A Wellington scientist has come up with an explanation that may help solve the question of how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids.
It has been widely thought massive blocks of stone cut from quarries were dragged to the building sites.
But Professor Ken MacKenzie from Victoria University had his doubts, so he tested a small sample of a block from the famous Bent Pyramid, built more than 4500 years ago, at his Lower Hutt lab.
He ground it to powder, put in a spectrometer containing a powerful magnet and spun it at a staggering 12,000 revolutions per second.
From that, he was able to get a sub-atomic analysis of the pyramid block. It showed that rather being solid stone, it was a mixture of several materials, a sort of ancient concrete.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Another pyramid building with concrete theory
TVNZ
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2 comments:
The thing is, even if true, it's by no means explanation. There are Cleary discrete blocks, so they would have had to be cast before lifting in to place. The same quantity of limestone would be needed. Maybe concrete was used, although I would want more evidence, but it seems to make construction more, not less, complex.
Well, it would definitely make transporting the material simpler.
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