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Pyramids were built with concrete rather than rocks, scientists claim
UK Times Online ^ | Today | Chalres Bremner

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: davidovits; geopolymer; geopolymerization; geopolymers; giza; godsgravesglyphs; greatpyramid; josephdavidovits; michelbarsoum; michelwbarsoum; pyramids
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To: Owl_Eagle; brityank; Physicist; WhyisaTexasgirlinPA; GOPJ; abner; baseballmom; Mo1; Ciexyz; ...

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.


21 posted on 12/01/2006 4:12:31 PM PST by Tribune7
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To: GSlob

So, does this mean we go back to the theory that aliens did it?


22 posted on 12/01/2006 4:12:47 PM PST by gb63
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To: Rodney King

Are they talking about the facing stones? If so, this wouldn't solve the main mystery of how they cut and piled the main structural blocks. Of course they had the wheel, but they had to use rollers under the blocks, there not being a wheel that would have lasted even one revolution under a weight of ten tons.


23 posted on 12/01/2006 4:13:15 PM PST by RightWhale (RTRA DLQS GSCW)
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To: somemoreequalthanothers
Didncha know, the aliens built the pyramids?
24 posted on 12/01/2006 4:13:52 PM PST by Indy Pendance
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To: Rodney King
Here is one: by vannrox.
25 posted on 12/01/2006 4:13:59 PM PST by Jedi Master Pikachu ( For the Republic.)
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To: Alter Kaker
"The wheel had been in use in Egypt for thousands of years before the first pyramid."
The Joser pyramid is ca. 2700BC. Your timing might be a bit suspect:
"...Based on diagrams on ancient clay tablets, the earliest known use of this essential invention was a potter’s wheel that was used at Ur in Mesopotamia (part of modern day Iraq} as early as 3500 BC. The first use of the wheel for transportation was probably on Mesopotamian chariots in 3200 BC. It is interesting to note that wheels may have had industrial or manufacturing applications before they were used on vehicles. A wheel with spokes first appeared on Egyptian chariots around 2000 BC, and wheels seem to have developed in Europe by 1400 BC without any influence from the Middle East. " [www.ideafinder. com]
26 posted on 12/01/2006 4:15:00 PM PST by GSlob
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To: Rodney King

The aliens never get credit for their work!


27 posted on 12/01/2006 4:16:05 PM PST by Sir Gawain
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To: Indy Pendance

Yep. They used their flying saucers to lift the heavy stones in place.


28 posted on 12/01/2006 4:16:36 PM PST by TruthWillWin
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To: vannrox
Whoops. Ping for comment 25.
29 posted on 12/01/2006 4:16:37 PM PST by Jedi Master Pikachu ( For the Republic.)
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To: Jedi Master Pikachu

cool, thanks. maybe I didn't post it, but just remembered it. Although, I recall their being a picture of one.


30 posted on 12/01/2006 4:17:11 PM PST by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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To: PetroniusMaximus

Well they did have vending machines and steam power.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_of_alexandria


31 posted on 12/01/2006 4:17:37 PM PST by J_Baird
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To: gb63

No. Just add another zero to the number of manual labor man-hours.


32 posted on 12/01/2006 4:17:43 PM PST by GSlob
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To: GSlob

Europe invented the wheel independently? Which culture?


33 posted on 12/01/2006 4:18:48 PM PST by Jedi Master Pikachu ( For the Republic.)
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To: PetroniusMaximus
What's next?

You don't think they carried that stuff up in buckets do you?


34 posted on 12/01/2006 4:19:24 PM PST by RGSpincich
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To: TruthWillWin

Well, duh, isn't that obvious? :)


35 posted on 12/01/2006 4:24:34 PM PST by Indy Pendance
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To: captain_dave
I would modify that to state that "Roman Concrete is a well known and recorded historical fact."

It transformed architecture by allowing a far more plastic building design compared to prior post and lintel designs.
36 posted on 12/01/2006 4:25:35 PM PST by bill1952 ("All that we do is done with an eye towards something else.")
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To: Sir Gawain

See 24.


37 posted on 12/01/2006 4:25:41 PM PST by Indy Pendance
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To: PetroniusMaximus

"The ancient Greeks had TVs???"

I wonder what Sophocles used as a ring-tone?


38 posted on 12/01/2006 4:25:50 PM PST by L98Fiero (The media as a self-licking ice-cream cone)
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To: Jedi Master Pikachu

The site I copied it from did not say - I just pasted a piece from it. Got a google on the "invention of the wheel" and it came through. If pottery wheel, then probably the Celts or Mycenaeans, if chariot wheel - Mycenaeans. The trouble with this guess is that the Mycenaeans were too close to ME to be sure of "independent discovery".


39 posted on 12/01/2006 4:26:22 PM PST by GSlob
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To: L98Fiero
I was going to say Gregorian chants, but my timing would be off.
40 posted on 12/01/2006 4:26:58 PM PST by Indy Pendance
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