Island (Scottish) brains behind pyramids?
Serious DiscussionDiscuss Island (Scottish) brains behind pyramids? in the Discussions forums; The pyramids of Egypt may have been inspired by a group of builders on the Scottish island of Orkney, according to an academic.
Dr Robert Lomas, of the University of ...
The pyramids of Egypt may have been inspired by a group of builders on the Scottish island of Orkney, according to an academic.
Dr Robert Lomas, of the University of Bradford, believes complex construction techniques were developed on Orkney more than 1,000 years before the Egyptians used similar ideas.
He said skills used on the islands from 3800 BC were extremely sophisticated.
The Egyptians heard of the ideas and copied their techniques after they spread across Europe.
Astronomer priests
Dr Lomas said: "These people seem to have been led by a group of astronomer priests who passed on their knowledge to pilgrims all over Britain.
"Unfortunately, although they were intelligent, they had not developed any type of writing that we are able to read so their discoveries have been forgotten.
Going underground at
Maes Howe
"We can see what they
did but have to experiment to find out how they did it."
At Maes Howe on the Orkney islands - a chambered tomb built around 3000BC - the builders devised a standard unit of length by taking detailed readings from the movement of sun and stars.
Dr Lomas believes this measurement - the megalithic yard - proves the islanders knew the earth was round.
They also understood that it moved around the sun centuries before it was generally accepted by the rest of the world.
Seafaring theory
The measurement was used to build state-of-the- art monuments, he said.
In the book Uriel's Machine: The Ancient Origins Of Science, Dr Lomas and co-author Christopher Knight argue that the megalithic yard - which measures 82.966cm - could easily have been taken by seafarers to Brittany and beyond.
The megalithic yard was first discovered in 1967 by Professor Alexander Thom, of Oxford University, who analysed more than 400 sites around the British Isles and Northern France.
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The thing with this is that although they may well have discovered the same sort of block & tackle style engineering principles, the main problem with aging it is the time-scale. Carbon dating has been ciriticised on this.
I think that although possible, humanity had not adaquately spread out far enough travel wise to justify the notion of the orkney islanders teaching anybody anything.
Neon
"I've oft been told by learned friars
That wishing and the crime were one
And heaven punishes desires
As much as if the deed were done.
If wishing damns us, you and I
Are damned to all our hearts content.
Come then we may at least enjoy
Some pleasure for our punishment..."
I heard in the news that they have made a robot to go into a narrow tunnel in one of the pyramids. Should be very interesting to see what they discover.