Giza

[Minimalist]

Oas would have us believe that they cut new granite standards and copper standards whenever a new pharoah came along,

Everytime we elect a new president and vice president they replace all the pictures in the post offices and other government building.

Same concept.


Of course, what do you do if the pharoah is a kid and still growing?

[Guest]

Maybe they had telescoping royal cubit standards made for the little-tapper pharoahs.

[Minimalist]

Tut was 9 when he assumed the throne....one has to assume the little bugger grew a little afterwards?

[oldarchystudent]

The link was to a site that is a professional association dedicated to the science of measurement. I'd tend to believe them. Can anyone corroborate the statement?

[Guest]

Hey Oas, what's the website?

[oldarchystudent]

http://www.ncsli.org/misc/cubit.cfm

[Guest]

Thanks.

[oldarchystudent]

Here's some more confusion over the Royal Cubit.

GV - on your website you give the length as 20.63 inches:

"royal cubits" which are 20.63 inches each

The Catholic Planet site says 20.61 inches


http://www.catholicplanet.com/Tabernacl ... -cubit.htm

1 royal Egyptian cubit = 20.610 inches or 523.5 millimeters

The tourim site I mentioned earlier says

The principal unit of measurement in ancient Egypt was the royal cubit, a length we know to have been 52.4 cm

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/measures.htm

In short there doesn't seem to be an exact definition of a royal cubit - maybe it did change with successive kings - measured perhaps when they reached adulthood?

[Minimalist]

OAS,

It was Bill Cosby not Richard Pryor!

http://www.skatedc.org/pipermail/skated ... 05683.html

Bills Cosby's routine some years ago . . .

God: (standing on a chair behind Noah, he rings a bell once) NOAH.
Noah: (Looks up) Is someone calling me? (Shrugs and goes back to his work)
God: (Ding) NOAH!!
Noah: Who is that?
God: It's the Lord, Noah.
Noah: Right ... Where are ya? What do ya want? I've been good.
God: I want you to build an ark.
Noah: Right ... What's an ark?
God: Get some wood and build it 300 cubits by 80 cubits by 40 cubits.
Noah: Right ... What's a cubit?

[oldarchystudent]

LOL - yeah I've got that album somewhere. He also did the Garden of Eden. Right after the apple incident

Next thing you know, there's the Lord - "OK - everybody - Out Of The Pool"

[stan]

I'll try again with my assertion that "everyone must have known how the pyramids were built, because there were thousands of witnesses."

They would have seen where and how the stones were quarried, what kinds of tools were used.

They would have seen how the stones were transported.

They would have seen how the ramps were constructed.

They would have seen the sequence of events.

They would have seen how many people were involved. They would hve known whether the workers were slaves or some other kind of craftsmen.

Except for the location of the quarries, I suppose, we are still debating these issues.

In a way, the length of a cubit is irrelevant as long as they used the same one for each pyramid.

There are heiroglyphics showing the training of sculptors in a school.
So there were probably schools for other planners and supervisors of these monuments.

[Minimalist]

Piling one rock on top of another is no big deal, Stan....once you can lift it.

However, the mathematical and architectural ability to design a pyramid and continually survey it so that all four sides rise at a steady angle and meet at a point directly over the center of the base would be well beyond the capabilities of most people....even today.

[stan]

Yes, Bob. obviously a lot of the information is lost to us.
THose engineers went to school, though....and the knowledge was taught and otherwise passed down. The students probably went on field trips to the old pyramids to study how it was done. And think of all the sculptors and architects involved in the temple design and construction.

I guess the implication of my train of thought is that there was a large common knowledge base related to monument construction, in addition to the speciailized engineering component.

Anything wrong with that?

[Guest]

And from what "old pyramids" did the students see the techniques expressed in the engineering and lifting capacities of the builders of the GP?

[Minimalist]

Yes, Bob. obviously a lot of the information is lost to us.
THose engineers went to school, though....and the knowledge was taught and otherwise passed down. The students probably went on field trips to the old pyramids to study how it was done. And think of all the sculptors and architects involved in the temple design and construction.

I guess the implication of my train of thought is that there was a large common knowledge base related to monument construction, in addition to the speciailized engineering component.

Anything wrong with that?

Elsewhere on the board is a long discussion, complete with photographs, of the pyramid history of Egypt.

We are asked to believe that Djoser's Step pyramid was the first and then things progressed to Meidum (which collapsed) and the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid....then the GP, Khafre's and Menkaure's were built in rapid succession, the first two dwarfing the earlier ones and Menkaure's smaller but still retaining the technical excellence exhibited. Then, starting in the 5th Dynasty, they suddenly forgot everything they knew and started building shitty little pyramids again that collapsed in ruins. Moreover, from some of the photos I posted earlier, it appeared as if some of the later pyramids had "regressed" to the Step Pyramid model.

So, while it may indeed be possible that certain members of the elite classes did indeed take field trips to study the old works of excellence, it appears they did not learn their lessons very well.

Perhaps, they got into school as a legacy and spent all their time getting drunk at frat parties?