There’s good evidence that the people that built the pyramids were not slaves, but mostly skilled seasonal workers. There is evidence of the workers having luxurious foods and decent housing in something akin to dormitories. Seems like it’s still unknown if everyone was paid in actual coin, or if some or many were doing it more for religious purposes and were just treated to good food and accommodation while they were there, though some pay rates for some workers have been found in writing. But it does seem like they were mostly rotating crews rather than people living and working there for the years or decades it took to complete them.
If they were slaves, they probably would have been there long term, and not afforded those luxuries.
Wish I had a convenient source for all that, but it’s probably buried in academic journals and papers, but this bbc article includes some of it, and I have found some terrible ad-ridden articles mentioning pay rates and such. I just remember some of that from watching YouTube videos/documentaries tbh
They’re going to have lots of skilled, well-treated and well-paid workers there. The kind of workers doing the organizing, planning, directing, and finish work. Their equivalent of engineers, managers, foremen, skilled craftsman. I’m sure they could fill an entire dormitory with just decorative hieroglyphics carvers alone. And then another dormitory full of artists to paint and colorize those hieroglyphics. A large pyramid would require hundreds, maybe thousands of these skilled/experienced workers.
But then there’s also the 200 poor bastards hauling ropes to pull a giant stone slab up a ramp. And another 200 waiting at the bottom for their turn to haul the next one. And I’m betting those workers were not well-paid and well-treated. Those are the ones who were likely slaves, used basically as beasts of burden.
Everything I’ve come across from this millenium says otherwise. I found this article from Harvard Magazine from 2003 that talks about the archeological findings
There’s good evidence that the people that built the pyramids were not slaves, but mostly skilled seasonal workers. There is evidence of the workers having luxurious foods and decent housing in something akin to dormitories. Seems like it’s still unknown if everyone was paid in actual coin, or if some or many were doing it more for religious purposes and were just treated to good food and accommodation while they were there, though some pay rates for some workers have been found in writing. But it does seem like they were mostly rotating crews rather than people living and working there for the years or decades it took to complete them.
If they were slaves, they probably would have been there long term, and not afforded those luxuries.
Wish I had a convenient source for all that, but it’s probably buried in academic journals and papers, but this bbc article includes some of it, and I have found some terrible ad-ridden articles mentioning pay rates and such. I just remember some of that from watching YouTube videos/documentaries tbh
The pyramids were built by aliens, but plot twist, the aliens were enslaved by the pharoahs.
Well, I suspect it was both.
They’re going to have lots of skilled, well-treated and well-paid workers there. The kind of workers doing the organizing, planning, directing, and finish work. Their equivalent of engineers, managers, foremen, skilled craftsman. I’m sure they could fill an entire dormitory with just decorative hieroglyphics carvers alone. And then another dormitory full of artists to paint and colorize those hieroglyphics. A large pyramid would require hundreds, maybe thousands of these skilled/experienced workers.
But then there’s also the 200 poor bastards hauling ropes to pull a giant stone slab up a ramp. And another 200 waiting at the bottom for their turn to haul the next one. And I’m betting those workers were not well-paid and well-treated. Those are the ones who were likely slaves, used basically as beasts of burden.
Can you find any sources supporting that?
Everything I’ve come across from this millenium says otherwise. I found this article from Harvard Magazine from 2003 that talks about the archeological findings