BEN CARSON PYRAMID FANTASY. ONE FOR DEBUNKTION JUNCTION
History Matters commented yesterday on Ben Carson's stated belief in pyramids as grain warehouses built at the direction of the biblical Joseph -- a story getting a ton of keystrokes lately. The piece is cleverly written, but the folks at U. Sheffield, overlook the obvious:
The notion that Joseph gave pharaoh the idea to store surplus grain in pyramids falls by the weight of chronology: Old Kingdom (c2686 BCE–c. 2181 BCE) pharaohs began building pyramids nearly a millennium before Joseph is said to have lived (Hyksos period c1800BCE-c1500 BCE ?), so these pyramid-building pharaohs could not have gotten from Joseph the idea of storing surplus food in good times to tide the population over through the bad.
The very existence of massive pyramids demonstrates that the pyramid-building pharaohs well understood this principle of surplus management. The pyramids could not have been built without its application. Workers who build pyramids cannot simultaneously be engaged in the production of food, ergo, enough food had to be stored beforehand to feed the pyramid-building labor force and families while the pyramids were being built. Built not by slaves, but rather by farmers displaced during the annual inundations, and sometimes beyond in times of drought, pestilence, plague, etc..
Gotta wonder: the ancient Egyptians solved the problem of nearly 100% unemployment for 2-3 months out of every year, why can’t we do the same with 10%-20% unemployment? My forthcoming book “The Egyptian Solution” explains all.
Even so, the biblical story of Joseph interpreting pharaoh’s dream about the 7 fat and 7 lean kine, might hold water if, indeed, Joseph lived during the time of the Hyksos pharaohs, who being outsiders long after the pyramid-building age, might not have understood or practiced the fundamental principle of surplus management upon which peace and prosperity in the Old Kingdom depended.
Moreover, the story falls by weight of architecture, since the interior of the pyramids is well understood, and contains no hole in the top, nor interior caverns large enough to store significant amounts of grain for a population numbering in the millions. Such galleries as exist, sloping sharply upward and downward seem unsuited for storing and retrieving grain. The lack of ventilation in the pyramids also makes them unlikely candidates for storing grain, as workers engaged in storing and retrieving grain would likely be overcome by CO2 in confined, unventilated spaces.
Finally, the lack of surviving evidence of massive ancient Egyptian granaries should not be taken as evidence, as Carson suggests, that none were built and, therefore, by default, the pyramids offer the only plausible alternative for grain storage. Such granaries as the pharaohs constructed were doubtlessly made of mud brick (offering much cooler interiors than stone). These would eventually have been washed away by rains.
Beyond the light-weightedness of it all, what’s particularly dangerous about Carson is the extent to which he relies on the Bible for his solutions to current problems, notably the idea of a 10% tithe to fund a government budget in the order of 25% of national income. What’s next? The sanctioning of slavery? Genocide? Stoning adulterous women? Killing quarterbacks for touching “unclean” pigskin?
The notion of Biblical law superseding the Constitution, as the Kim Davises, Hobby Lobby owners, and true-believers of this world would have it, leads to the commingling of religious and political power, the results of which throughout history have ranged between counterproductive to catastrophic. Amen.
www.davidlsmith.com