Slaves Built the Pyramids
This week’s mini-myth tackles the idea that slaves built the ancient and famous pyramids in Egypt. This myth goes all the way back to at least the 5th Century BCE, which is a fairly reliable estimate for when the Book of Exodus, in the Bible’s Old Testament, was finalized. Exodus says that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt – and though the Bible does not mention the pyramids specifically, popular belief since ancient times has held that slaves built those famous structures of the ancient world.
Indeed, the ancient Greek historian, Herodotus (also writing in the 5th Century BCE) specifies that the pyramids were built with slave labor – 100,000 slaves, to be exact – though he does not mention Israelites at all. Even up to our own time, the image persists of famished slaves in Egypt, clad only in loincloths, forming and hauling huge bricks under the cruel whips of their Egyptian overlords.
Perhaps the most well-known depiction of this image comes from Cecil B. DeMille’s iconic 1956 film, The Ten Commandments, which famously portrays Charlton Heston as Moses, bravely standing up to a slave-driving Pharaoh (portrayed by Yul Brenner) in order to liberate his people.
The idea even seeps into politics. When Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin visited Egypt’s National Museum in 1977, he caused quite a stir by sharing his belief that his forbears, not those of the Egyptians, built the pyramids.
So is it true? Did Egypt use slave labor (Israelite or otherwise) in order to build its most famous monuments? The answer, Buzzkillers, is no.
Starting in 1990, modern archaeologists began excavating sites near the Giza metropolis, which is where the most famous and dramatic pyramids still stand. They found tombs that appear to have been set aside for honored Egyptian citizens who worked on the pyramids. Many of the tombs date back to the 4th dynasty, which ruled between 2575 BCE and 2467 BCE. The nine-foot tomb shafts were fairly modest, and the bodies were not mummified, but the proximity of the tombs to the pyramids, the presence of jars full of beer and bread for the afterlife, plus the positioning of the bodies, suggests that these workers were not slaves at all.
Archaeologists now tell us that the workers who built the pyramids were recruited from poor communities in Egypt, and worked in three-month shifts. There were 10,000 of them (considerably fewer than the 100,000 reported by Herodotus) and they ate relatively well. It took 30 years to build a single pyramid.
Evidence from the workers’ bones suggests that they had hard lives and died fairly young, but they were not slaves. Rather, the nature of their tombs suggests that they were honored workers who labored in exchange for a better life in ancient Egypt, and perhaps for a better afterlife.
Alas, the pyramids were built for the pharoahs, not for the afterlife of the workers.
Buzzkill Bookshelf:
If you consider the size and number of blocks used to construct the Pyramids of Giza, it would have required about 200,000 slaves performing brutally hard labor year-round to complete the construction of the Pyramids. Even if we had that many people who volunteers to work for free, no one really understands how construction of the pyramids could even be possible. It would be a logistic nightmare to work that many people on one project. But if we had to pay all of the workers a fair living wage, there is currently no one in the world who is wealthy enough to do that, nor has there ever been anyone wealthy enough to build the pyramids without slave labor. Even with slave labor, you see a trend that occurred in Egypt with pyramids getting smaller, then changing to mudbrick in order to compete them with the resources available. No one will ever construct a monument as large, which will last as long, as the Great Pyramid of Giza, which stands as a monument to man’s inhumanity to man, a monument to slavery, warfare, and evil.
There is a misunderstanding about the meaning and origin of people who were “Jews”, “Hebrews”, and “Canaanites”. There is also a misunderstood meaning related to red hair among ancient Jews.
We can now use genetics to reveal the origin of Hebrews and Canaanites who worshipped the deity Ham. But because the individuals who understand the truth are the people who have spread misinformation about this understanding, who do not want the world to understand the truth, we are all still in the dark about the true meaning of these words.
What modern archaeological and genetic research reveal is that Hebrews were dark skinned people who exited Africa through the Levant some time between 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, while Canaanites had ancestors who are now referred to as Ancient Northern Eurasians that were living Europe or Asia 40,000 years ago, when Neanderthals and Denisovans (or perhaps other unknown archaic hominids) were extant in Europe and Asia.
Some potential people who would meet the requirements of the definition of Canaanites:
The most likely group were mammoth hunters who were living in Sunghir Russia over 30,000 years ago. These people were very culturally advanced. They had inherited genes, culture and behavior from Neanderthals. They were using ivory beads religiously, and burying their dead with weapons, rich grave goods, and red ocher. These people certainly contributed to Canaanite culture because it is defined by a culture of inherited nobility that worshipped death and the dead, which used elaborate burial structures, which has been represented by the color red for over 30,000 years.
The other individuals who may have contributed to Canaanite culture included ancient people of Europe who carried Neanderthal genes and used red ocher who were living somewhere between Romania, Finland, and the Iberian Peninsula about 30,000 years ago. A culture of violent farmers who practiced ritual human sacrifice and cannibalism came to exist in Herxheim Germany 7,000 years ago. This same culture existed among Neanderthals of European, and Ancient Northern Europeans who carried genes of Neanderthals. An ancient individual who carried a high percentage of Neanderthal genes was discovered in Romania, at a rock shelter associated with Neanderthal cannibalism. The earliest farmers who began to migrate into Europe from Eastern Anatolia would have had to cross Romania to arrive in Germany. Romania is also the origin of the Baja-Hamangia culture, which may be referred in the Biblical story of Noah, Ham, and Canaan.
