Egyptian Pyramid Rover Finds... Another Door

JoeRobe writes "In what appears to be more evidence that ancient Egyptian architects had a sense of humor, MSNBC is reporting that the pyramid rover has determined what was behind the door at the end of a mysterious shaft alluded to earlier - another door."

Comments

A Pathetic Excuse for Science

[Anonymous Coward]

This entire thing was an exercise in what I would hesitate even to dignify as psuedo science. Egyptology is not science in the first place; not any more than astrology is. But this was even shy of real egyptology.

The entire show consisted of outright lies and wild speculation presented as fact. For example, the statement that 'the people who lived here could not have been slaves because they were 50% male rather than a majority.' Huh? How does that make the slightest bit of sense? The Egyptians took slaves of any gender. I do not happen to think that most of the pyramid labor was slave, but that was hardly a supporting arguement.

The director of anitquities made quite a show of concern for good science and taking proper care of the sites explored. But in the end, he essentially attacked that tomb with a chisel and a crowbar for no apparant reason. All he had to do was place a hydraulic jack under each corner and lift. But he damaged the sarcophagus to look like Indiana Jones and was shocked to find... a skeleton! Inside a grave- imagine! He pretended to read a 'curse' on the side of a tomb, despite the fact that he was tracing the characters in the wrong direction (across 2 seperate lines) and the fact that no inscription resembling a curse has ever been found on an Egyptian tomb. Ever. It was a myth invented before the Rosetta stone was found.

It would have been nice if they had mentioned the fact that not a single set of human remains has ever been found in an Egyptian pyramid. The theory that these were built as literal tombs is yet unproven.

Perhaps they might have incorporated the opinions of geologists, climatologists and other actual scientists in the course of this 'documentary.' But that surely would have ruffled the feathers of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, which apparantly exists for the purpose of justifying conclusions that were reached 100 years ago by untrained, British treasure seekers.

I also took issue with the computerized recreations of the building of the pyramids. National Geographic completely ignored the fact that 4,000 years ago that area was a very temperate climate. No desert, no sand. A lush, green paradise that looked nothing like it does today. This fact was completely ignored throughout all the reenactments- even those that were clearly staged in the US with caucasian actors. Why go to all that trouble of staging a desert unless you really just don't know a damn thing about ancient Egypt?

The truely embarrasing element of all this is that National Geographic was responsible. I expect better from them. This wasn't even pop science- just a big, fake exercise in tomb raiding and lies for the entertainment value. Cancel my membership, please.

Re:A Pathetic Excuse for Science

[Krieger]

The program really was a travesty. It seemed entirely like a vehicle for Hawass to try and discredit the "Pyramidiots".

As much as some of the pyramidiots are way out there. Many of them seem to raise some very legitimate and troubling questions about Egyptology. They in fact made me just interested enough to start reading academic texts about Egyptology and it does appear that some of the so called discoveries that have been found throughout the exploration of the pyramids have been fake. The "gang" graffiti of heiroglyphics that Hawass showed is in fact the only writing found in the pyramids. And it is possible that it was done by Egyptologist that got to that level to justify the expense of his expedition.

I still find many of the current arguments about the construction of the pyramids to be unconvincing. At a minimum the timing still seems wrong. The other pyramids in the country seem to be proof. They have the step pyramids and then they have the pyramids at Dashour. The strange upsurge of amazingly well architected and built pyramids in the middle of a dynasty only to relapse into horrible pyramid building less then a few centuries later. And most of all without any evidence of civil unrest, war, or other catastrophe to explain the sudden loss of technology.

So as much as the Pyramidiots are out there it would be interesting to see the Egyptologists take them seriously just long enough to convinvingly refute (or attempt to) their claims. It would certainly go a long way to discredit them. Because it seems that the Pyramidiots have managed to make some decent discoveries themselves, or at least ask questions that caused the exploration of the new ideas.

Link For FOX's 18-35 Male Demographic

[LittleGuy]

She's BBC News Commentator Laura Greene.

Re:VERY MISLEADING

[lemox]

Is this some kind of archeology FUD-bot?

Both this comment and its parent appear in the previous story ("Egyptian Pyramid Mysteries to be Explored Live") just take a look at the title of each page.