/mythbusters_jetpack_pyramid_po.html
Edit: "The Ancient Egyptians built their great Pyramids by pouring concrete into blocks high on the site rather than hauling up giant stones, according to an American paper published after the French flaked in a Franco-American Study."
Interesting, but what difference does it really make today?
Smart thought , but nothing not already figured out. Just common sense. Natural, isn't it!
I know that Zahi Hawass gets pretty irritated with the suggestion that the ancient egyptians weren't smart enough to figure out who to do these things on their own. Suggesting that it was aliens sends him round the bend.
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