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Pyramids

23 February 2010
Ancient history

http://www.egypttoday.com (article id=8812) … over the last 30 years Egyptian archaeologists hav e been able to use modern technology to clear up outstanding conumdrums and refute misconceptions about their history. For example, Zahi Hawass excavated the remains of a large village where a permanent workforce of pyramid artisans lived. They also ecavated a section where a temporary workforce was housed and fed and a vast cemetery in which they were buried. At the time of the pyramids it is estimated that 20 percent of the population were royalty – or nobles. The construction of the pyramids was a national project, according to Hawass, and symbolised the might and power of the royal family. It is known that elite families from all over Egypt contributed to the construction of the pyramids with manpower (temporary and permanent), food and resources. The  workers were native Egyptians – not slaves, Hawass insists, and the workers village is proof positive, he declares. However, the idea the pyramids were built solely for the agrandizement of a royal dynasty might not be as certain – in spite of the propensity of the region to produce potentates and dictators in more recent centuries. The pyramidal shape may represent a feature of god – such as the Zodiacal Light (or something similar). In that respect the pyramids would have been built for the agrandizement of the god(s) and as pharaoh was considered to be a human embodiment of the god(s) whose soul (or inner self) rose after death to the heavens (or something like that).

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