A new idea on how the pyramids were constructed, page 6

Some people hold the odd idea that scientists, and in this thread Egyptologist are a monolistic block of people who all hold the same thoughts, care nothing for science, and are egocentric, nothing could be further from the truth. What we know about the Egyptians came from their centuries of work, not fringe books. They are well aware of the weaknesses and areas were knowledge is weak-one can see that in there own communications. The greatest single strenght they have however, and the single greatest weakness that many fringe believers have, is there understanding of the Egyptian culture. If you don't understand the context in which an idea or concept has come from its very easy to misinterpret it. Cherry picking data and removing it from the context of AE culture is a sure way to get it wrong.

The C-14 tests

Carbon 14 dating of organic material found in the mortar of the joints of the outside blocks of the pyramids which was carried out on two occasions.

The first was in 1984, funded by the Edgar Cayce Foundation and tested at the Southern Methodist University by Dr. Herbert Hass and also at the Eidgennossische Technische Hochschule laboratory in Zurich by Dr. Willi Wolfi.

The second was in 1995, funded by the businessman David H. Koch (see 'Dating the Pyramids' in Archaeology, vol.52, No.5, Sept/Oct. 1999).

A summary of the results can be found here

The two C-14 test programs

In 1984 we conducted radiocarbon dating on material from Egyptian Old Kingdom monuments We then compared our results with the mid-point dates of the kings to whom the monuments belonged

The average radiocarbon dates were 374 years earlier than expected.

In spite of this discrepancy, the radiocarbon dates confirmed that the Great Pyramid belonged to the historical era studied by Egyptologists.

It may have been premature to dismiss the old wood problem in our 1984 study. Radiocarbon dating can only tell us when a tree died, not when it was last used. Wood may lay around for centuries before being burned, especially in a dry climate like Egypt.

Other comments:

Yes the Egyptians used a type of required or forced labor which in modern times was called corvee, or free labor for the landowner. However they were not slaves and they may have worked during the period of the year when the Nile had flooded an normal agricultural work wasn't possible

Pyramids the center of conspiracy - only in the modern age and for some reason the fringe has concentrated on just those few on Giza. The other pyramids around the world are rather neglected.

When comparing the carbon dates one has to combine the data from both studies. Plus the C-14 dates in Egypt have never been calibrated as they were with the C-14 in the SW of America with tree ring, (dendrochronology) verification. In the SW the C-14 dates were shown to be too old. There isn't sufficient old wood in Egypt to do the same type of calibration. Therefore the C-14 dates will tend to be older.