Well, it’s that time of year again. The Ancient Egypt class that I teach at the local university is set to begin on Wednesday.  I devote a full week to pyramids.  The articles below are part of the readings.  Two of these have appeared on this blog before, but the ones by Isler and Lally are new.  I have students read these because I don’t want anyone leaving my classroom thinking aliens were needed for pyramid construction. Absolute paleobabble.

Fitchen Building Cheops Pyramid – Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Mar., 1978), pp. 3-12

Isler On Pyramid Building I – Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 22 (1985), pp. 129-142

Isler On Pyramid Building II  – Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 24 (1987), pp. 95-112

Lally Engineering a Pyramid – Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 26 (1989), pp. 207-218

Isler Ancient Egyptian Methods of Raising Weights – Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 13 (1976), pp. 31-42

Isler An Ancient Method of Finding and Extending Direction – Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 26 (1989), pp. 191-206

And when someone asks, “well, how come those guys on NOVA couldn’t build a small one – huh?” the answer is simple: “that’s because they were inept.” These articles are written by people who actually understand ancient engineering, not NOVA scientists who want to be on TV.