Pyramid Construction

[wagnerr]

Not just Egyptian pyramids, but others in the world too.

I remember studying abroad a few summers ago in Mexico. We were in the Yucatan for soemthing like six weeks, without ac hehehe, and we travelled all over the peninsula, visiting the ancient Mayan cities.

We saw many different types of pyramids, of various sizes, most of which were restored by the combined efforts of the Mexican govt and foreign aid for these archaealogical projects.

I've always been facsinated with how pyramids were contructed by the ancients, either by the Mayans or the Egyptians.

[pnoopiepnats]

wagnerr said:

Not just Egyptian pyramids, but others in the world too.

I remember studying abroad a few summers ago in Mexico. We were in the Yucatan for soemthing like six weeks, without ac hehehe, and we travelled all over the peninsula, visiting the ancient Mayan cities.

We saw many different types of pyramids, of various sizes, most of which were restored by the combined efforts of the Mexican govt and foreign aid for these archaealogical projects.

I've always been facsinated with how pyramids were contructed by the ancients, either by the Mayans or the Egyptians.

hahaha nothing like the Yucatan jungle in July! ;D

[wagnerr]

pnoopiepnats said:

wagnerr said:

Not just Egyptian pyramids, but others in the world too.

I remember studying abroad a few summers ago in Mexico. We were in the Yucatan for soemthing like six weeks, without ac hehehe, and we travelled all over the peninsula, visiting the ancient Mayan cities.

We saw many different types of pyramids, of various sizes, most of which were restored by the combined efforts of the Mexican govt and foreign aid for these archaealogical projects.

I've always been facsinated with how pyramids were contructed by the ancients, either by the Mayans or the Egyptians.

hahaha nothing like the Yucatan jungle in July! ;D

Oh yes, it was hot as all hell definitely.

Our house that we stayed in had no ac, but no problem. We adjusted to it pretty well, considering.

[UnicornTamer]

I've always liked the pyramids too, especially the Egyptian ones. I wanted to be an Egyptologist but I've settled for just being an archaeologist. I would like to see the Mesoamerican pyramids one day though they don't seem as grand as the Egyptian ones. I've learned a lot about them though in my Mesoamerican Prehistory class. I want to see the Egyptian ones someday too.

[wagnerr]

iris123 said:

I've always liked the pyramids too, especially the Egyptian ones. I wanted to be an Egyptologist but I've settled for just being an archaeologist. I would like to see the Mesoamerican pyramids one day though they don't seem as grand as the Egyptian ones. I've learned a lot about them though in my Mesoamerican Prehistory class. I want to see the Egyptian ones someday too.

Hey hey, the MesoAmerican ones are just as cool, if not as big.

There's the big one at Chichen Itza that stands 90 feet tall. You can actually climp up most of it.

Quite a good work out, in fact.

Anyway, a big difference between the MesoAmerican pyramids and the Egyptian ones where their use. The Mayan pyramids were used for human sacrifices. The Egyptian ones used for grandness and size, to show off the Pharaoh's tombs.

[UnicornTamer]

I never said the Mesoamerican ones weren't cool. We just went over in my class how they were used for religious purposes with dual temples and such at the top. And although 90 feet is impressive the pyramids of Egypt stood at 400+ feet when they were originally built.
What fascinates me most, however, is how two different cultures on two seperate continents at two different periods in time (without contact with each other) came up with the same kind of monument. It isn't really that hard to believe but it is interesting to see different cultures reflecting each other in certain ways.

[wagnerr]

iris123 said:

I never said the Mesoamerican ones weren't cool. We just went over in my class how they were used for religious purposes with dual temples and such at the top. And although 90 feet is impressive the pyramids of Egypt stood at 400+ feet when they were originally built.
What fascinates me most, however, is how two different cultures on two seperate continents at two different periods in time (without contact with each other) came up with the same kind of monument. It isn't really that hard to believe but it is interesting to see different cultures reflecting each other in certain ways.

Fascinates me too.

