Archaeology: Pyramid Builders' Graffiti

The men building the pyramids of Egypt took a break one hot day 4,500 years ago and scrawled some hieroglyphic graffiti on a limestone block. They called themselves "The Craftsman Gang."

When Yale University archaeologist Mark Lehner, who has been excavating ancient ruins south of King Cheops's pyramid (below left), read the inscription, he found it fit with his emerging reinterpretation of who built the pyramids. They were not the slaves so often depicted in legend, but citizens conscripted to work for the government, possibly in lieu of paying taxes or serving in the army.

The list of charges starts with claiming that he bribed the vizier with 5 servants to gain his appointment.

a) He was charged with stealing ‘the cover of a chariot’ from the tomb of Seti II.
b) Charges relating to goings-on with married women or women who were living with other men. Hel was one of the women mentioned. Herysunnebef, husband of Hel, was the other adopted son of Neferhotep, and he later divorced Hel, as we know from another source.
c) Stealing stones from the tomb of Seti II for use in his own tomb and using the workmen to work in it (but maybe this wasn’t so bad as other people also used the workmen).
d) The row with Neferhotep, which resulted in Paneb being punished by the vizier. Paneb appealed to pharaoh himself and had the vizier sacked. Paneb evidently was in favour with the right people!
e) He stole the bed from the tomb of a colleague on which the dead workman was lying. f) He stole a large spike and hid it behind a big stone when a search was made for it.

There is evidence that gang organisation of masons went back in Egypt to the Fourth Dynasty, and probably to Imhotep and the building of the Step Pyramid itself, for his workmen must have been well organised, or such a `stately and superb edifice' could never have been completed. At a certain point, which will again be familiar to you, our ritual also reminds us of the grievous consequences of the loss of the principal architect, which could not fail to be generally and severely felt, and you will recall that the want of those plans and designs which had hitherto been regularly supplied to the different classes of workmen was the first indication that some heavy calamity had befallen our M. From the pyramid at Meydum, probably begun as a step pyramid at the end of the Third Dynasty, come the names of several gangs found on casing blocks: `Step Pyramid gang', `Boat gang', `Vigorous gang', `Sceptre gang', 'Enduring gang', `North gang' and `South gang'. And at the Great Pyramid of Giza built by King Khufu (Cheops), the successor of Seneferu who finished the Meydum pyramid, was found a block of limestone on which is written: `The Craftsmen gang'. How powerful is the white crown of Khnum Khufu (I. E. S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Ancient Egypt, 1961). Here the king's full name means that he is under the protection of Khnum, the creator god from Aswan, incidentally the source of granite much used in his pyramid. Egyptologists have not explained why the names of gangs were placed on stones. Does the last inscription suggest a lodge or class of operative masons who, with instruction in their craft, gave their apprentices esoteric teaching too? Parallels with our working tools are remarkable. I have already mentioned the copper chisel. I do not know of any masons's tools which actually come from the Step Pyramid, but all the working tools of the First and Second Degrees must have been used by Imhotep's masons. If we take the cubit rod as equivalent to the 24‑inch gauge, gavels of wood for striking the chisel and mauls of stone for dressing the stone were in use then, and so no doubt were the square, level and plumb rule. Examples of masons' tools which survive from the Third Dynasty, and must be almost, if not quite, contemporary with the Step Pyramid, are plumb bobs of limestone, gavels of wood and chisels of copper. A model wooden square and plummet were found in a mason's grave at Sedment, dating from about 2200 BC. The earliest surviving level of which I am aware dates from about 1250 BC 44 (about the time of the Exodus). Long before that we know that the Egyptians made use of the property of water to maintain its own level, a slight error in the level of the base of the Great Pyramid being attributable to the prevalence of the north wind.

A NEW AND UNIQUE THEORY ON THE MOVEMENT
OF HEAVY STONES

A pyramid can be constructed without the use of ramps, heavy stones can be moved without dragging them along and with 75% less manpower than is presently thought necessary. This article will show how. It has been compiled as a result of actual experiments conducted in my back yard with a 4 ton block of concrete made expressly for this purpose and hopefully will lead to properly conducted experiments that will prove this theory beyond doubt.
How to elevate a 50ton stone to the upper levels of a pyramid without the use of ramps, ropes or extensive manpower.

How the ancient Britons could have transported the sarsen stones to Stonehenge without dragging them along.

How to erect a 40ton stone without the use of ramps, ropes or 'A' frames and with less than 25 men.

How to place the lintel stones on the uprights at Stonehenge with less than a dozen men.