NEW Clues for Building the Great Pyramid of Giza Found in a Mastaba

Hello everybody and welcome to Ancient Architects. Please subscribe to the channel for regular content on ancient architecture as well as all the latest news from the world of archaeology. At the beginning of the week I was reading the works of George Fitzclarence, the first Earl of Munster, a man who was one of the first to enter the Pyramid of Caphrae, just after Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni first gained entry to the inner passages in 1818. And whilst that was the main reason for reading his memoirs, I ended up reading the entire section on his visit to the Giza Plateau, a man who witnessed the Sphinx being excavated by Giovanni Caviglia and he was offering details I'd never read before. And I've also got to show you this amazing picture of the Great Pyramid's subterranean chamber. I love the detail that's shown on this picture, I've never seen it before and this is why I love looking back through the old sources. But anyway, I then read the following intriguing passage. Having dressed ourselves, we proceeded, attended by a whole troop of Arabs, to the buildings of masonry situated to the west of the Great Pyramid. So for those that need a little extra help, he's basically saying that he went into the Western Cemetery right next to the Great Pyramid. There we find many mastabas of important Old Kingdom figures. He continues. The paintings in the interior of one of these are particularly curious, representing, among other things, the mode by which large stones were transported both by land and by water. In the former of these, the stone is placed on a sledge drawn by bullocks with collars, which at the present period are not used in the country. And then I wondered, did the ancient Egyptians use animals in the buildings of pyramids, temples and mastabas? And why isn't the possibility more widely discussed? Because it makes complete sense. And we even have the eyewitness account of Old Kingdom artwork showing cattle being used to pull stone, meaning people did use animals for the grunt work. We always see the reconstructions of dozens of people pulling heavy stones, both across the plateau and up the pyramid ramps. But why do we assume this? Because there are images of oxen doing this hard graft. How much easier would they make the pyramid project? Apparently, a single ox can pull anything from 2,000 to 5,000 pounds, depending on terrain and training, and this equates to between 1 and 2.5 tonnes on average. And, leaving aside the large granite stones in and around the king's chamber of the Great Pyramid, what do the experts say the average limestone block of the Great Pyramid actually weighs? The answer is 2.5 tonnes, and the vast, vast majority of the Great Pyramid is made from this limestone. So, with that in mind, technically a single well-trained ox could pull a single pyramid stone by itself, maybe with one or two men guiding it, and a pair of oxen could do it with ease, especially if this is what they were bred to do. So, is this really a feasible option when considering the building of the Great Pyramid? Well, of course, we don't actually know how the pyramids were built with any certainty. There are many aspects that need to be taken into account, but one of these aspects is certainly transportation. Getting the limestone from the quarry to the building site, and also getting the limestone casing and the granite from the boats to the site. And I do think that animal power, the utilisation of beasts of burden, is something we should consider, especially if scenes are painted inside Old Kingdom of right next to the Great Pyramid showing such work being done. With a basic Google search on the subject of oxen being used in pyramid building, a couple of message boards and websites dismiss the idea because, and I quote, there's no record of domesticated oxen being used in that way. Well, although I haven't seen the mural observed by George Fitzclarence with my own eyes, I have no reason to doubt his words, especially when his overall account of the Giza Plateau is quite accurate. For me personally, this is some pretty convincing evidence that oxen were used to pull stone. But somebody else commented that oxen would not be precise enough, and whilst of course this is true, I'm not saying that cattle are physically laying the blocks of stone into their final positions, I'm saying that they're doing the grunt work, moving the blocks to the building site, and hence preserving manpower for the more precise jobs. Someone else commented that such animals were too valuable to risk on such work, which is quite strange because what's more important than building a pyramid for a king? And another person said that these animals would be too hard to train. But I'm not so sure. Oxen were already being used in farming practices. They were used to pull the plough, and as we can see in the 5th Dynasty Tomb of Ti, there are two sets of yoked oxen working in an agricultural setting. In the Old Kingdom, oxen were working animals, and I don't think that pulling would be too hard a job to train, as they were doing it already, albeit in a different context. According to a study by Richard Redding, Chief Research Officer at the AERA, during the Pyramid Building and the Giza Plateau, enough cattle, sheep and goats were kept at Giza and slaughtered every day to produce, on average, 4,000 pounds of meat. And with that information, we know that animals were brought in. They came from sites across the Nile Delta, and archaeology shows they were kept in a corral until they were slaughtered. And whilst I'm sure this is true, surely some of the cattle brought in would be put to