Shells Help Debunk the Pyramid "Concrete" Hypothesis
Monday, April 28, 2008
Keywords: pyramids, limestone, fossils, shells, petrography, x-ray diffraction
I just recently posted about MIT students testing a controversial hypothesis that blocks of the Egyptian pyramids aren't actually stone but a form of ancient concrete cast in situ. This idea has been touted by chemical engineer Joseph Davidovits and recently bolstered by materials scientist Michel Barsoum. Dipayan Jana, a petrographer, has recently demonstrated that samples from the Great Pyramid at Giza are consistent with local limestone, and there was no evidence of Davidovits' geopolymers found in the pyramid specimens. Now researchers in Greece have identified the pyramid blocks as varieties of granite, sandstone, and limestone using petrography and x-ray diffraction. The distribution of fossil shells in the limestone suggest a completely natural origin for the blocks. In addition, lime would be expected if the blocks were cast, but the researchers found no traces of lime. This is the second recent study that petrographically examined the pyramid blocks as well as the local limestones, and both studies discovered nothing to suggest that these two materials aren't the same.
Above: Photograph of the blocks of the second largest pyramid at Giza. Credit: "svamberk" at Webshots.
Excerpts from Discovery News:
Egypt's Pyramids Packed With Seashells
By Jennifer Viegas
Many of Egypt's most famous monuments, such as the Sphinx and Cheops, contain hundreds of thousands of marine fossils, most of which are fully intact and preserved in the walls of the structures, according to a new study.
The study's authors suggest that the stones that make up the examined monuments at Giza plateau, Fayum and Abydos must have been carved out of natural stone since they reveal what chunks of the sea floor must have looked like over 4,000 years ago, when the buildings were erected.
"The observed random emplacement and strictly homogenous distribution of the fossil shells within the whole rock is in harmony with their initial in situ setting in a fluidal sea bottom environment," wrote Ioannis Liritzis and his colleagues from the University of the Aegean and the University of Athens.
The researchers analyzed the mineralogy, as well as the chemical makeup and structure, of small material samples chiseled from the Sphinx Temple, the Osirion Shaft, the Valley Temple, Cheops, Khefren, Osirion at Abydos, the Temple of Seti I at Abydos and Qasr el-Sagha at Fayum.
X-ray diffraction and radioactivity measurements, which can penetrate solid materials to help illuminate their composition, were carried out on the samples.
The analysis determined the primary building materials were "pinky" granites, black and white granites, sandstones and various types of limestones. The latter was found to contain "numerous shell fossils. . ."
Liritzis and his team argue that since the fossils are largely undamaged and are distributed in a random manner within the stone, in accordance with their typical distribution at sea floors, the large building stones used to construct the monuments must have been carved out of natural stone instead of cast in molds.
To further their argument, the scientists say the X-ray patterns detected no presence of lime, which would be expected along with natron, a salt found in early cast materials. . .
To read the rest of the article, visit the Discovery or ABC News websites:
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Blog Author: Ellery Frahm