• hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    56
    ·
    29 days ago

    I’m begging people to actually educate themselves on how the pyramids were built. They were built by paid workers, but then later, the Greeks saw them and assumed they were built by slaves because that’s what the Ancient Greek did with their building projects.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      38
      ·
      29 days ago

      Oh you’re right. Did a quick google search and apparently the Greeks just thought up the slavery thing. Not sure why that narrative was still taught in school. Sequel meme

    • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      29 days ago

      The claims that they were built by the slaves or voluntary labor are both wrong. They were built by levied labor. Think a military draft, but you’re performing general labor for the state instead of fighting. Yes, those on the work gangs were fed, housed, and paid while there. But they weren’t building pyramids of their own free will either. It was still conscripted and forced labor. After their term of service, the workers got to go home. But it was still forced labor.

      • m0darn@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        29 days ago

        That’s pretty much my understanding too, but I’d like to point out that conscripted labor is pretty analogous to a tax. My contemplation on the subject:

        I think equitable taxes are good when the revenue is used for things that benefit society.

        I don’t know how equitably the labour was conscripted.

        I don’t think enormous pyramids are good for society, but on the other hand I don’t know how ancient Egyptian workers would have felt about the topic.

        I suspect that the Pharoahs weren’t very concerned about how the workers felt about the topic.

        • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          29 days ago

          And I’d like to point out that the “proof” that slaves weren’t used to build the pyramids is some laborer villages being found and gasp

          They got to eat FOOD!

          BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

          Some of the people that died in accidents were buried on site! By people that thought you’d serve them in the afterlife too! What an honor!

          So we know SOME laborers were paid! And they got to eat food! And serve eternally instead of having their bodies dismembered and fed to hogs! For some pyramids!

          And a KNOWN slaver culture definitely wouldn’t have had some people working on it be slaves and some wouldn’t be! As any student of history knows, either everyone’s a slave or no one is!

          Cue a thousand Redditor “UM AKSHUALLYS!”

          • m0darn@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            28 days ago

            Yeah, we know a lot about ancient Egypt, but there’s a lot we don’t know too.