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Leading Egyptologist Leads Team to Discover Great Pyramids "Life Ramp System"
LONDON: A British academic from the University of Liverpool led a team to the monumental discovery of a 4,500 year old ramp system used to transport blocks used in the construction of the Great Pyramids in Egypt.
The ancient ramp was discovered on the Hatnub site by researchers from the Department of Archeology, Classical Writing and Egyptology at the University and the French Institute of Oriental Archeology in Cairo.
Dr. Roland Enmarch, Egyptologist, said: "The Hatnub quarries were the most prestigious source for Egyptian alabaster, the white and milky stone much appreciated by Egyptian civilization.
"Their importance today is that they are very well preserved from an archaeological point of view.
"The quarry retains a large number of inscriptions left by former quarry expeditions from 4500 to 4000 years ago. These allow us to better understand the personnel and logistics organizing expeditions on these desert quarry sites.
"In an equally remarkable way, the archaeological context of the quarries is very well preserved.
"They sit in a vast landscape of Bronze Age structures related to the extraction and transportation of stone: cabins for sleeping and working stone, cairns for discovery, ancient paths and even simple dry stone religious structures. The quarries are connected to the Nile by one of the best preserved bronze age routes in Egypt.
"During our last season, we discovered an extremely well-preserved ramp leading to the quarry, with traces of pole holes that will enable us to reconstruct in more detail the ancient technologies of stone transportation and quarrying.
"This ramp dating back to the reign of Khufu (builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the World), our research offers the exciting opportunity to better understand the logistics and technologies used to build this amazing building. . "
On the sides of the old ramp are two stairs lined with pole holes, to which ropes were probably tied thousands of years ago to drag the huge blocks of stone.
According to the conclusions, such a design would have relieved some of the burden of the workers who had to pull these huge loads.
Yannis Gourdon, of the French Institute of Oriental Archeology in Cairo, said, "This system is composed of a central ramp flanked by two stairs pierced with many posts.
"By using a sled that carried a block of stone and which was tied with ropes to these wooden posts, the ancient Egyptians were able to pull the quarry's alabaster blocks on very steep slopes of 20% or more."
Roland Enmarch added: "Our joint Anglo-French mission to Hatnub aims to study all these characteristics of the site, in order to paint a more complete picture of the functioning of careers in ancient Egypt and of what that meant for the people. involved."
