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The labor advocate in me loves this. The historian in me hates it.
Yes lol the people who built the pyramids were generally well paid.
The crazy thing is we still do things more or less the same way sometimes. I've lost count of the times I've helped move heavy electrical panels in through a door by rolling them along copper rods.
Well enough to save up for their own pyramid?
No, but a well paid engineer is a bit different to the whipped slaves often depicted.
Well paid enough to afford their own pyramid?
And then to get it into its final position, we use these fancy things called levers to slowly ease the panels off the rollers and precisely jimmy them till they sit within the square we marked out using chalk or sometimes a rope we dipped in ink.
Oh how far we've come since those primitive days.
So what you're saying is that with enough heavy electrical panels and tradies, that I too can own my own pyramid?
My favourite is the chalk line.
THWACK! and we have a straight line.
Sounds very satisfying. How does it work is it just a normal string you dip in chalk, does it come pre-chalked, is it reusable or do you just unroll the next bit for the next line? I have many questions..
The string is inside a case on a reel, with chalk powder inside it. As you run it out, chalk coats the string. You then pull it tight between two points, pull it back, and release it.
It leaves a dead straight line of chalk behind, you then roll it back up ready to be reused. You can also buy replacement chalk.
https://www.bunnings.co.nz/irwin-30m-strait-line-chalk-reel-and-line-level-set_p5660558?store=9526
Oh that's way more practical than anything I was coming up with! Nice.
Okay good I vaguely recall pyramid building but thought slaves had less to do with them than what culture shows
Yep! Almost everyone that worked on the pyramids were basically skilled contractors or construction workers
People are barfing that up a lot lately, but the only reliable source I've seen shows that the people who built the pyramids were being paid in bread and beer; that is, they were receiving the necessities of life, not payment.
Giving slaves the necessities of life and calling it payment to justify the slavery is as old as .. well, the pyramids at least.
But... That's... What a barter society does? Ancient Egypt didn't have currency, it was a barter-based society. You don't have a farm or land to grow your own food? You work for someone else to get food, or resources to trade for food, drinks, shelter, medicine etc. They were also given good cuts of meat and had good barracks/quarters to live in nearby villages while working there. Workers who died were even buried in well stocked tombs near the pyramids which was a place of honor, slaves would likely be put in mass graves, unmarked graves, and/or far from the pyramids.
What were non-slave workers (working on the pyramids or not) in ancient Egypt paid with if working for good food, drink, and shelter is only for slaves? A currency that didn't exist? The profound pleasure of working for the pharaoh while having a farm of their own at home for food?
They were also given good cuts of meat and had good barracks/quarters to live in nearby villages while working there.
I'd like to see a source for that.
Workers who died were even buried in well stocked tombs near the pyramids which was a place of honor
Man that's even worse than the bread and beer thing. "You're not slaves because when you die on the job we bury you in a better hole!"
I'd like to see a source for that.
Buildings, conditions, etc. Sources at bottom - https://historycollection.com/this-is-what-life-was-like-for-an-egyptian-worker-building-the-pyramids/
Man that's even worse than the bread and beer thing. "You're not slaves because when you die on the job we bury you in a better hole!"
Being buried near their pharaoh was a huge honor for them, being buried near their actual god incarnate. It would be like christians being buried near Jesus. A key part was also that they were actual tombs (not just holes, actual crafted tombs and burial chambers) plus they were stocked with things they would need in the afterlife, neither of which would be done for slaves.
Plus, many workers were farmers who would work on the pyramids during their off-season then go back to their families/farms at the end of the season (see the sources above)
Sure. It's a barter society where one class holds literally all of the power.
"It's this deal because I'm a god!" You're just not gunna argue with a god on earth.
it's a barter society where one class holds literally all the power
You're phrasing these like they're contradictory statements when they're not incompatible concepts at all.
They're morally incompatible if nothing else boss.
Not at all? Yeah one class had most of the political/legal power because they were backed by who everyone believed was the incarnation of their god so it was hard to argue. Do/can you argue with the IRS (or whatever government entity collects taxes for you)? Food/resources/labor were still collected as taxes/tithes to support that class which managed their society, which is basically the same as any society that has currency.
I both can and have argued against the IRS and won. The IRS accepts fact and objective reality, though the idea of pharoh in court trying to prove objectively they are God personified does make me giggle.
bread and beer necessity of life
Couldn't agree more.
thoses workers were well paid , right! So are historians
There was forced labor in Egypt but it was mostly agricultural. It was like corvee labor to build irrigation canals and dams and stuff, and it was how people paid their taxes basically
Edit: and just like in places with forced corvee labor today like Uzbekistan, you could pay your way out of it if you were wealthy enough https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/in-ancient-egypt-people-paid-to-become-temple-servants-674595/
Edit 2: Supposedly the state corvee in Uzbekistan ended March 2022 but I feel like people probably are still picking cotton a lot, they're probably just getting paid now.