If we go looking for the technology how big might it be and what shape should it take? We can assume, based on the level of perfection and similarity from one object to the next, that it must have been stationary equipment. If that is so then how big would we have expected it to be? Today the size of the equipment might be as much as 50 to 100 times the size of the object being machined. If that is true then we should be able to make a prediction on the outside limits and create a range of size of the object that we might seek to locate. The next blog will be more definitive in this area but this is a good path to take to begin, by inference, to make some educated guesses that might help to locate the missing technology (or at least give us some idea of what might have happended to it).       

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Everyone puts their tools away when finished and I don't think that ancient Egyptians were any different. They would have put them away somewhere that they could have been protected from the elements. That means underground or in some above ground protected space. Since we have done a pretty good job above ground we should try our hand at the tunnels. We need to have a thorough and complete investigation into the tunnel system with a complete mapping project. We need a focus on the lost technologies as we know now that we have so little of the 'story'.   

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On a recent tour of Egypt our guide, who was an archaeologist told us that there was more under the surface than had been uncvered to date. As they have no place to put all of the 'stuff' they simply cover it back up and make note of its location. Could some remenants or suggestions of advanced technology have already been uncovered and not recognized? 

Moving on to the tunnels and looking at them as a possible resting place for advanced technology how would one go about the process. First there would have to be a concerted effort to map the whole of the tunnel system in any given area. We know there are tunnels throughout the Giza Plateau but to my knowledge there had never been an effort to map the whole of them. Ground penetrating radar could certainly be used. The completed map  would give clues to the intent and could then point to potential warehouse spaces for further exploration.

If there are tunnels under the Giza Plateau one could assume that there are probably ones under the temples and their complexes. At Dendara I experienced one that was under the temple and it had a corridor that was well decorated. I did not think of it at the time but I did not ask if anything else had been found in them or if they existed to to greater extent at that temple or others.

             

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When one thinks about underground networks of tunnels the first question to come to mind is the purpose.  Could these lead to and from warehouse areas where one might find proof of the idea that they used more advanced tool technology to construct their artifacts. Is so what is the best way to proceed to pursue this possibility? Since we do not have the abiltiy to go on site and physicaly pursue it we must take a tangential approach to the process. The first one is to explore what has been written about them and then also take a look at what has been found in other such systems built by other civilizations. This then will be the beginning of an exploration by inference. The next post will begin the journey.     

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So which direction will I take to begin to take the next steps in pursuit of the idea that the Ancient Egyptians had advanced manufacutring technologies? There are may trails on which to embark.  I have chosen the trail of  searching for physical evidence of the tools. If in fact more advanced tools, machines  and techology were used where did they all go? Has time merely sent them to the dust bin? My first stop on this trail will be to explore potential places where physical evidence might be fouind now that we have a better idea of what we may be looking for. The first place I would look is in the 'basement'. Here I am referring to the tunnels that we know have been discovered under the Giza Plateau. In my next blog I will discuss what has been reported/ not reported in relation to the tunnels. I will also discuss the paintings that I am working on in relation to these sub terranean spaces.             

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A recent book by Christopher Dunn entitled, Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt, has ushered in a new era of possiblities and exploration into the Egyptian past.  Seeing the artifacts throught the eyes of a modern manufacturing expert brings up both new questions and possibliites in regards to the sophistication and knowledge of those that built the Pyramids, the Sphinx and the Temples. A new light is shed on a potential pathway to answsers to questions that have long eluded the best archaeologists. The problem has been the narrowness of their training and capabiities to see what Dunn so dramatically displays in his book.

The question on the table now is where do we go with these new insights.  If in fact Dunn is correct, and all evidence points in that direction, then what is our next step in unraveling the mystery? This blog, in 2011, will continue to develop this idea and suggest some directions that can be taken.

His book has been an inspiration for me to return to Egypt to see first had the evidence that he has provided that seems to indicated that in antiquity our ancestors did in fact possess the skills to manufacture artifacts at a very high level. It has also motivated me to begin again to paint some of the Egyptian subjects but now with a new appreciation and point of view. The new paintings will be up on the site in the next couple of months and I look forward to your feedback.            

