Top 15 Joseph Davidovits Quotes

Mykerinos has a core... of agglomerated limestone and the first steps were covered with a casing... also made of split granite, not dressed [not cut].

For Chefren, same problem, the core is made of agglomerated stone, but this time... the granite... more easily ...was only for the casing of the first and second steps that is made of ...blocks of granite that are split into two and are incorporated into ...the natural step.

What about the Cheops pyramid? ...We have the core, this is the mass, more than 2 million tons ...made of ...reagglomerated limestone. But ...in the ...inner ...it is made of granite ...carved stone. Why? Cheops... is Khnum Kufu... agglomerated stone. However, Pharaoh is the king of the two countries. ...[T]he pyramids must be the representation of Egypt,... which means ...the replication of agglomerated stone for the northern part ....and in the south, natural granite that is the carving technology. So we have agglomerated limestone for the core, and the King's chamber is made of split granite that is dressed [cut] ...not carved granite.

They turned back to mud because mud bricks is also a replica of incarnation, in the materials that belong to the Khnum divinity.

So we started with mud bricks that were used in the enclosures during the 2nd Dynasty. They did not have stone [working, hard metal] tools so... they used mud bricks. Then... the invention of the first limestone bricks by agglomeration. The technology improved into bigger and bigger... limestone blocks, and then suddenly, 800 years later, they had tools to cut the stone. No! They returned to pyramids made of mud brick. So this is something is not capable of explaining. It is something that ic technology is capable of explaining, essentially because here we had a stop of the use of this technology to make stone.

Just after, what we have is the starting of making a small pyramid in carved stone. ...We have here the pyramid of Ouserkaf (2460 B.C.)... just after the pyramid of Giza. It is just a heap of small stones... this one is totally destroyed and ...[the (2650 B.C.)] is still there. ...[T]his is big difference between a building made out of agglomerated stone and a small building made out of carved stone. ...It is no longer this very powerful and important technology...

[I]f they over exploited the palm trees in the production of the ashes... then they got into an ecological disaster because... [i]f there is no more palm trees, there is no more agriculture, and... the end of the pyramid construction. ...[T]his technology, even though it was a sacred one, was dangerous.

[P]lants were supplying a lot of chemicals during antiquity and even during our Middle Ages in Europe. ...If we look... at the results of the burning of wood or plants, ...we get plenty of SiO₂... plenty of CaO () in beech, oak, acacia, palm trees. Plenty of alkali (K₂O) in fern and bulrush... which means I am claiming... [the Egyptians] used the plants and the woods in the manufacture of these ashes... the sources of their chemicals.

[L]ime is very important and it has been shown by [(1990) Professor D.D.] Klemm: "...in the VI. Dynasty lime disappears nearly within the mortars. May this be interpreted as a variation in the accessibility of fuel [of wood] and consequently of economic potential and crisis?" ...He was talking about the regular lime that is calcined from limestone in a kiln. ...[W]e have not found any remains of kilns... to manufacture the pyramids of Cheops and Chephren. We need... 150,000 tons of lime, which means that we should have found remains of kilns. We did not... which means that the technology was different. ...[I]t was the one of ashes that contains lime... The ecological disaster came from the over-exploitation of wood... proven by the fact that just after the Great Pyramids, one gets frescoes... describing famines...

[W]e can interpret... two elements... of the industrial activities. First, we may suppose that there had been exhaustion in the Sinai mines. Some minerals are used to make artificial stones, and we have texts... that show... the Sinai mines were very heavily exploited, and afterwards, no longer. Or the manufacture or lime-ash generated an ecological disaster. This is the lime... in the reaction... [with] the () [in water] to... produce the caustic soda that will start the ic reaction.

[W]e observe a dramatical stop of the technology. ...[T]he variation of the pyramids' volume with time... from the invention by Djoser to the Cheops pyramid, that is ...within 60 years, we have an increase in the volumes ...optimum by Cheops and Chephren, and then a dramatic plunge... of the volume ...by Mykerinos, and the others are ridiculously small. What happened?

So it started with the first pyramid in small bricks. They mastered their technology, improved the dimension of the blocks and they ended with the first pyramid of that is the rhomboidal, where the blocks are still... transported to the site, but... are becoming too big, and for the of Sneferu... they are cast, they are pound[ed] on site. We then arrive to the Giza Plateau where this technology was used for the Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos pyramids.

Khusi-to build in reagglomerated stone, and this is what we get as sentence in the Famine Stele: "with these products (that are depicted in the... columns in hieroglyphs) they have built the pyramid (the royal tomb)." Which pyramid? It is the first... of ... built by ... It is the first pyramid, the step pyramid at ... made of small limestone bricks... manufactured like crude clay bricks. They took the molds, made the bricks, transported them, and laid down the pyramid. ...[T]hey used the same technology ...previously... in the monuments and... the enclosure of , the pharaoh just before... Djoser.

The second verb is... khusi that means to erect, to build, to construct, and you see that the verb has a determinative that is a man pounding something in a mold. So this is the making of agglomerated stone. This is the making of bricks, and this is the making of stone.

[W]e find this verb iri-kat in the Famine Stele... where... Khnum is providing the minerals to Pharaoh to build his first pyramid. ...[Y]ou see iri-kat, to manufacture, and the real translation is "since creation, you are the first one who manufactures them (the minerals) to build the temples".