# How were the pyramids in Egypt built? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 7, 2014, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559 "2014-12-07T10:40:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 86
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1702 "2015-05-14T14:05:37Z")
THE major flaw in all of this is your need to have the Tower of Babel story to be literally true. From which ‘follows’: 1. That there was one single ancient language. 2. That this language is the Egyptian language of around 2500 BC. 3. That they had no Gods and any mention of them is meant to be a physical phenomenon. Everything falls flat when you realise that Egyptian is **NOT** the only language around in 2500BC and that it is basically the same as the Ramesside Egyptian as written 1000 years later. There is absolutely no reason to assume that the Pyramid Texts are in this _mythical_ language of yours. Even less because there are more ancient Egyptian writings and they differ more from the PT in style and glyphs than the writings from the time of Ramses. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1703 "2015-05-14T14:07:14Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > I’m not talking about injuries and fatalities I’m talking about manhours. Draw any comparison you like. The point is that you accept as genuine, whether reasonable or not, the motives for building cathedrals, but deny that those could be essentially the same motives for building pyramids. Can you explain what difference you see? ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1704 "2015-05-14T14:09:49Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > At a certain point, when no one else can see the facts you’re relying on, you should start to wonder if it’s _you_ that’s wrong, _you_ that’s blind to reality. Your need to invoke variations on “you can’t understand” over and over again in response to questions you can’t answer merely underlines this. There seem to be several prpoblems here rather than a single one. Among those who are more knowledgeable about these specifics it’s not that my “facts” are questioned but that they are interpreted differently. It seems almost every single individual has one specific and overriding objection and these mostly fall into several categories. This leads me to suspect that the cause is chiefly language. One individual told me recently that his primary hangup has been use of the term “metaphysical”. Apparently this word has been usurped in recent times by the pitchers of woo and it has no real concrete meaning and is more like a buzzword. But this is an important word that refers to the basis of science. People have lost sight of the basis of science so they have necessarily lost sight of the meaning of science since all scientific truth applies strictly within its metaphysics. Extrapolation scientific knowledge is like applying math to the real world inappropriately. We must build models and paradigms but these models are strictly to help in visualization rather than a mental version of reality itself. This is where we have gone so far astray. We take our beliefs as reality rather than axiomatically. As soon as I say “pyramid” people picture stinky footed bumpkins who were exactly like us dragging stones around made strong by their superstitions. To win an argument you must find the premises on which you differ and these premises are obviously very very deep. They were learned as language on their parents knee. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1705 "2015-05-14T14:13:06Z")
cladking, I’d like to back up a step. You’ve been posting bits and pieces of your pyramid-building idea, and it’s been pretty fragmented, so someone would have to read many pages of this thread just to understand the basic outlines. But I have a more fundamental question: How did you come to know this stuff? Are you getting it from reading the Pyramid Texts? I’m no Egyptologist - I had never even heard of the PT before this thread. Do you read the hieroglyphics themselves, or do you read the English translations? It seems your interpretations differ from those of everyone else on the planet who reads them - how do you know your interpretations are the correct ones? ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1706 "2015-05-14T14:15:25Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Why don’t you explain, in detail and without a bunch of mystical horseshit exactly how the water got from the non-existent geyser to the top of the 80+’ step and into the boat? Simple really. They didn’t use pipes, according to you, and they didn’t have the water simply spray out and 80+’ into the air, so how DID the water get up there, exactly? See, this is the issue…all information from your ridiculous theory has to come from you. And you aren’t very good at explaining anything in detail enough to grasp what the hell you are talking about. Personally, I think you are doing it on purpose, since when you DO give details you almost immediately get hammered with all of the issues involved, so if you stay vague you can do silly shit like in this post. It’s almost as if he has some different, _hidden_ agenda. Hmmmmm…One notes that ever since **cladking** joined this thread, we’ve stopped talking about the aliens. Which raises the interesting question: is **cladking** one of the [Lizard People](http://http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/10/how-spot-reptilians-runing-us-government/354496/)? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1707 "2015-05-14T14:22:10Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Draw any comparison you like. The point is that you accept as genuine, whether reasonable or not, the motives for building cathedrals, but deny that those could be essentially the same motives for building pyramids. Can you explain what difference you see? Of course it’s not impossible that they had the exact same motivation. Perhaps they used geysers for religious reasons. I’m merely saying that it is highly improbable that any sane society would throw away tens of thousands of manlives for religious constructions. If the pyramids were tombs and they were dragged up ramps then the ancient Egyptians weren’t sane. It’s not only the wasted lives but the endangerment of the entire population caused by wasting (consuming) vast resources while there was no crop in the ground. Our view of the reality of pyramid building must be wrong. Why would they do it the hard way and then leave evidence for an easy way? There simply were never any ramps so maybe this thing was far easier to build than people are imagining. Just getting rid of the ramps cuts the job in two and makes it far easier for the workers. I believe if we pursue the physical evidence using moder science we will discover and prove these structures were made with a small fraction of the work than we currently believe. ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1708 "2015-05-14T14:44:51Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > cladking, I’d like to back up a step. You’ve been posting bits and pieces of your pyramid-building idea, and it’s been pretty fragmented, so someone would have to read many pages of this thread just to understand the basic outlines. But I have a more fundamental question: > > How did you come to know this stuff? Are you getting it from reading the Pyramid Texts? I’m no Egyptologist - I had never even heard of the PT before this thread. Do you read the hieroglyphics themselves, or do you read the English translations? It seems your interpretations differ from those of everyone else on the planet who reads them - how do you know your interpretations are the correct ones? It’s a complicated answer and i’d be happy to provide more details if you like. It started in 2006 when I first saw an aerial picture of the Great Pyramid with objects to estimate size. My visceral knowledge told me at a glance that they didn’t use ramps tolift all these stones. Almost immediately I figured they must have used counterweights but then I knew efficiency of counterweights was poor. Within a few seconds I had simply stumbled on trhe idea that they used water accumulated naturally to lift the stone. Of course you’re thinking “confirmation bias”. I fully expected five minutes of googling would show that this was an impossibility but instead everything just fell in line. Of course I lacked a water source and looked high and low for one. There was none but there was a tantalyzing clue early on. The ancient name for Giza meant “Mouth of Caves”. I was still toying around with artesian wells and the like when an Egypotologist told me I could never understand the Egyptians until I understood the Pyramid Text. I read it and was aghast. It simply was gobbledty gook but there were bits and pieces that looked “familiar” so I kept reading it over and over trying to deduce the meaning of words. These words started to resolve themselves so I began a more systematic process to solve it. Eventually I realized I needed to understand each of the gods individually and then many more things began falling into place. One of the earlier terms I solved was “I3.t-wt.t” (risings begetter) which was their word for carbon dioxide and, of course this gave me the concept of “geysers”. I stilldon’t know many of the grammatical rules and no doiubt a lot of information will be hiding here. I started by tripping over the answer but the first months was largely taken up searching physiucal evidence in order toreverse engineer the pyramid. I hadn’t made a lot of progress in this until I began solving the PT which told me exactly where to look for the evidence. This was a very important part of the reverse engineering process but it wasn’t the entirety of it. To a real extent these questions did resolve themselves and are still resolving themselves simultaneously. I doubt I can make a lot more pregress on the PT but there are bits and scraps of other data. For instance my most recent discovery was the lead quarryman was called the “Chief Sculptor”. This solved the minor inconsistency in my theory that the most numerous job wasn’t represented in list of known titles. This makes sense now since there would probabvly just be a few low level straw bosses and lots of “sculptors”. The other workers in the quarry were overseen by the “Weigher/ Reckoner”. There are still dozens of leads. I make good progress when I work on it but I devote more time to trying to get Egyptologists to do their damn jobs. It won’t happen until people demand data… …and maybe no even then. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1709 "2015-05-14T14:47:40Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > There seem to be several prpoblems here rather than a single one. Among those who are more knowledgeable about these specifics it’s not that my “facts” are questioned but that they are interpreted differently. It seems almost every single individual has one specific and overriding objection and these mostly fall into several categories. This leads me to suspect that the cause is chiefly language. That’d lead _me_ to conclude that there were multiple, serious, flaws with your theory, but that’s just me. > [@cladking](#): > > One individual told me recently that his primary hangup has been use of the term “metaphysical”. Apparently this word has been usurped in recent times by the pitchers of woo and it has no real concrete meaning and is more like a buzzword. But this is an important word that refers to the basis of science. People have lost sight of the basis of science so they have necessarily lost sight of the meaning of science since all scientific truth applies strictly within its metaphysics. Extrapolation scientific knowledge is like applying math to the real world inappropriately. We must build models and paradigms but these models are strictly to help in visualization rather than a mental version of reality itself. > > This is where we have gone so far astray. We take our beliefs as reality rather than axiomatically. If “we must build models”, then how about you actually build a model? It’s bizarre to complain about “mental versions of reality” and “taking our beliefs as reality”, then refusing to use something concrete and external to yourself, like a model, to support your theory. Instead you rely on purely abstract and internal evidence, such as your interpretation of texts, or your confidence that your theoretical machine would actually work. Take your own advice, is what I’m saying. Do the work, build models, falsify your ideas. Get outside your head. > [@cladking](#): > > As soon as I say “pyramid” people picture stinky footed bumpkins who were exactly like us dragging stones around made strong by their superstitions. To win an argument you must find the premises on which you differ and these premises are obviously very very deep. They