Historical records have suggested the region was hit by a drought spanning several decades, forcing people to extreme measures with some writings even suggesting people were forced to eat their own children. This drought has now been confirmed by information collected by the St Andrews team, along with colleagues from the University of Aberystwyth.
Dr Bates said: “It was coming to the end of a particularly long period in the pharaohs and there is quite a good record that law and order was breaking down. Most of that comes as a result of pressures outside and in this case it was the failing agricultural system where that was such a dominant part of society, and the result of that being anarchy.”
But Dr Bates said they had found evidence of much more severe droughts up to 19,000 years ago in Africa. “Those were way more severe than either the ones we have got today or this time period 4,200 years ago,” he said. “That was significant, but actually within the last 100,000 years it was by no means the worst. That’s interesting . . . we are getting droughts in different places that are causing severe conditions, but these are compared to the absolute worst ones that could and have happened, and by the law of succession will happen again.”7
It appears then that around three hundred years after the construction of the pyramids had begun (according to conventional chronology), the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt did (as anticipated by the builders of the early, giant pyramids) collapse and come to a relatively sudden and dramatic end as a result of an unprecedented drought. This collapse of the kingdom would be followed by a period of chaos in ancient Egypt that would last for around two hundred years—the First Intermediate Period—after which ancient Egypt, unlike many other civilizations and cultures of the Near East that had also collapsed around that time, through the use of its great pyramid arks, would be able to reconstitute itself and rebuild its civilization from the ashes of its destruction.
But was this severe drought that seemingly ended the Old Kingdom actually the result of what the ancient Egyptians had witnessed in the stars some three hundred years or so previous, or was it merely a coincidence that the kingdom collapsed around the anticipated time? We may never know the truth of this. What can be pointed to, however, is evidence that indicates a storage-and-recovery function for the pyramids, evidence that suggests the ancient Egyptians of this period believed a major catastrophe was looming and had planned for it by building and storing all manner of “recovery goods” (including vast quantities of seed) in their great pyramid arks. In the pyramid complex of Djoser at Saqqara, for example, massive quantities of various seed types were stored under and around the vast complex along with some forty thousand storage-and-distribution vessels. Indeed, when the first explorers entered some of the underground galleries of this pyramid in the early twentieth century, they had to wade ankle-deep through vast quantities of grain. Consider the following examples.
Archaeologists found a row of [simulated] granaries along the west half of the northern enclosure wall of Djoser’s complex (3d dyn.), still filled ankle-deep with a mix of decayed grain, intact grains and even ears. Interestingly, the seals (from the decayed sacks) mention Djoser but also his predecessor Khasekhemui. Large stone vessels with the name of Khasekhemui were also found underneath the southern Mastaba, which has the shape of a granary. There were very few objects with Khasekhemui’s name elsewhere in the complex.8
Once again, the investigation of the west mounds is not yet complete, but excavations here have shown that there are no chambers in their superstructures . . . five shafts and staircases provided access to the substructure, which is composed of long, partly destroyed corridors and projecting side chambers. In some sections, a large number of fragments of stone vessels were found, together with grains (barley and wheat) and dried fruit.9
Various complementary explorations in the Zoser complex were undertaken by Firth. He found in the northern area near a vast rock-cut altar, simulated store-rooms [granaries] above subterranean galleries containing great quantities of provisions of wheat, barley, sycamore figs and grapes.10
Finally, in the obviously unfinished northern part of the complex, there is a gigantic altar carved into the rock, with the remains of a limestone casing. Offerings must have been exposed on the altar before being taken, through a shaft 60m away, down into the storerooms that branch from a gallery running east-west. These chambers contained mostly wheat and barley.11
At the north end of the pyramid complex is a very large courtyard, still not fully cleared of debris, with an altar near the northern wall. Underground galleries along this wall contained real food—granaries of wheat and barley, but also figs, grapes, and bread. An extensive system of underground galleries, mostly inaccessible, is also located to the west of the pyramid and southern court. . . . Entered from 11 vertical shafts, some of the subterranean corridors lead to long narrow storerooms for an astonishing number of carved stone vessels (about 40,000!), many of which were made in the first two dynasties.12
EXPLOSIVE EVIDENCE
And there may be some further evidence to indicate that the primary purpose of the early, giant pyramids was to function as arks or recovery vaults to store massive quantities of grain and other seed types (along with other useful recovery items), and this additional evidence comes from a rather unusual and unlikely source—cracks within the walls and ceiling of the so-called King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid. These cracks were first noted by Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, who wrote:
The crack across the Eastern roof-beam has been also daubed with cement, looking, therefore, as if it had cracked before the chamber was finished. . . .
On every side the joints of the stones have separated, and the whole chamber is shaken larger. . . . At the S.W. corner, plaster is freely spread over the granite, covering about a square foot altogether. . . .
