Egypt tombs suggest pyramids not built by slaves

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Egypt tombs suggest pyramids not built by slaves
OP - January 11, 2010, 10:06 AM

Quote
CAIRO (Reuters) - New tombs found in Giza support the view that the Great Pyramids were built by free workers and not slaves, as widely believed, Egypt's chief archaeologist said on Sunday.

Science

Films and media have long depicted slaves toiling away in the desert to build the mammoth pyramids only to meet a miserable death at the end of their efforts.

"These tombs were built beside the king's pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves," Zahi Hawass, the chief archaeologist heading the Egyptian excavation team, said in a statement.

"If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king's."

He said the collection of workers' tombs, some of which were found in the 1990s, were among the most significant finds in the 20th and 21st centuries. They belonged to workers who built the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre.

Hawass had earlier found graffiti on the walls from workers calling themselves "friends of Khufu" -- another sign that they were not slaves.

The tombs, on the Giza plateau on the western edge of Cairo, are 4,510 years old and lie at the entrance of a one-km (half mile)-long necropolis.

Hawass said evidence had been found showing that farmers in the Delta and Upper Egypt had sent 21 buffalo and 23 sheep to the plateau every day to feed the builders, believed to number around 10,000 -- or about a tenth of Greek historian Herodotus's estimate of 100,000.

These farmers were exempted from paying taxes to the government of ancient Egypt -- evidence that he said underscored the fact they were participating in a national project.

The first discovery of workers' tombs in 1990 came about accidentally when a horse stumbled on a brick structure 10 meters (yards) away from the burial area.

(Writing by Marwa Awad; Editing by Alison Williams and Michael Roddy)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6091E720100110

Questions:

What does this say about the Exodus?

How were great Muslim monuments and mosques built? By slaves or free working men and women?
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Re: Egypt tombs suggest pyramids not built by slaves
Reply #1 - January 11, 2010, 10:08 AM

So there was no need for Moses?

Inhale the good shit, exhale the bullshit.
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Re: Egypt tombs suggest pyramids not built by slaves
Reply #2 - January 11, 2010, 11:11 AM

This has been known for some time, probably since the 90's IIRC.

What does it say about the Exodus? The same thing that all other archaeological research says about the Exodus. It's a myth. It never actually happened.

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Re: Egypt tombs suggest pyramids not built by slaves
Reply #3 - January 11, 2010, 01:47 PM

Best

Period

of

history

EVER

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Re: Egypt tombs suggest pyramids not built by slaves
Reply #4 - January 11, 2010, 02:35 PM

Quote from: osmanthus on January 11, 2010, 11:11 AM
This has been known for some time, probably since the 90's IIRC.

What does it say about the Exodus? The same thing that all other archaeological research says about the Exodus. It's a myth. It never actually happened.

If Moses was myth, and Jesus could be a myth, could Mohamed himself be a myth? Think about it, the hadeath was writen 200 years after Mohamed, is it possible that Mohamed was a guy that some people followed because they thought he was a prophet and that's it. Later hundreds of years later, all kind of miracles and hadeaths have been composed. Layer, the whole thing becomes a snowball where the story grows bigger as time passes!

Muslims should perform an autopsy on the bones of Mo!O0

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Re: Egypt tombs suggest pyramids not built by slaves
Reply #5 - January 11, 2010, 06:37 PM

There is the possibility that this happened before formation of Judaism as a religion. Khufu reigned between 2589?2566 BC. Perhaps a more despotic pharaoh in future years did enslave some people..

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Re: Egypt tombs suggest pyramids not built by slaves
Reply #6 - January 11, 2010, 07:05 PM

Quote from: BlackDog on January 11, 2010, 10:06 AM

How were great Muslim monuments and mosques built? By slaves or free working men and women?

Both. Totally depends on the site. Lot of mid eastern monuments were built by specially hired groups of greek and persian artisans - ie not slaves. But I'm sure plenty of slavery was used in the procurement of raw materials and manual labour.

But historically, the main usage of chattel slavery was agriculture and mining. Most major architectural projects were too complex and expensive to be left at the hands of unskilled slave labour.

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