Psusennes I wrote:
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And dedication to their Gods. That I think was the main reason for their success, and we really lack it in the modern era.
That's a good point, especially when you consider that more so than most other periods of ancient Egypt, in the Old Kingdom pharaoh
was considered god. The people felt a vested interest in erecting these massive tombs because, by all accounts, they literally believed that it was necessary to see pharaoh safely into his afterlife if the world was to go on existing. Even in his eternal afterlife, pharaoh would see to the safety and prosperity of his people.
And I certainly agree with the sentiment of your post. Whether you agree or disagree with the consequences of it, our modern society is becoming more and more secular as science and logic replace the divine.
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Yes my theory revolves around hieroglyphs, I think have been misinterpreted. The theory ties in with writings of Herodotus regarding many machines. The hieroglyphs Djed, ankh flail septet and crook are tools to raise the building blocks.
(Bold emphasis mine.)
I like your creative and imaginative way of thought. I mean not to offend, but I cannot agree with your interpretation. I am glad you shared it with us, though. Except for the ankh, there is little mystery about what these glyphs represent. The flail is simply a fly whisk and the crook a shepherd's cane, two royal symbols adopted from the nature-based and agrarian roots of the Egyptian civilization. The djed came first from a very old ceremony (certainly predynastic in origin) for which there is ample textual evidence dating all the way back to the Old Kingdom: "the raising of the djed." This was a tree with its branches lopped off that was ritually lifted upright as part of a royal affirmation ceremony going back to the first days of Memphis; it may have developed into one of the rituals carried out at the heb-sed festival. The djed pillar was first associated with Sokar, the patron deity of the Memphite necropolis (Saqqara), and later became associated with Ptah, the creator deity of the Memphite region. Later still--and how most people of today recognize it--the djed pillar came to represent the backbone of Osiris, and therefore strength and stability.
The ankh is not so clearcut. The most logical theories are that it represents a sandal strap or (the one I personally favor) a mirror in its case. Every time I see the old bronze mirrors in our museum's Egyptian collection, I think of the ankh. I think it's more than coincidence. Many, many other theories have been expressed about the origin of the ankh symbol, some of them quite good and some of them so far out in left field that they can be disregarded.
When I study such things and am presented with an interesting theory like yours, I must return always to the evidence at hand. I'm pretty conservative that way. I feel compelled to follow what the evidence tells us, like a detective investigating a criminal case. So in that light, I stick with conventional theories
most of the time.