These openings or cracks are but the milder signs of the great injury that the whole chamber has sustained, probably by an earthquake, when every roof beam was broken across near the South side; and since which the whole of the granite ceiling (weighing some 400 tons), is upheld solely by sticking and thrusting. Not only has this wreck overtaken the chamber itself, but in every one of the spaces above it are the massive roof-beams either cracked across or torn out of the wall, more or less, at the South side; and the great Eastern and Western walls of limestone, between, and independent of which, the whole of these construction chambers are built, have sunk bodily. All these motions are yet but small—only a matter of an inch or two—but enough to wreck the theoretical strength and stability of these chambers, and to make their downfall a mere question of time and earthquakes.13
As Petrie explains, the most popular explanation for these cracks is that they were possibly the result of an earthquake that shook the entire structure. This would imply, however, that earthquakes were highly selective in inflicting damage only to the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid and somehow conspired to spare all other chambers and all other earlier pyramids from similar damage. Other commentators have suggested that the damage may have been caused by the explosive gunpowder charges set by Vyse almost directly above the King’s Chamber in order to obtain access to the hidden relieving chambers (see chapter 6). But, as Petrie points out, the cracks in the King’s Chamber had been filled with ancient plaster, thereby proving that this damage existed long before the destructive nature of Vyse’s gunpowder archaeology.
So what could have damaged this chamber so much so that Petrie describes it as a “great injury” that finds “on every side the joints of the stones have separated, and the whole chamber is shaken larger”? From Petrie’s description it almost seems as though there had been some almighty explosion within this chamber, but if such were the case then this begs the obvious question: What substance existed in ancient times that could possibly have caused an explosion so violent as to inflict such extensive damage?
A possible clue to the source for such a violent explosion was actually discovered by none other than Vyse—soot. In 1837 the British antiquaria
n wrote in his journal the following:
Upon first entering the apartment, a black sediment was found, of the consistence of a hoar-frost, equally distributed over the floor, so that footsteps could be distinctly seen impressed on it, and it had accumulated to some depth in the interstices of the blocks. Some of the sediment, which was sent to the French establishment near Cairo, was said to contain igneous particles. When analyzed in England, it was supposed to consist of the exuviae of insects; but as the deposition was equally diffused over the floor, and extremely like the substance on the 25th instant at the second pyramid, it was most probably composed of particles of decayed stone. If it had been the remains of rotten wood, or of a quantity of insects that had penetrated through the masonry, it would scarcely have been so equally distributed; and, if caused by the latter, it is difficult to imagine why some of them should not have been found alive when the place was opened evidently for the first time since the pyramid was built.14
It seems that, even today, there remain questions as to what this “equally distributed . . . black sediment” actually was. But given the premise as presented in this book that these early, giant pyramids were constructed as arks for the storage of various recovery items such as large quantities of various seed types, including (but not limited to) wheat and barley grain, how then is it possible that such relatively inert organic material could cause such a violent explosion within the King’s Chamber? It just didn’t seem possible.
Or so I thought until I had a chance discussion with John Ferguson, a fire consultant in my hometown of Glasgow, who informed me that large densities of grain dust contained within a confined space can, when ignited, result in tremendously powerful explosions. Researching this possibility further, I came across the following:
Scientist Explains Likely Cause of Grain Elevator Explosions
When grain dust mixes with oxygen and it meets fire, the results are explosive.
“It’s very similar to a bomb,” says Robert Henry, a science instructor at Wichita State University. “Basically, it ignites just like gun powder would.”
In a demonstration, he filled the bottom of a straw with grain dust and blew it into an open flame a few inches away. It resulted in a fireball. He says this is identical to what could happen inside a poorly ventilated grain elevator when there’s a spark.
“Most of the material that you see in a grain elevator is inert, it’s packed. But in the process of milling the grain and transporting it around on belts and so on and so forth, you get these tiny particles that begin to float in the air. That’s when it becomes dangerous.”
He says the explosion is by a physical reaction as opposed to a chemical one.
“When you get a little bit of it and you disperse it in the air, there’s a tremendous amount of surface area and that surface area being exposed to oxygen makes it extremely flammable.”15
Ferguson further advised that postexplosion the burned grain dust would settle as a black, charcoal-like sediment. It is entirely possible, therefore, that the black, charcoal-like sediment found by the early explorers of these upper chambers of the Great Pyramid may in fact have found the burned remains of grain dust from a massive grain dust explosion within the Great Pyramid. If this is so then it seems that while the chambers within the Great Pyramid ark were either being filled (or emptied) with grain, a buildup of grain dust in the Grand Gallery occurred and that this was accidentally ignited, causing a primary explosion in the Grand Gallery, resulting in a much greater secondary explosion occurring in the confined space of the King’s Chamber, causing the considerable damage to that chamber that we observe today. Black, burned grain dust would then have permeated and settled throughout the structure, and this may well have been the sediment found by Vyse and his team.
A GREATER ANTIQUITY
So, while there would appear to be considerable physical evidence that a severe drought contributed significantly to the collapse of the Old Kingdom (and other Near East cultures), the earliest scientific evidence of a major global flood having occurred—the final outburst of Lake Agassiz—took place circa 6200 BCE, thus, it would seem, long before the conventional construction date of the early, giant pyramids. However, as mentioned previously, what the ancient Egyptians believed would happen in their future and what actually happened are two quite different issues. The key point here is that the ancient Egyptians believed a great deluge was imminent and that it would destroy their kingdom, and, as a result of that belief, they chose to take affirmative action; they built their great pyramid arks.