Actually, some archealogical work has been done in the yucatan where it is believed some Phoenician artifacts were found, dating back to nearly 4000 years ago, i think.

Maybe they brought back the pyramid design with them to the New World. I don't know. But the pyramid design just seems to leap out and stand up nature in a way., hehehe. It's almost like a show of superiority over natural forces.

[shypsychologyguy]

there is no debate here so Ill pose a question.

we often assume the ancient people were not as intellegent as us yet we have yet to fully understand how they constructed the pyrimids so precisely.

Heres the debate
Are we more intellegent then them?

if evolution were true shouldnt we know how they managed such feets given that we are more evolved?

[wagnerr]

shypsychologyguy said:

there is no debate here so Ill pose a question.

we often assume the ancient people were not as intellegent as us yet we have yet to fully understand how they constructed the pyrimids so precisely.

Heres the debate
Are we more intellegent then them?

if evolution were true shouldnt we know how they managed such feets given that we are more evolved?

Who says they weren't as intelligent as we are now?

I am of the opinion that the Ancients were much, much more intelligent than we are in the modern world today, although they were not as technologically sophisticated.

Anyway, no, i'm not trying to argue with you SPG. I just hear this argument all the time and i must say it comes out of ignorance, not intelligence.

As for the pyramid construction, many theories exist. One theory indicates that the Egyptians may have had huge pulleys, which could be used on wooden scaffolds to gradually bring blocks up to the top where they were cemented into place.

As for the Mayan Pyramids, well, they're not so huge, but they are just intelligently deisgned. There's one at the city of Dzibilchatun in the northern Yucatan, where one stone temple is precisely set for the winter sun to shine through it, illuminating the whole city.

[pansy]

no, no, no, no...aliens built the pyramids! ;D

[sushiboat]

shypsychologyguy said:

if evolution were true shouldnt we know how they managed such feets given that we are more evolved?

A few thousand years is the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms. Early Stone Age humans had the same lifestyle for about a million years. If the fit between a species and its environmental niche is good, there is little pressure to drive change. There are many species that have shown little change for millions of years. The horseshoe crab is not much different from its ancestors that lived 200 million years ago.

[Bodhi]

pansy said:

no, no, no, no...aliens built the pyramids! ;D

I agree, it was obviously aliens.

[Tal]

I agree with what sushiboat said.

Plus, most of the pyramid construction was done by manual labourers. It would have been a small number of elites who designed the structures, worked out the maths etc.

These no doubt were either better educated than the masses, or more knowledgeable, thus you can't generalise about the intelligence of an entire society/epoch of Humans based on architecture planned by only a few people.

We’re not more intelligent by any significant amount; we have just developed more knowledge and better ways to store and disseminate that knowledge.

As for the pyramid construction, many theories exist. One theory indicates that the Egyptians may have had huge pulleys, which could be used on wooden scaffolds to gradually bring blocks up to the top where they were cemented into place.

I thought the more generally accepted idea for the Egyptian Pyramids was that they built earth ramps up the sides of the pyramid as it was being constructed and dragged the stones up on sledges (using logs to roll them on).

Any kind of pulley system or scaffold simply wouldn't be strong enough or tall enough.

[wonkothesane]

shypsychologyguy said:

there is no debate here so Ill pose a question.

we often assume the ancient people were not as intellegent as us yet we have yet to fully understand how they constructed the pyrimids so precisely.

Heres the debate
Are we more intellegent then them?

if evolution were true shouldnt we know how they managed such feets given that we are more evolved?

Our ideas evolve all the time, and biological evolution is not always a positive thing, certain species have evolved in negative ways and can make themselves extinct- Panda's are doing this at the moment (that's the only one I can think of of the top of my head, but there are others)

Is the ability to construct the pyramids a lesser or graeter feat than keyhole surgery? I don't think you can see one as better then the other- they derive from the viewpoint of the society arround them and the fulfillment of it's needs- social, spiritual, economic..... and what form a society wishes to focus and express them.

[shypsychologyguy]

So thats what happened to Panda and why she no longer comes here