were learned as language on their parents knee. To win, you’d have to demonstrate that your premises are _correct_, not merely that they exist. > [@cladking](#): > > Of course it’s not impossible that they had the exact same motivation. Perhaps they used geysers for religious reasons. > > I’m merely saying that it is highly improbable that any sane society would throw away tens of thousands of manlives for religious constructions. If the pyramids were tombs and they were dragged up ramps then the ancient Egyptians weren’t sane. It’s not only the wasted lives but the endangerment of the entire population caused by wasting (consuming) vast resources while there was no crop in the ground. In that case, the human race isn’t sane: [Temple of Artemis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis) [Parthenon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon) [Second Temple](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Temple) [Angkor Wat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat) [Tikal Temple IV](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikal_Temple_IV) [Jetavanaramaya](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jetavanaramaya) And those are just the purely religious ones, things like [Lenin’s Mausoleum](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin%27s_Mausoleum) or the [Emperors Yan and Huang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperors_Yan_and_Huang) are just as extravagant to people who don’t value the subject being honored. It’s not that the human race is insane, it’s that you can’t conceive of valuing religion to the point of expending resources on it; a failure of imagination on your part. ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1710 "2015-05-14T14:47:52Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > Of course it’s not impossible that they had the exact same motivation. Perhaps they used geysers for religious reasons. > > I’m merely saying that it is highly improbable that any sane society would throw away tens of thousands of manlives for religious constructions. If the pyramids were tombs and they were dragged up ramps then the ancient Egyptians weren’t sane. No, it’s highly probable. As we have thousands of examples, throughout history, of people spending hughe amounts of resources on religious buildings and tombs. > [@](#): > > It’s not only the wasted lives but the endangerment of the entire population caused by wasting (consuming) vast resources while there was no crop in the ground. Again! While the land is flooded there is plenty of time to do other stuff. > [@](#): > > Our view of the reality of pyramid building must be wrong. It musta been metaphysics. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1711 "2015-05-14T14:48:12Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > I’m merely saying that it is highly improbable that any sane society would throw away tens of thousands of manlives for religious constructions. You are entitled to your opinion, but it ignores the scores of other religious erections around the ancient world, all built for religious reasons. To say otherwise is just denialism. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1712 "2015-05-14T15:01:07Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > To say otherwise is just denialism. Heh heh, de-nile-ism. Good one. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1713 "2015-05-14T15:03:30Z")
[QUOTE=cladking] It started in 2006 when I first saw an aerial picture of the Great Pyramid with objects to estimate size. My visceral knowledge told me at a glance that they didn’t use ramps tolift all these stones. Almost immediately I figured they must have used counterweights but then I knew efficiency of counterweights was poor. Within a few seconds I had simply stumbled on trhe idea that they used water accumulated naturally to lift the stone. **Of course you’re thinking “confirmation bias”.** I fully expected five minutes of googling would show that this was an impossibility but instead everything just fell in line. [/QUOTE] My emphasis. No, actually I’m thinking strawman…you have a strawman concept of what ramps are and how they were used in the past, and you have a very tenuous idea of physics and material science so this lead you to the belief that ramps are impossible and the only viable way to do the job was your magical lifting machine. > [@](#): > > The ancient name for Giza meant “Mouth of Caves”. Really? I can’t find a cite for this assertion. Do you have one? > [@](#): > > There are still dozens of leads. I make good progress when I work on it but I devote more time to trying to get Egyptologists to do their damn jobs. It won’t happen until people demand data… …and maybe no even then It’s highly ironic that the very thing you accuse ‘Egyptologists’ of is the very thing you are most guilty of…which is bothering to test a hypothesis in the real world to see if it works. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1714 "2015-05-14T15:04:38Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > You are entitled to your opinion, but it ignores the scores of other religious erections around the ancient world, all built for religious reasons. To say otherwise is just denialism. Religious erections can be the worst! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![cladking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@cladking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cladking)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1715 "2015-05-14T15:13:36Z")