But there is yet another possibility to consider here, and, although somewhat controversial, it might also help explain the ancient Egyptian belief of a great deluge followed by drought. Perhaps what is needed is a quite different perspective; perhaps, as many alternative thinkers (myself included) have long suggested and suspected, the pyramids (and Sphinx) are of much greater antiquity than conventional Egyptology presently considers.
In my previous book, The Giza Prophecy (with coauthor Gary Osborn), evidence was presented that seemed to suggest a far greater age for the pyramids at Giza. This evidence took the form of an ostrich eggshell that archaeologists have dated to circa 4400 BCE (figure 7.2). This eggshell seems to depict a rough map of the Nile Valley, including the Fayoum region and the Giza pyramids to the northwest.
Figure 7.2. Ostrich egg depicting Giza pyramids (ca. 4400 BCE)
If this eggshell truly is depicting the Giza pyramids, then it thoroughly contradicts the conventional chronology associated with these structures and demonstrates a much greater antiquity for them. This is to say that the Giza pyramids (and probably all of the early, giant pyramids) existed by at least 4400 BCE—but could be much older still.
Egyptologists, naturally, will point to the radiocarbon dating studies that have been carried out on the early, giant pyramids and claim that these prove the circa 2500 BCE provenance of these structures.
If only matters were that simple.
For a start there are many scientists who reject the science of radiocarbon dating as being seriously flawed. And second, even if radiocarbon dating could be relied on to deliver accurate dates for artifacts, all of the tests on the early, giant pyramids were taken from charcoal fragments caught in the mortar used to bind the pyramid blocks. Who is to say that the builders circa 2500 BCE were not actually repairing the pyramids that had, as a result of their great age, fallen into disrepair? And if we actually look around Giza and elsewhere, we find some compelling evidence to support the hypothesis that such reparation works appear to have taken place.
PYRAMID REPAIRS
Let us consider first of all the construction of the pyramid at Meidum, which was supposedly originally built as a step pyramid by Sneferu, who then, apparently, much later in his life, decided to convert this structure into a true pyramid with smooth sides. But what if we take a slightly different view here: What if the original builder of the Meidum step pyramid wasn’t Sneferu at all but was perhaps some otherwise unknown builder from a much earlier time and Sneferu merely attempted to convert the original step pyramid structure he had “found” into a true pyramid? Certainly this would help explain Sneferu’s apparent loss in pyramid construction prowess since, while the footprint of the step pyramid superstructure at Meidum was founded on a bed of solid rock, Sneferu attempted to apply his conversion of that pyramid (into a true pyramid) on a foundation of sand, hence, that is why the outer “true pyramid skin” added by Sneferu collapsed shortly after its completion (if it was ever completed at all).
And we have to ask: Why would Sneferu seem to understand that a massive stone structure like the Meidum step pyramid would only be structurally sound by building it on solid bedrock and then suddenly forget that basic engineering fact when he later tried to construct its conversion to a true pyramid on a foundation of sand? It rather seems to me that what these construction contradictions of the Meidum pyramid probably represent are two quite distinct building phases by two quite different builder
s—the first by someone who obviously understood basic engineering principles of solid foundations, and the second by someone who clearly did not (i.e., Sneferu building on sand). That both construction phases have been conflated by Egyptologists to be the work of one man simply makes little sense of the actual facts.
Everywhere at Giza and elsewhere we seem to be confronted by artifacts that seem to give the impression of being of a much earlier age and subsequently reshaped and/or reworked by later peoples. Take, for example, the casing stones of G3, the pyramid Egyptologists attribute to Menkaure. Unusually, the lower sixteen courses of casing stones were crafted from granite, while the upper layers had, according to conventional thought, all been crafted of white Tura limestone in accordance with all other pyramids (see figure 7.3). Also noticeable is that G3’s granite casing stones were not finished by smoothing and polishing them.
The original gleaming white limestone casing stones that once may have covered this entire pyramid (including the lower sixteen courses) were perhaps damaged or had otherwise fallen into disrepair, or were perhaps even stolen, and Menkaure perhaps was simply engaged in making reparations to the missing white casing stones with granite replacements—a stone that was much heavier and more difficult to work with and thus would be much more difficult to dislodge or to steal.
Figure 7.3. Unfinished granite casing of G3
There is, of course, also the possibility (as observed with the pyramid at Meidum) that all of the early, giant pyramids may originally have been built as step pyramid structures and that the later Egyptians circa 2500 BCE simply attempted to convert all of them to true, smooth-sided pyramid structures.
In this regard the passageways of Menkaure’s Mortuary Temple are also worth mentioning for it seems that here too much remodeling work by Menkaure of a much older structure seems to have occurred, with original limestone walls severely eroded with age having been refashioned and contoured to receive a patchwork veneer of protective granite blocks that have the appearance themselves of having been worked and recycled from some other site. This type of “granite veneer” also appears in the Sphinx Temple, as noted by Graham Hancock.
The Secret Chamber of Osiris: Lost Knowledge of the Sixteen Pyramids Page 15