use, especially because oxen can pull anything from 1 to 2.5 tonnes in weight, and apparently, a yoked pair of oxen can pull between 6 and 7.5 tonnes. If nothing else, the Ancient Egyptians were efficient, and I can't imagine they would have just kept the oxen on the plateau for food, and not put them to work before they were slaughtered. But what about the murals seen by Fitzclarence in the cemetery? Where are they? Well, I have been looking for pictures, and so far I've not been able to find what he saw. And so, right now, I just have to take his word for it. I'm sure somebody must know the tomb he's referring to. It's inside the Western Cemetery right next to the Great Pyramid. So if you know and have pictures, please do get in touch. But I did find another mural at Giza, in the tomb of Iddu in Giza's Eastern Field. Iddu was a 6th Dynasty official. Inside his tomb, above a doorway, we find this piece of art. It shows two oxen being guided by six men pulling a sledge. A 7th man is pouring water on the floor in front of the sledge and this was to lower the friction, because apparently, what's on the sledge is a stone sarcophagus. This is showing the funeral of Iddu. So we have more evidence of oxen with the guidance of men being used to pull stone, and this time in a funerary procession. I'm sure there must be many more scenes in the Giza Mastabas and I'll continue searching any and every archive I can to gather the evidence. But now jumping ahead to the New Kingdom, and we find more evidence of oxen being used in the transport of stone. This famous picture is something you may have seen before. It's from the bottom of a stele that dates back to the beginning of the 18th Dynasty, during the reign of King Amos I. Known as the Stele of Neferperet, it celebrates the reopening of the limestone quarries at Massara, to supply building stones for the temples of Ptah at Memphis and Amun at Karnak. The block of stone that's being drawn is estimated to be 1m x 1 x 2 in size, weighing approximately 5 tons. It's on a sledge being pulled by three pairs of yoked humpback oxen, guided by three drivers, and this is evidence that in later history, oxen were used to pull stone. Whilst there is no specific documentation for the building of the pyramids, no murals or writings to work from, we have to think logically and practically with regards to how such feats were accomplished. According to Frank Mueller-Romer, transport ramps from the Giza quarries to the pyramid construction sites had a maximum slope of just 7 to 8 degrees, which would prevent the stones that were being moved from sliding back. It would also allow the hauling crews or teams of oxen to take breaks. Static friction would be higher than the downhill slope force. He is one expert that acknowledges the use of oxen in his 2017 paper, Basic Considerations on the Construction of the Pyramids in the Old Kingdom. He does say that if there were ramps wrapped around the pyramids during construction, the angle of inclination would be significantly more than 7 to 8 degrees, but hauling breaks were likely unnecessary as the distances were so short. You could have also added stoppers onto the sledges if breaks were required. I think with good organisation, the use of oxen makes the job of transporting stone a lot easier and a lot more efficient. To me it makes total sense and it's something we should all think about when considering how the pyramids were built. And looking at the models for the building of the Great Pyramid, and one of the best models comes from Jean-Pierre Houdin. Oxen could certainly have been used on these long shallow ramps, bringing stone right into the heart of the building site. And as for the Great Pyramid granite that came from Aswan, while some say each stone weighs 80 tonnes, most of them are actually more like 40 to 50 tonnes. Houdin speculates they came off the boats in front of the Sphinx, they were taken all the way to where the Khafre Pyramid would one day be built, transported along a shallow natural ramp of bedrock, the bedrock on which the Khafre Causeway would one day be built, and then turned onto a shallow ramp to the heart of the Great Pyramid, like this. It's unlikely that oxen would be used for the giant stones, but when you consider that one ox can pull up to 2.5 tonnes, and a pair of oxen can pull up to 7.5 tonnes, well, how many would you need for 40 tonnes? To me, it doesn't seem impossible, especially if spurred on by a team of men guiding them to the construction site. No, the work isn't easy, I'm not saying it is, I'm just saying that using oxen doesn't make it impossible. Houdin believes that some sort of counterweight system was implemented to get the granite to the pyramid, and although he could well be correct, it's also possible we're overthinking the task. The ancient Egyptians had been using oxen for agricultural labour for generations already, for pulling very heavy loads of ploughing the fields. People knew how to handle these animals. They knew their capabilities when yoked together, and how multiple yoked pairs could pull even heavier loads. Whatever their specific function in the building of the pyramids, I'm sure they would have been used, making each project a lot easier than we often imagine. Right now, yes, the evidence for their use is lacking, but I have to admit, I really haven't been looking for it. But after reading the words of George FitzClarence, the search is now on, and any assistance from you, the viewers, is of course greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for watching this episode of Ancient Architects. If you enjoyed the video, please subscribe to the channel, please like the video and please leave a comment below.