![]() ![]() ![]() Historical records show that at times in Egypt's history, land grants were given out to officials. In addition to the healthy diet, the papyri describes members of the work team regularly getting textiles that were "probably considered as a kind of money at that time," Tallet told Live Science.Īdditionally, officials in high-ranking positions who were involved in pyramid construction "might have received grants of land," said Mark Lehner, director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), a research institute based in Massachusetts. This raises the question of whether they were part of a more permanent professional force rather than a group of seasonal agricultural workers who would return to their fields.Īccording to the papyri, the workers were given a diet that included dates, vegetables, poultry and meat, said Pierre Tallet, an Egyptology professor at Paris-Sorbonne University who is deciphering the papyri and is co-leader of the team that found them. These workers appear to have travelled over much of Egypt, possibly as far as the Sinai Desert, carrying out various construction projects and tasks that had been assigned to them. The papyri detailing the pyramid's histories are still in the process of being deciphered and analyzed, but the results indicate that the gang led by Merer did far more than help with pyramid construction. ![]() However, it remains to be seen whether this is actually true. In the past, Egyptologists had theorized that the pyramid builders were largely made up of seasonal agricultural workers who had reached a point in the year in which there was little agricultural work to be done. The group of workers transported limestone by boat along the Nile River a distance of about 11 miles (18 kilometers) from Tura to the Great Pyramid, where the stone was used to build the outer casing of the monument. The papyri found at Wadi al-Jarf tell of a group of 200 men headed by an inspector named Merer. Surviving written records, including papyri discovered in 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf on Egypt's Red Sea coast, indicate that large groups of workers - sometimes translated as "gangs" - helped bring material to Giza. The step pyramid, built during the reign of the pharaoh Djoser, at the necropolis of Saqqara, Egypt. Over the past few decades, archaeologists have found new pieces of evidence that provide clues as to who the pyramid builders were and how they lived. Pharaohs gradually stopped building pyramids during the New Kingdom (1550-1070 B.C.), choosing instead to be buried in the Valley of the Kings, which is located about 300 miles (483 km) south of Giza, Lehner noted in his book. The Great Pyramid was constructed at Giza during the reign of pharaoh Khufu (about 2551-2528 B.C.), and two of his successors, Khafre (about 2520-2494 B.C.) and Menkaure (about 2490-2472 B.C.), also had pyramids built at Giza. one that has smooth sides - built under the rule of pharaoh Snefru (about 2575-2551 B.C.), Mark Lehner wrote in his book, "The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries" (Thames & Hudson, 2008). The pyramids and their buildersĮgypt has more than 100 ancient pyramids, but its most famous include the first step pyramid, built during the reign of the pharaoh Djoser (about 2630-2611 B.C.), and the first true pyramid But how the pyramid builders lived, how they were compensated and how they were treated is a mystery that researchers are still investigating. In fact, all the evidence shows that the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids, Egyptologists say. As for aliens, well, that idea is out of this world. What's more, no archaeological evidence has ever been found for the lost city of Atlantis in any time period, and many scholars believe that the story is fictional. ![]() "We have no clue, not even a single word, about early Israelites in Egypt: neither in monumental inscriptions on walls of temples, nor in tomb inscriptions, nor in papyri," wrote archaeologists Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman in their book "The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of its Sacred Texts" (The Free Press, 2001). ![]()
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