Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Mysterious Pyramid Bumps

Mysterious Pyramid Bumps


Andre Willers
7 Jan 2015
Synopsis :
The portrusions found on large stone blocks are yoke-stabilizers for the strap-on rollers used to transport the blocks .

Discussion :
1.The bumps :
Menkaure pyramid , Egypt



 

Inca Roca wall , Cusco , Peru


 
See Appendix B for how these would stabilise rollers strapped on .
Presumably , outward facing protrusions need not have been trimmed , as they would been used to stabilize facing .

2.The solution in Appendix B (Strap-on rollers turning the block into dodecagon(12 sided ) shape that can be easily moved over rough terrain
without tearing up the surface seems to be the preferred solution .
The protrusions on the blocks seem to fit the hypothesis .
Occams Razor applies .

Strap-on quarter wheel segments would need some prepared and maintained roadway , as well as elaborate manufacture of the segments .
See Appendix C and Appendix A .
Something like the image below .
 
3. This would need an awful lot of wood .
We do an approximate estimate .
The Palermo Stone records of Snefru's reign:
“Bringing of 40 ships filled (with) cedar wood “  J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part One, § 146 <

Sneferu (also read Snefru or Snofru), well known under his Hellenized name Soris (by Manetho), was the founder of the 4th dynasty during the Old Kingdom. Estimates of his reign vary, with for instance The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt suggesting a reign from around 2613 BC to 2589 BC,[4] a reign of 24 years, while Rolf Krauss suggests a 30-year reign,[5] and Stadelmann a 48-year reign.[6] He built at least three pyramids that survive to this day and introduced major innovations in the design and construction of pyramids in Ancient Egypt.
So , one fleet carried about 3 000 tons of cedar wood . This is about 7650 cured, mature cedars . Average height about 100 feet . (based on American Red Ceder data)
Average pyramid block size was 5ft x 8ft x 12 ft . From the protrusions in the pyramid of Menke , it seems as it the rollers were placed on the shortest size (The wood was more valuable than stone)
So , one tree yields about 100/5 =20 rollers .
A pyramid of 2.5 million blocks like Gizeh , built over 20 years would require 2.5x12/20 = 1.5 million trees .
Without reuse , that is 75 000 trees per year , or about 10 fleets like Snefru’s per year .
But wood is very tough , durable material and should easily last 10 reuses .
So one fleet a year should have been sufficient .

4. Some consequences :
4.1 The Pharaohs had a vital interest in Libanon (where the cedars grow) . This shaped their foreign policy towards the Middle East .
See the Bible .
4.2 The roller logs retired from use became a vital part of the Egyptian economy . Agricultural implements and transport especially , since Egypt had no suitable wood of it’s own . Egyptians would probably have starved if the timber supply dried up , as they could not get the harvest to the storage facilities (never mind the tax collector)
The wood all eventually ended up as charcoal for cooking fuel . Hence very little archaeological remains .
It is ironic that one of the major reasons for building the pyramids is to have a large , steady supply of quality wood .

4.3 A similar argument can be made for Cusco . The largest hardwood forests are in the Amazon basin , and requires large resources to transport .
4.4 Religious connotations of the timber trade .
The major myth of the ancient Egyptians was the Osiris-Seth conflict , with the goddess Isis mixing in .
“Secretly Seth obtained the exact measurements of the body of Osiris, and caused beautiful chest to be made that would fit only him. It was fashioned of the rarest and most costly woods: cedar brought from Lebanon, and ebony from Punt at the south end of the Red Sea for no wood grows in Egypt except the soft and useless palm.
Then Seth gave a great feast in honour of Osiris; but the other guests were the two-and-seventy conspirators. It was the greatest feast that had yet been seen in Egypt, and the foods were choicer, the wines stronger and the dancing girls more beautiful than ever before. When the heart of Osiris had been made glad with feasting and song the chest was brought in, and all were amazed at its beauty.
Osiris marveled at the rare cedar inlaid with ebony and ivory, with less rare gold and silver, and painted inside with figures of gods and birds and animals, and he desired it greatly.
"I will give this chest to whosoever fits it most exactly!" cried Seth. And at once the conspirators began in turn to see if they could win it. But one was too tall and another too short; one was too fat and another too thin - and all tried in vain.
"Let me see if I will fit into this marvelous piece of work," said Osiris, and he laid himself down in the chest while all gathered round breathlessly.
"I fit exactly, and the chest is mine!" cried Osiris.
"And the chest is mine!"
"It is yours indeed, and shall be so forever!" hissed Seth as he banged down the lid. Then in desperate haste he and the conspirators nailed it shut and sealed every crack with molten lead, so that Osiris the man died in the chest and his spirit went west across the Nile into Duat the Place of Testing; but, beyond it to Amenti, where those live for ever who have lived well on earth and passed the judgments of Duat, he could not pass as yet”

Like all myths , it is about 1/3 truth and 2/3 myth and has to be translated .
Hint : Use one myth to decode another one . See

To appreciate history , you have to think outside the box .
Ask Osiris .

