Document A: Herodotus (Modified)
The following is an excerpt from The Histories written by the Greek
historian Herodotus in 440 BCE. Herodotus spent much of his life traveling
to collect information for his book. He based his history book on the stories
that the people in the places he visited reported to him.
The Egyptians told me that Cheops became king over the
Egyptians and brought about every kind of evil. He closed all the
temples and forced all the Egyptians to work for him. Some were
forced to mine stones, and he ordered others to move the stones
after they had been carried over the river in boats. They worked
in groups of a hundred thousand men at a time, and each group
worked for three months continually. This was the making of the
[Great] pyramid, which itself took twenty years.
Document B: Textbook (Modified)
This is an excerpt from a high school history textbook Our World
Through the Ages published in 1959.
At Giza stands the Great Pyramid. It has stood there for five
thousand years. It covers thirteen acres and stands nearly five
hundred feet high. It contains over two million blocks, most of
which weigh about two tons. One hundred thousand whip-driven
men poured out their sweat and blood for twenty years to
complete this resting place which King Khufu considered fit for
his royal remains.
Corroboration Questions
1) According to both the textbook and Herodotus, who built the Great
pyramid?
2) How long did it take?
3) How many people worked on the Great Pyramid?
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Document C: News Article (Modified)
This is an excerpt from a news article reporting on archaeological work on the pyramids
of Giza.
Egypt displayed on Monday newly discovered tombs more than 4,000
years old and said they belonged to people who worked on the Great
Pyramids of Giza, putting the discovery forth as more evidence that
slaves did not build the ancient monuments.
The series of modest nine-foot-deep shafts held a dozen skeletons of pyramid
builders, perfectly preserved by dry desert sand along with jars that once
contained beer and bread meant for the workers’ afterlife. Egypt’s
archaeology chief said that discovery and the latest finds last week show
that the workers were paid laborers, rather than the slaves of popular
imagination. Such tombs would not have been built for slaves. …
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus once described the pyramid builders as
slaves, creating what Egyptologists say is a myth later continued by
Hollywood films. … One popular myth that Egyptologists say was perpetrated
in part by Hollywood movies held that ancient Israelite slaves—ancestors of
the Jewish people—built the pyramids.
Amihai Mazar, professor at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, says that myth stemmed from a mistaken claim by
a former Israeli prime minister. … “No Jews built the pyramids because Jews
didn’t exist at the period when the pyramids were built,” Professor Mazar
says. …
The pyramid builders came from poor Egyptian families from the north and
the south and were respected for their work – so much so that those who
died during construction were bestowed the honor of being buried in the
tombs near the sacred pyramids of their pharaohs. …
Though they were not slaves, the pyramid builders led a life of hard labor,
said Adel Okasha, supervisor of the excavation. Their skeletons have signs
of arthritis. … “Their bones tell us the story of how hard they worked,”
Okasha said.
Source: Katarina Kratovac, “New Discovery Shows Slaves Didn’t Build Pyramids, Egypt
Says,” Associated Press, January 11, 2010.
Vocabulary
modest: small, simple
bestow: to give as a gift or an honor
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Document D: Interview with Mark Lehner
(Modified)
Dr. Mark Lehner is a leading archaeologist. