New Tomb Detected in the Valley of The Kings

[Minimalist]

The headline is a bit overblown - or at least way premature.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/tomb-of-...gists-say/

Tomb of King Tutankhamun’s wife’s likely discovered, archaeologists say

History buffs may have a reason to rejoice after a team of archeologists found evidence of a tomb, which they believe to be that of King Tutankhamun’s wife Ankhesenamun.

A group, led by renowned archeologist Zahi Hawass, is sure there is a tomb located near the tomb of pharaoh Ay (1327-1323 B.C.) — Ankhesenamun's second husband — in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, but they are still not fully sure whether it belongs to King Tut's wife or not.

Zahi always did know how to get attention, though.

[The Grand Nudger]

If he found a jar with whiskers in it he'd tell the world he'd found Ramses favorite cat.  

[Minimalist]

Sadly, that is how archaeology works.  Has anyone thought of the Amphipolis tomb since it was dismissed as a possible tomb for Alexander the Great? 

Hype sells.

[The Valkyrie]

I was tiveted by this until you mentioned Zahi Hawass.

Oh well, let's hope it's a significant find, anyway.

[Shell B]

I had the opportunity to interview him once via email. He was a nice guy, but definitely concerned with headlines. I imagine that's how his work gets funded.

To archaeologists, a broken piece of pottery is something to throw a party about. The rest of the world wants all of the grandeur of the Ancient Wonders or nothing.

[Minimalist]

Zahi's problem when he was Director of Antiquities is that in Egypt that effectively equated to Director of Tourism.  He had to make things exciting to bring in the crowds but when the Muslim Brotherhood started shooting the tourists it didn't matter what he said.

He is also very committed to the Tombs-and-Tombs-Only school of thought for the pyramids which has certain mathematical and logical problems.

[Shell B]

What are the other alternatives for the pyramids' purpose? I'm not sold on the tomb theory myself, but I tend to think of them that way because it's the popular narrative.

[The Grand Nudger]

How whacky are you willing to go?  We could start at all of the other things the pyramids do, regardless of what we think their purpose was..and any of those things could have -been- the purpose.  Or, there may have been no purpose beyond employing the public when they weren't engaged in ag.  A giant corporate team building exercise.  Nav beacons.  Rainwater catchment. Cosmological maps. Religious Iconography or Temples. Maybe all of this at once and every so often they crammed a dead king in there.

Then you know...aliens.  

(the catchment theory is my favorite, it's a useful civil asset and pyramids..whatever they were, were massive civil engineering projects - the things we call "causeways" may have been aqueducts.)

[Jackalope]

What are the other alternatives for the pyramids' purpose? I'm not sold on the tomb theory myself, but I tend to think of them that way because it's the popular narrative.

Grain silos, derp.

[Minimalist]

Most of them are lunatic fringe stuff.  What Hawass himself used to call the work of "pyramidiots."

Still, one has to ask oneself why civilizations build enormous structures?  Stonehenge?  Gobekli Tepe?  Nan Madol?  Some sort of religious significance coupled with a desire of the powers-that-be to compel the people to engage in some sort of civil engineering prject? 

The Tombs-only theory suggests that on Day #1 of a king's reign they started building his pyramid.  And then they hoped that the fucker lived enough to complete it?  And there is the rub.  They insist the Great Pyramid was built in 20 years ( more on that later ) and the problem there is that Egyptologists have also estimated that the average length of a pharaonic reign was 10 years.  The first three kings of the 5th Dynasty ruled for 7, 13 and 5 years.  Assuming everyone shouts "Long Live The King" on his ascension to the throne why would they assume that he'd be dead in 5 years? 

Perhaps not so coincidentally, Userkaf, founder of the 5th Dynasty has this for a pyramid:



No one is going to mistake it for the Giza Pyramids.

As far as the GP goes, there are 2.5 million blocks in it.  The math is daunting.

2,500,000 million blocks  divided by 20 years equals 125,000 blocks placed per year.

125,000 divided by 365 days in a year equals 342.46 (let's round off to 342) blocks placed per day.

342 divided by 24 hours in a day equals 14 blocks per hour or basically one every 4 and a half minutes.

That is a ridiculous enough schedule but it makes the ludicrous assumption that they worked 24/7 365 per year.

They had no floodlights so they needed daylight to work.  Assume because it is so far south that the daylight portion of the day was 12 hours long.  You now double the amount of time needed so sticking with the 20 year figure means one block every 2 minutes.

But the Egyptologists themselves claim that the work was mainly done by laborers who were released from farming duties during the Nile flood period.  For the sake of argument let's say that's six months.  Now you are down to a block every minute.  Now to be fair, there would have been a contingent of masons, quarrymen, support staff, engineers, etc who were on site full time and it is fair to assume that they would have been working on building up an inventory of stones for the laborers to move when they got back.  That would save time but then you also have to allow for the work crews to gather ( faster to travel with the current than against it ) at the site and to get trained and up to speed in moving heavy stones without killing themselves.  Aside from all that we still have no idea what kind of a ramp they used to actually move the stones and someone would have had to build the ramp. 

1 stone quarried, shaped, transported and fitted every minute in order to meet the 20 year time frame is flat-out fucking absurd.  Yet, this is the equation we are told to work with:

4th Dynasty Egyptians + copper and stone technology + muscle-power + 20 years = one pyramid. 

Any one of those conditions can be attacked, Shel.  I have my eye on the first.  The Ancient Aliens crowd goes after the second and third.  If you attack the 20 years then the Egyptologists shriek because they are already far enough out on a limb because of the life expectancy issue mentioned above.  The only thing we know is that the pyramid is there but the Tombs and Tombs only bit is dogma.