> [@Latro](#): > > THE major flaw in all of this is your need to have the Tower of Babel story to be literally true. > From which ‘follows’: > > 1. That there was one single ancient language. > 2. That this language is the Egyptian language of around 2500 BC. > 3. That they had no Gods and any mention of them is meant to be a physical phenomenon. > > Everything falls flat when you realise that Egyptian is **NOT** the only language around in 2500BC and that it is basically the same as the Ramesside Egyptian as written 1000 years later. > > There is absolutely no reason to assume that the Pyramid Texts are in this _mythical_ language of yours. Even less because there are more ancient Egyptian writings and they differ more from the PT in style and glyphs than the writings from the time of Ramses. I’m no linguist but I do know how to ask linguists questions. I know they believe there were distinct languages before 2000 BC but as far as I can tell they can’t show it. I believe the ancient language had dialects. Vocabulary was only similar and writing was very different but they were all formatted and expressed meaning the same way. It was a relatively process to open up a dialog between these dialects. All dialects were the “words of the gods” so it was merely a matter of learning different pronunciations of a relative handful of words. ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1716 "2015-05-14T15:26:06Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > I was still toying around with artesian wells and the like when an Egypotologist told me I could never understand the Egyptians until I understood the Pyramid Text. I read it and was aghast. It simply was gobbledty gook but there were bits and pieces that looked “familiar” so I kept reading it over and over trying to deduce the meaning of words. These words started to resolve themselves so I began a more systematic process to solve it. Eventually I realized I needed to understand each of the gods individually and then many more things began falling into place. So, basically, you know nothing of the language, you just read the translation, nor about the religion, which was gobbeldy gook to you. You then started to stare yourself blind on these translations, making shit up, ignoring the vast array of other texts and the language itself, plus known history. You are trying to hammer your square peg through the round hole, while the round peg is just lying there. Why study the round peg when you can make shit up for yourself. I mean, what do all these people know who have studied all this shit for over 200 years. Got it. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1717 "2015-05-14T15:28:03Z")
Thanks for the explanations cladking. > [@cladking](#): > > My visceral knowledge told me at a glance that they didn’t use ramps to lift all these stones. What is this “visceral knowledge” of which you speak? My initial impression is that it’s your euphemism for your gut feel. Is that right? > [@](#): > > [The Pyramid Text] simply was gobbledty gook but there were bits and pieces that looked “familiar” so I kept reading it over and over trying to deduce the meaning of words. These words started to resolve themselves… Did you read the hieroglyphics directly, or translations? And what do you mean that they started to resolve themselves? I don’t understand what you’re saying with that. > [@](#): > > One of the earlier terms I solved was “I3.t-wt.t” (risings begetter) which was their word for carbon dioxide and, of course this gave me the concept of “geysers”. How did you solve it, and how do you know it’s right? I saw you post earlier about this and yeast, but I strongly doubt that the ancient Egyptians would know that bread rising would be the same molecule as what carbonates water. Have you convinced others that your translation is correct? > [@](#): > > For instance my most recent discovery was the lead quarryman was called the “Chief Sculptor”. How did you discover this? What makes you think your discovery is correct? Have you convinced anyone else? You’ve walked me through some of the timeline, but what I was really asking is: how do you know? It looks to me suspiciously like making shit up then using your own, uh, let’s say “unique” translations to confirm it. So again, how do you know? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1718 "2015-05-14T15:29:33Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > I’m no linguist but I do know how to ask linguists questions. I know they believe there were distinct languages before 2000 BC but as far as I can tell they can’t show it. I believe the ancient language had dialects. Vocabulary was only similar and writing was very different but they were all formatted and expressed meaning the same way. It was a relatively process to open up a dialog between these dialects. All dialects were the “words of the gods” so it was merely a matter of learning different pronunciations of a relative handful of words. Have you ever considered taking your humungous piles of wrong and making a pyramid out of them? ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1719 "2015-05-14T15:33:07Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > I’m no linguist but I do know how to ask linguists questions. I know they believe there were distinct languages before 2000 BC but as far as I can tell they can’t show it. I believe the ancient language had dialects. Vocabulary was only similar and writing was very different but they were all formatted and expressed meaning the same way. It was a relatively process to open up a dialog between these dialects. All dialects were the “words of the gods” so it was merely a matter of learning different pronunciations of a relative handful of words. Talk about gobbledygook… ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1720 "2015-05-14T15:37:35Z")
> [@cladking](#): > > I’m no linguist but I do know how to ask linguists questions. I know they believe there were distinct languages before 2000 BC but as far as I can tell they can’t show it. I believe the ancient language had dialects. Vocabulary was only similar and writing was very different but they were all formatted and expressed meaning the same way. It was a relatively process to open up a dialog between these dialects. All dialects were the “words of the gods” so it was merely a matter of learning different pronunciations of a relative handful of words. There were already [multiple distinct writing systems](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing#Inventions_of_writing) for multiple languages by 2000 BC, and since long before then. Considering how different many of these scripts and languages were back then, there’s no way they split from a common ancestor recently – it must have been long, long before that time, which means that any ‘universal language’ (e.g. the first language used by humans) was long, long before 2000 BC. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559/1721 "2015-05-14T15:50:22Z")
You know how Eskimos have 20 words for “snow”? Egyptians had to use the SAME word for snow, water, rain, tree, coat, stick, feet, oar, fig, brown, cat and anniversary. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559.md?page=85) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-the-pyramids-in-egypt-built/706559.md?page=87)