Quote:
Originally posted by Sebatianos@Dec 6 2004, 02:59 PM
OK - so a word from a historian...
First off - Stroggy and Anubis - you are arguing about wheather the pyramids were built by slaves or not - remember?
The first claim was made that the slaves built them. On what was this claim made? The evidence supporting this claim is not stronger then the one saying they were built by paied workes. There are in fact more evidence saying the people weren't slaves - but these evidence must fight against a set way of thinking. That's a real problem historians have - not just regarding pyramids.
So about the pyramids - R Havell told you - they were built by people that were recruted to build them while the Nile flooded.
Of course these people were payed workers. But it's unrealistic to think that the builder - the Pharao would rather pay people to build something then to use his free work force - the slaves. So the theory is as follows - they recruted as many payed workers they needed - after using slaves. So both were working on the pyramids.
When you explore the history of the payed workers - and the craft work needed was probably done only by experianced craftsmen - not slaves - then you get a story of well fed and cared for workers that achieved a monumental structure. When you look at the work that needed pure man power - pulling the block,... Well not much experiance needed for that one,...
You must also know that slavery had many different levels!
There were people that were inslaved because they couldn't pay depts (basically forced labour) and were set free after they have done enough work!
Then you had slaves that were brought back from wars - these were used for pure menpower - but theri number was not really big. You must keep in mind that these are only people, who were captured during a combat (most of them fled or died - and the oposing armies rarely counted more then 5000 men* - both sides).
There was also the third kind of slavery - or better to say hostages. These were importaint poeple from an enemy tribe, nation,... This was to insure them peace. The idea was - if you have four sons of the king you were at war yesterday at your court (at a point of the sword) the king will not dare to attack. After a number of years these people were returned (again not without thought) - they were shown the best way of life - in order to want them to be like the people who held them hostage (or were offered to marry into their families). So after taking their leading posistions they would not wage war on Egypt.
In any case - a workforce of slaves alone would not be big enough to build the pyramides - so they had to hire workers too!
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Impressive
Can you tell as also a bit about languages?
Did all of them speak only one language, or there is a trace of language barrier between these people?
Thanks for nice and well made answer!