Andre

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Appendix A
One of the ancient Egyptian technologies :
“Moving large stones .
This problem has been solved by the Egyptian Department of Antiquities during their excavations of the workers’ quarters near the Pyramids . They found toy quarter-circles in childrens’ graves . They were mimicking in play what their parents did .

Strap four wooden quarter-circles to square and you have a circle . The stone blocks were not dragged , they were rolled . (This has been done in actual reconstruction with pyramid blocks) . Really large blocks (thousands of tonnes) can be moved by this method . The only limitation is the strength of wood and the strength of the surface over which it must roll . It can easily be calculated , but even cursory examination shows that it must be very large (cf mass capacity of wooden , wheeled cart)

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Appendix B
Did physicists just solve the construction mystery of the Great Pyramid?
SCIENCEALERT STAFF    28 AUG 2014

Exactly how the colossal Great Pyramid of Giza was built has been debated furiously for centuries. While Egyptologists generally agree that the 146.5-metre-high structure was built over a period of 10 to 20 years, no one has been able to prove how 2.4 million enormous limestone blocks were transported from several nearby quarries and stacked so perfectly in a pyramid shape using nothing but whatever basic construction technologies were available at the time.
One popular theory is that the blocks were dragged across strips of sand that had been loosened with water to reduce friction. But this raises the question of how the workers would have transported all the water they needed to the location of the blocks, because just like limestone blocks, water is incredibly heavy too!
Perhaps, proposes a different theory, the workers attached quarter-circle wheels to the flat surfaces of the blocks, turning them into easy-rolling cylinder shapes. But the problem with this hypothesis is that it's not particularly practical when you consider it in relation to the roads these cylinders would need to roll along. The pressure exerted by the blocks on the roads as they were rolled towards the construction would have effortlessly torn them up, necessitating constant maintenance by the otherwise engaged workers. 
But a new study led by physicist Joseph West from Indiana State University in the US has offered up a pretty promising theory. The Physics arXiv Blog explains:
"Their approach considerably reduces the ground pressure but at the same time allows the blocks to be moved with significantly less effort than dragging. They have even tested the idea to measure the amount of force workers would have had to use to move the blocks. Their idea is remarkably simple. They strap wooden rods to a block, turning its profile from a square into a dodecagon, which can then be moved more easily by rolling."

Image: West, Gallagher and Waters
West and his colleagues tried their theory out on a scale model made from a concrete block weighing almost 30 kg. After they strapped the four sets of three wooden rods to each side of the block, they attached a rope to the top, which could be used to pull on the crude wheel-like structure and get it rolling. They measured how much force would be needed to set the stone rolling, and found that it was only around 0.15 times the entire weight of the stone, which is feasible, even for the largest stones used in the Great Pyramid.
"Of course, these researchers do not address the question of whether there is any evidence that the pyramids were constructed in this way, only that this would certainly seem a good option, not least because of the reduced wear and tear on the thoroughfares to and from the pyramid,” says the Physics arXiv Blog. "Indeed, they say the mechanism would work without a formal, engineered road.”
The team is in agreement with that assessment, concluding the study by asserting the need for further research into the theory: “It would seem that some variation of rolling the blocks should now be considered to be among the 'best' and most likely method used to move the stones for the great pyramids."

