The Pyramids

     The American Research Center in Egypt held a meeting in Philadelphia on June 11. Three speakers discussed their work on different sites that were either pyramids or were Dynasty one or two pre-cursors to the pyramids.

David O’Connor gave a talk entitled “Will we Ever Know? The Mystery of Pyramid Origins”. The talk started with a discussion of the so-called royal tombs of Dynasties One and Two at Sakkara. Were they royal tombs or were they elite tombs? What was the significance of the subterranean mounds that covered some of these tombs? The mounds preserved were built below ground; was another mound built over then above ground?

The “tomb” of Khashekhemui had some stone masonry that may have come from a stone superstructure. 

At Abydos some of the structures from the first two dynasties we “shaved” down to ground level. This seems to have been quite deliberately done shortly after these structures were built. Were they leveled after use for ritual reasons?

No definitive explanation for the origin of pyramids was given but the material covered was fascinating and thought provoking.