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Slave to the Truth

By Gregon

Most of us grew up on it: the idea that the pyramids of Egypt were built by slaves. In recent years though, the new view has been that the idea of slaves being used is archaic, and the Egyptian pyramids were built by a willing workforce, devoted to their king and his future afterlife. But wait, not so fast…

The main spin doctor for the interpretation of this information is Dr. Zahi Hawass, serving at the time the story hit the press (January 2010) as Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. He has a PhD from Penn, which has one of the best archaeology programs in the world. He is also a political appointee with a flair for PR who has continually demonstrated his interest in boosting Egypt’s image. He worked for the recently ousted Mubarak, an autocratic ruler trying to project a democratic image.

Hawass has an interest in pumping up the view that the ancient Egyptians loved their Pharaohs and were proud to work on their monuments: “And that’s why the pyramid was the national project of Egypt because everyone had to participate in building this pyramid. By food, by workmen, this way the building of the pyramid was something that everyone felt to participate, and really it was love. They are not really pushed to do it. When the king takes the throne, the people have to be ready in participating in building the pyramid. And then when they finish it, they celebrate.”

In the same interview, the main American archaeologist on the excavation project (Dr. Mark Lehner, University of Chicago and Harvard) is more restrained…

Read the full post at First Thoughts.

Greg
Editor
Greg is the owner-editor of The Daily Grail, as well as the author of a number of books including Stop Worrying, There Probably is an Afterlife.
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6 Comments

  1. Building a pyramid: it never ends
    So it would seem it was all some sort of political agenda, pushed by the skilled pyramid builder (Hawass) in order to boost his pharaoh’s image (Mubarak). Too bad the slaves got tired of lifting the stones.

    1. it’s all relative
      When we describe the people who did the physical work as “slaves”, we are missing the context of how society functioned in those days. And our own perception of what a slave is, is also skewed.

      It seems quite possible that they were farmers who were employed to do some building in the slow season for farming.

      But what is the meaning of “employed” in their case? Did they have any choice in the matter, or were they forced to volunteer, like today’s conscript armies?

      These days, we call under-paid jobs “slavery” when there is only the choice between being very poor, or having a bad job and only being somewhat poor. But we don’t call military conscripts “slaves”. Why not? The conscripts are forced to a much greater degree than the underpaid workers.

      Then you also have to specialists who did the pyramid designs. Mathematicians, engineers, probably astronomers and chemists, perhaps sailors, in today’s terms. I’m sure that in those days these disciplines were not as clearly separated, possibly mixed with religion.

      Were these specialists free to do anything else? Were they owned by the Pharao, or independent agents of an international pyramid building industry?

      And then what about the kings themselves? What part did they play in this? Most of them probably said “build me a bigger pyramid”, and that was the extent of their involvement.

      1. Indeed. In fact the only way
        Indeed. In fact the only way I concieve of being ‘free’ is by winning the lottery. Currently I have to work or else I suffer, possibly die – and it is only a possible because of social benefits.

        I do not consider myself a slave though, even if others would use ‘slave of the system’ or other similar language.

        It is not hard to imagine promises in the afterlife actually being used as a currency (the Catholic Church is a good modern example of a system with a history of monetising the afterlife). A promise of a reward is similar enough to an I Owe You and personally I see the sale of IOU’s that reward after death as quite a canny (even if dubious) type of financial system creating liquidity and work done.

        I don’t know how this works for Egypt if your work done is just to get your ruler a better place in an afterlife – you’d have to really be caught up in it to not complain about that, unless you have been raised to simply not value yourself by comparison… maybe. Perhaps one of the revolutions of the modern monothisms was a better capturing of the essence of this afterlife capitalism.

        Nevertheless there is a great deal of free work still accomplished by this type of monetisation, much to the benefit of all many would argue.

    2. Speaking of agendas
      Don’t forget that this news is posted on a website with deep ties to Christianity…so they’ve got their own view to push as well, one would have to surmise. 😉

  2. Slaves in Egypt
    According to modern understanding, the first slaves (people treated as property) arrived to Egypt during the 12th dynasty and were mainly prisoners of war. Out of the overall population of Egypt the slaves were actually a very small demographic group until Egypt became part of the Roman Empire. The myth regarding huge numbers of slaves building the Great Pyramid comes from Herodotus who visited Egypt around 600 BC, and what he wrote about the construction of pyramids contradicts the current understanding in almost every aspect.

    But then, like Earthling wrote, the highly regulated and rigid Egyptian class society, was very different if compared to a modern western democracy. The farmers and workers (mostly actually slaves from the 12th Dynasty onwards) were in a position which might appear to us as “slavery” in every sense. In my view, every single society upholding any form of idolatry, and any form of worship of a mortal man as a god, deserves to fall. Hard.

    I just cannot help thinking what the ancient Egypt might have really achieved if they had not wasted their resources on (pyram)idiotic building project and other grand manifestations of human stupidity.

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