Pyramid Stones Were Poured, Not Quarried 445
brian0918 writes "Times Online is reporting that French and American researchers have discovered that the stones on the higher levels of the great pyramids of Egypt were built with concrete. From the article: 'Until recently it was hard for geologists to distinguish between natural limestone and the kind that would have been made by reconstituting liquefied lime.' They found 'traces of a rapid chemical reaction which did not allow natural crystallization. The reaction would be inexplicable if the stones were quarried, but perfectly comprehensible if one accepts that they were cast like concrete.'"
Re:It has to be said (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is PLENTY of reason for news, even if the theory was widely believed.
I mean, there's a theory that the Sphinx was built about 10,000 years earlier than was previously thought, by an entirely different civilization. It's not widely believed, but the guy does have some evidence.
As for the current theory, I doubt *IT* was widely believed either. I've watched a few shows on Egypt, and never heard of it before now.
Re:so why then use blocks ? (Score:5, Insightful)
It isnt really viable with bronze age technology to do large scale in-place casting.
So with blocks, they could be prepared nearby, and when cured be put in place.
The big advantage is not that they dont have to be lifted up, but that they dont have to be fetched from distant quarries.
Yes, poured like concrete (Score:3, Insightful)
Or, aliens from mars mixed the concrete on their spaceships and poured the casts while hovering over each apex...
Re:It has to be said (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:(obligatory grains of salt) (Score:2, Insightful)
A 1: If they were so good at recording their technology, then why are we still debating how they made the pyramids? Are there pictographs showing hundreds of slaves pushing/pulling a giant slab up the face? Maybe there are, but I haven't heard of them, and they surely would have removed a lot of the mysteries.
A 2: They article states that the method was used on more than one pyramid, so yes.
Silly rabbit, sigs are for kids
Re:(obligatory grains of salt) (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:(obligatory grains of salt) (Score:3, Insightful)
I find it difficult to believe that they would've evolved this kind of technology (concrete) and used it exclusively for the task of pyramid-building.
That's because you don't live in a primitive era where the local boss was considered an actual deity (the reincarnation of Horus, if I recall my amateur Egyptology correctly).
Misleading Summary... only the highest sections (Score:3, Insightful)
The majority of the pyramid material was still quarried.
Re:It has to be said (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why quarry granite then (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It has to be said (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It has to be said (Score:3, Insightful)
Which is of course impossible.
Re:Sensible methods (Score:3, Insightful)
Sandy, dry soil, lower than the surface of the river, yet mysteriously above the water table. I'm not buying it.
"This is but one way to harness water power in the absence of natural elevation. There are others"
There are various ways to use water to store energy (by pumping it up a hill/tower), but without a difference in elevation, water doesn't have any energy. But if you're going to pump water up, why not just pull stone up, and skip the inefficiencies? I'm having a hard time envisioning anything simpler that a whole bunch of guys pulling ropes and pushing levers. And there's quite a bit of evidence that a huge number of guys were present, so I'm not feeling much need to look for exotic explanations whereby they were just watching some amazing mechanism do the work.
Re:It has to be said (Score:3, Insightful)
My roof is not a very good place for casting a lot of concrete blocks that need to set for a few days. On the other hand, between a single 2000 lb block, and 2000 lbs of sand, which would you rather move to my driveway from miles away with a wheelbarrow?
Re:4000 AD (Score:3, Insightful)
"The burning of the Great Archive.org of The Internet was the single biggest tragedy of the Web 2.0 era, much like losing the Library of Alexandria was to the ancients. Because of its loss, we will never know what wisdom lay in goatse.cx or tubgirl.org, sites that are so frequently mentioned in txts of that era."
"The Beatles were such an influential cultural phenomenon that the Americans carved their likeness into the side of a large mountain in South Dakota. We belive the one on the far right is Ringo, and next to him is Lennon. The other two have not been conclusively identified."
"The Americans constructed a large penal colony in the middle of the desert, filled with garish parodies of the outside world that the condemned would never get to see. The hellish wards were filled with machines into which the prisoners would endlessly enter their money hoping for reward, only to see it taken by the unfeeling actions of the machine. They would repeat this futile Sysiphiian endevour endlessly, night after night, until their savings were entirely expended and they were left broken men. Occasionaly, one would be rewarded with an enormous amount of coins, to reward his faith in chance and keep the others hoping for the same. However, the chances of escaping were so little that the Americans coined a terrifying adage: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"."
"Of the rival religions, McDonaldism was the dominant one, as can be seen from the prevailance of their chapels in nearly every town and village of the nation. However, the Burger Monarchists were well positioned to take over the country in 2021..."
Is this news? We knew they had plaster tech (Score:3, Insightful)
The pyramids were originally covered in a limestone plaster veneer which would have given them smooth sides rather than the jaggies we know today. It can still be seen on small areas on some pyramids but most of that smooth plaster layer has been eroded over time by the sand and wind and rain. Or low-res game graphics. Take your pick.
The point is that the plaster was installed using the exact same set of ingredients, tools and technologies that could also have been used to produce the concrete. If they knew how to do one, they might know how to do the other.
Modern analogy: we know how to build Intel PCs. Using many of the same parts, you can build an AMD PC. That's sort of the difference between plaster and concrete. Kinda.
Either way, there's not a quantum jump from one to the other.
Kudos to the builders for coming up with a concrete mix that has managed to fool scientists for hundreds of years. To some future civilization, our modern freeway interchanges will look like water-eroded structures or something created by aliens.
Re:It has to be said (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It has to be said (Score:4, Insightful)
The ancient egytians knew how to make concrete. How come not everything made out of concrete? Why or how did that knowledge completely disappear from the planet for thousands of years. How come it never traveled outside of egypt?
Re:It has to be said (Score:4, Insightful)