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Appendix C
Nile Delta Artifacts & Construction Theory
Did the builders of the Great Pyramid construct the world's first railroad? After reading Dr. Parry's proposal that the ancient pyramid builders may have rolled the stone blocks (enclosed in wooden 1/4 circle "cradles") from the quarries along earthen ramps to the top of the pyramid, I hypothesized a bit further and came up with the following scenario, disposing with both the massive earthen ramps (though allowing for smaller rubble ramps at the base) and encircling spiral external masonry ramp, and replacing them with a ladder & drum system, where adjacent wooden ladder rails (from which the 1/4 circles were cut out) were interlinked. The pyramid builders were familiar with the potters wheel, the drum, the wheeled scaling ladder, (probably not the spoked chariot wheel), and were likely very resourceful with wood materials. Compare these ladders to the "rail.bmp" image further down.
Wheeled ladder at tomb of Kaemheset, 5th dynasty (note multiple reinforced parallel rails)













Per the images below, the ladder rail could interlink linearly or at an angle (1:4) to permit raising the stones (using peripheral pull with a simple wheel winch from above). This railroad could support the transport of heavy stone blocks over soft, wet and uneven ground (during the annual Nile flood, when farm workers left the sodden fields to work on the pyramid). The same setup could be converted to a raft, to transfer granite and limestone across the Nile and along canals to the Giza Harbor. Interestingly, Dr. Parry's book mentions the significance of the Scarab dung beetle, it's habit of rolling balls of dung, and how the Egyptians glorified this symbolically by having the mythical scarab Khepera, roll the sun across the sky. Possibly, a drawing of a scarab enclosed in a disk surrounded by a band represents a stone block encased in 4 quarter circle cradles banded together. Note figures 11, 17, 20 and 22 in David Talbotts paper at this link. 
http://www.bearfabrique.org/Catastrophism/Saturn/shipart.html

The "railroad" correlates well with the 1/4 circle cradles, however it would also make sledge transit more effective, somewhat like Nova's* depiction in the program "This Old Pyramid", and would work with pulling oxen (they had no yokes, they used rope around the throat of the ox, so I doubt they pulled stone up steep slopes), pulling teams of workmen, or more likely IMO, 1/4 cradle wheel winches pulling from above while on slopes, and pushing from behind while on level surface.
Note the photos of the transverse timber ties embedded into the ramp at this site:
http://www.catchpenny.org/howbuilt.html
Quite similar to railroad ties on an inclined slope. Note that "slipways" of the same style have been found in the bed of the Nile, used during low flow to move boats and freight across.

"This Old Pyramid":
*Narrarator: "(log) Rollers work good, but only on a smooth, hard surface. So, they're of no use on sandy site. At neighboring pyramid complexes, the remains of clay roadbeds have been found into which the ancient Egyptians imbedded wood, like railway ties. Perhaps a sled loaded with one of Roger's two-ton blocks will slide over this surface".
MARK LEHNER: We're going to try to...wet the ties and make it slippery, and see if it goes on the ties without a layer of slick clay. If just the ties, the wooden ties themselves - sleepers - will carry the sled.


·         Rolling Stones Railway - (Giza Pyramid rail-ramps-rafts-roads) -
raft.bmp
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bridge.bmp
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rail.bmp
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[Images show beams narrower than actual, for better view]
Stone block drum rolling on Giza railramps, rolling on tracks & culverts over soft ground, rafting on reed rail-rafts.
Exterior stone blocks of the pyramids were carefully squared and carved to fit together, but interior blocks were much rougher, the rough cut odd shaped stones would have required wooden spacer shims to fit the cradles properly. Partly filled woven sand bags of palm or reed fibers, (commonly used in areas with flooding rivers such as the Nile), would allow even very rough blocks to fit snugly encased in the 1/4 circle cradle drums.

Hypothesized "Giza Rectilinear Railroad", by Dave "Diesel" Deden

·         An Egyptian obelisk was rolled to a British ship by encasing it in a cask-like container not dissimilar to this method, and then transited to London. Another was attempted, but the ship sank in the Mediterranean Sea.
·         King Herod's temple was built using stones which were rolled to the site. The huge base stones were cut into 200 ton cylinders and rolled to the specific spot, then chipped into rectangular blocks(1). Once the base outline of the temple was complete, only the temple priests were employed, following strict temple rules. The smaller wall stones were squared and finished at the quarries, then encased in wood drums and rolled to the temple to be assembled by the priest construction crew.
(1)   Per the film "In the time of Jesus" by Readers Digest.

Here's information on England's Stonehenge, a possible roof, and how the huge stones were moved, quite similar to Dick Parry's
idea of how the Giza Pyramid stone blocks were moved in 1/4 circle wood cradles.
http://www.stonehenge.tv/roller.html
http://www.stonehenge.tv/gallery.html

Relevant links:
[[/
http://www.atse.org.au/index.php?sectionid=376]]
[[/
http://www.archpark.org.il/netscape/article.asp?id=67]]
[[/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/075093414X/ancientegyptm-21]]
[[/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramids_construction_techniques]]
[[/
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/9054/artanca.html]]

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