A trend away from Pyramids? I don't think I buy that one. The last pyramid was built by Ahmose I, the founder of the 18th Dynasty (and thus by extension, the New Kingdom.) After that, the break was sudden. No kings built pyramids anymore but instead began carving tombs into the Valley of the Kings. That means that the pyramid phase lasted through the Old Kingdom, the First Intermediate Period, the Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period and finally to the first Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty before being put on the scrap heap. That's a long time.
Again, we are both proceeding from the assumption that the Egyptologists have it right and I'm not so sure about that idea but for the sake of argument I'll continue. With that background I can agree with your timeline from Djoser to Khufu but there are still anomalies. One, why did Sneferu build 3 pyramids can be explained by accepting the view that Meidum was actually built by the last king of the 3d dynasty, Huni. There is some speculation about that. The second, more problematical anomaly is, why did they finish the Bent Pyramid? Was this some sort of PH. D. course for engineers? Still going by the "tombs and tombs only" concept why would Sneferu continue work on a project when he clearly had decided to move on and build the Red Pyramid? What's the point? He could only be buried once.
We can agree to disagree about the technical improvements that are evident between the Red Pyramid and the Great Pyramid. We still haven't talked about ramps though. But it's the divide between the 4th Dynasty and the 5th that disturbs me. Yes, I can agree that if there were economic hardships a pharaoh might be persuaded to build a smaller pyramid. But why toss out all the allegedly accumulated knowledge of HOW to build them and build something that is both smaller and shittier?
The one point where I categorically disagree with you is the idea that the religious aspects were declining. It is in the 5th Dynasty pyramid of Unas that we begin to see the Pyramid Texts carved into the burial chambers. The practice continues into the 6th Dynasty which suggests to me that the religious aspect was growing after the 4th Dynasty. It is well attested that the internal passages of the Great Pyramid have all the decorative flourishes of a New York subway tunnel. I recall dear old Zahi Hawass who defends the lack of ornamentation as a "stylistic choice" standing beside the grave of a foreman at Giza who he asserted was responsible for building the pyramid. Right on the tomb was a laudatory inscription about what a great guy the overseer had been. So, a guy who oversaw the workers gets a commemorative inscription and the Pharaoh who commissioned it gets oogatz? Sorry. That makes no sense.
For the record, Old Kingdom Egypt continued along through the 6th Dynasty with no obvious internal or external issues until the 22d century BC when a stunning drought throughout the whole region seemingly brought them down (along with Sumeria) a fact which annoys the piss out of fundies because they love to try to shoehorn their damned 'flood' in there but it was an absence of water which did in the Early Bronze Age cultures. Nonetheless, the Egyptians picked up the pieces during the First Intermediate period and started right back in building pyramids when the Middle Kingdom got going. This suggests that the problems of the First Intermediate Period were political rather than cultural, as opposed to the Second Intermediate Period when Egypt was overrun by the foreign "Hyksos" dynasty.
There is also the Inventory Stele but I'll skip that for now. In fact, I'll break off so this does not get too unwieldy.
Again, we are both proceeding from the assumption that the Egyptologists have it right and I'm not so sure about that idea but for the sake of argument I'll continue. With that background I can agree with your timeline from Djoser to Khufu but there are still anomalies. One, why did Sneferu build 3 pyramids can be explained by accepting the view that Meidum was actually built by the last king of the 3d dynasty, Huni. There is some speculation about that. The second, more problematical anomaly is, why did they finish the Bent Pyramid? Was this some sort of PH. D. course for engineers? Still going by the "tombs and tombs only" concept why would Sneferu continue work on a project when he clearly had decided to move on and build the Red Pyramid? What's the point? He could only be buried once.
We can agree to disagree about the technical improvements that are evident between the Red Pyramid and the Great Pyramid. We still haven't talked about ramps though. But it's the divide between the 4th Dynasty and the 5th that disturbs me. Yes, I can agree that if there were economic hardships a pharaoh might be persuaded to build a smaller pyramid. But why toss out all the allegedly accumulated knowledge of HOW to build them and build something that is both smaller and shittier?
The one point where I categorically disagree with you is the idea that the religious aspects were declining. It is in the 5th Dynasty pyramid of Unas that we begin to see the Pyramid Texts carved into the burial chambers. The practice continues into the 6th Dynasty which suggests to me that the religious aspect was growing after the 4th Dynasty. It is well attested that the internal passages of the Great Pyramid have all the decorative flourishes of a New York subway tunnel. I recall dear old Zahi Hawass who defends the lack of ornamentation as a "stylistic choice" standing beside the grave of a foreman at Giza who he asserted was responsible for building the pyramid. Right on the tomb was a laudatory inscription about what a great guy the overseer had been. So, a guy who oversaw the workers gets a commemorative inscription and the Pharaoh who commissioned it gets oogatz? Sorry. That makes no sense.
For the record, Old Kingdom Egypt continued along through the 6th Dynasty with no obvious internal or external issues until the 22d century BC when a stunning drought throughout the whole region seemingly brought them down (along with Sumeria) a fact which annoys the piss out of fundies because they love to try to shoehorn their damned 'flood' in there but it was an absence of water which did in the Early Bronze Age cultures. Nonetheless, the Egyptians picked up the pieces during the First Intermediate period and started right back in building pyramids when the Middle Kingdom got going. This suggests that the problems of the First Intermediate Period were political rather than cultural, as opposed to the Second Intermediate Period when Egypt was overrun by the foreign "Hyksos" dynasty.
There is also the Inventory Stele but I'll skip that for now. In fact, I'll break off so this does not get too unwieldy.