A third group of people who may have contributed to Canaanite culture, or perhaps to Hebrew culture, were people who had extremely elongated skulls who were living in Northeastern China, just north of North Korea 12,000 years ago. The descendants of these people were found in mass graves (often evidence of violence and massacres) at Tol-e Chega Sofla (Southern Mesopotamia, Sumer) beside the Persian Gulf 7,000 years ago. We know that descendants of these people migrated from the Persian Gulf to Paracas Peru during the Bronze Age Collapse, when Israelites and Sea People were campaigning against the Canaanites. We also know these ancient people brought maternal haplogroup U2e to Mesoamerica, which is a European haplogroup associated with mammoth hunters of Sunghir Russia, mammoth hunters of Ukraine (who created the symbol of the swastika 12,000 years ago), and was carried by Early European Farmers. We also know that red headed cannibalistic Huns (Hun is a word that is synonymous with Hamite and Canaanite) either had very elongated skulls, or were practicing infant skull modification.
For Hebrews they were descendants of people who were living beside the Sea of Galilee 23,000 years ago, grinding grain into flour and catching fishes, waterfowl, and gazelles with nets. Catching live animals with nets led to domestication of livestock. These were the first fishers, shepherds, and farmers. They were also megalithic builders who constructed Gobekli Tepe. Megalithic building required an abundant supply of food and a large number of intelligent, cooperative people. After Gobekli Tepe was abandoned as a result of an invasion of violent people, the fisher/shepherds migrated west along the coast of the Mediterranean towards Southern Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, and Britain. Hebrews even crossed the Atlantic and were mining copper at Isle Royale in Lake Superior over 9,600 years ago. The evidence of this exists in genes of maternal haplogroup X2, which originated beside the Sea of Galilee and in Eastern Anatolia. Further evidence exists in the rainbow covenant between God and Noah that is mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, which is a reference to the perpetual rainbow found at Niagara Falls, gateway to North America from the Atlantic. It is also mentioned as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow by either the ancient Irish Phoenician Canaanites (the Sea People and the snakes which tormented the Israelites in the wilderness), or the Hebrew slaves of Irish Phoenician Canaanites.
Evidence of slavery:
Dragging one block with dimensions of 6’x6’x6’ would require 650 men.
We’ll assume a crew this size can set 6 blocks this size per day. The Great Pyramid would require 426,000 blocks this size. Our crew would need 71,000 days to set the blocks required to build the Great Pyramid. Working 4 months per year when the Nile is flooded, the single crew of 650 men would work on the Great Pyramid for 592 years.
To build the Great Pyramid in 20 years would require 30 crews of 650 men hauling blocks (19,500 men). This doesn’t include the number of people required to build the ramps to to get the blocks to the top of the pyramid. Moving a mountain of sand using a basket would double the amount of men required, to roughly 40,000 men. Then considering that you have to remove that same amount of sand, to meet the construction schedule would require 60,000 men. Now consider that we also have to cut the blocks by hand. We also need men to make the rope for rigging. And we need to mine copper to make the saws and chisels required by the quarry workers. We haven’t considered the men required to move the white limestone facing for the pyramid from across the Nile by boat, or the men required to polish the limestone. And there are men required to make the mortar to set the limestone facing. Then there is granite required for the burial chamber that was quarried 500 miles away. And there would need to be men to make boats to move materials, and men to load and unload the boats. Men to haul water to the thirsty laborers who were working in the desert. Then there are people needed to grind the grain and bake the bread to feed the hungry laborers. And men to tend the livestock or catch the fish required to feed the workers. And people required to butcher the animals, and cook the meat consumed by the workers. Then there are the men required to cut the wood required for fuel to cook the food, to smelt the copper, and to run the mortar kilns. Now consider the size of an army which would be required to prevent this number of slaves from revolting, which was required to create the threat that keeps the slaves working, which was required to capture and transport the slaves to civilization to build the monumental projects for a single elite family. This wealthy family and the slave traders who worked for them would be the ancestors of European Royalty and elite slave owners of Europe and the Americas. So it is possible to realize why there is a current propaganda campaign crafted to create the idea that slavery was not involved in the construction of the pyramids.
The construction of these monuments would have require an ungodly number of laborers. And how does the Pharaoh earn the resources required to pay everyone involved in constructing this monument to him? He doesn’t. Violence is the currency which kept the slaves working. And where did the slaves come from? Ancient fossils of human DNA tells us that the men of Europe who were descendants of the builders of Gobekli Tepe and Stonehenge vanished from Europe during the time that Egypt was a powerful force in the ancient world. These men from Europe were named for the words “Eber”, “Aber”, and “Iber”, which means “over”, “across”, “the other side”. These slaves were named for their origin across the Mediterranean Sea during the time of the African humid period, or Green Sahara, when crops could be produced in North Africa. These words gave the name to the Iberian Peninsula. And they gave the names to the slaves, the Hebrews.
Who would attempt to discredit ancient stories that we all have been told, in one of several religions which most people worship? Someone very irrational and wicked indeed. Someone with no moral values, no belief in religion, and no concern for the human beings whose ancestors worked to create these monuments for the ancient elite.