            

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One of the most interesting facts about the Egyptian Pyramids is the 'scale up and scale down' history of pyramid building. In just 60 years, based on historical accounts, the Egyptians went from a pyramid containing 330,000 cubic meters of material t0 one containing 2,600,000 cubic meters of material(Giza/ 4th Dynasty). In addition the complexity of construction progressed on a similar order. In the intervening time frame only two other pyramids were attempted and they were left incomplete both with less than 50,000 cubic meters of material. What happened that would have made this possible? We know even today that technology does not appear magically and certainly even if it did it would not be applied in a short period of time. The human time frame and change does not allow that to happen. What is of more interest is that shortly after the Giza Plateau Pyramids the Egyptinas seem to have, once again, lost their ability to construct. Of the 22 known pyramids that followed the largest is said to have contained about 275,000 cubic centermeters of materal and most all of the 22 are in worse condition than those of Giza.  If one did not know better it would seem that some bit of magic occured during the 4th Dynasty not to be heard from again. Is this like our Space Program that had its 4th Dynasty magic time in the 1960's only to lose its way? Or is it because of some other more profound reason. This is I think worth exploring as within it may lie a key to productivity and progress.        

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As a part of the Burning Forest series I am creating a series of paintings depicting ruins of old and a vision of what the ruins of today might look like sometime in the not to distant future. The ruins of old in most cases reflect great architecture, character and the great materials used in construction. The ruins are as compelling as tghe original structures ( In some cases more compelling!).  Of today's ruins I cannot say the same. In most cases I think they will look like trash heaps and will not in any case have the perpetuity of those of anitquity. What does this say of civilization? Are our principles and values reflected in the buildings that we create? Are they as flimsy, transitory and disposable as the structures in which we live and work? Does this tell us something in regards to what we might need to change? These are all questions that I reflect upon as I try to invision what will be left once we are gone.   

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Lack of information, or emptiness, is one of the key precepts of Chinese aesthetics. It is the experience of having done the work of art that is important and not the work itself. Is that the case with the Pyramids? Was it more important to the builders to have done it than to have recorded the how and why? In the arts it is the undsaid that carries the energy through the piece. As Simon Leys relates in his book The Burning Forest, 

" It should be observed tht it is precisely emptiness that provides the best conductor for this current'.

This energy is Qi. So perhaps it is this the lack of information that is the best conductor of the current of purpose and awe that is expericned when confronted with the great Pyramid. It and not the Pyrmaid is the underlyng energy with which we are confronted.  

 

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" Extant Egyptian records, whether written or pictorial, throw no light on the methods employed by the builders of the pyramids either in planning or in constructing their monumental works."

So says I.E.S. Edwards in his famous book The Pyramids or Egypt. Logically this makes no sense. But whatever information they used to construct the pyramids on the Giza Plateau must also have been quickly lost as the preceding contructions reveal a lack of the same sophistication of construction methods.

It also makes no sense that within the great pyramid and others there is no writing or pictorial illustration. If we are to believe that the purpose of the pyramid was as a tomb then why did they not follow the same procss as was later followed in the Valley of the Kings. There the tombs were fully decorated? This lack of records or other ornamentation in regards to purpose and the methods of contruction may provide a clue rather than a mystery. What can we suggest if we look on this lack of information as a clue.

1. The information used to construct the Giza complex came from somewhere and was lost quickly.

2. Wherever the information came from it is not apparent from other sites of antiquity that have been excavated.

3. No burial has been found in any of the Giza Pyramids or, I believe in any of the others.

4. No technology has been uncovered that would suggest methods that would allow the construction of these objects on such a grand scale. Some ideas have been suggested but none is productive enough to have been the method used. 

5. Such knowledge/ information would seem to be a treasure of any civilization and would most likely be protected and passed down to succeeding generations.

6. There is no mention from succeeding generations that they recieved any information on how to build the pyramids.

7. Pyramids that followed the construciton of the Giza Plateau seem to be trial and error projects to reverse engineer the Giza constructions.

8. If the number of people suggested particiatied in the construction of the Giza Complex it would seem likely that one of more would have in some way recorded some information in regards to the construction.

9. The constructions seem to have come out of nowhere. There is no construction information available that records the earlier pyramid building leading up to the Pyramids at Giza.

10. The Giza Constructions are like seeing a balance sheet of a small company that during a particular quarter grows immeasurably and then shrinks back to its original state by the next quarter with no explanation. How could life have proceeded normally in the face of such an achievement?

11. To the lack of information is the clue. It tells us that something extraordinary happened that for some reason came from nowhere, was not recoreded and was never successfully replicated.

 

This mystery is a part of my directon in exploring the ruins of past and future.  I paint these ruins, as a part of the new Burning Forest Series based on the essense of what I feel versus what I know.  As I saw them for the first time a year and a half ago they are, and will remain, one of the most fascinating challenges both artistically and  intellectually.                   

 

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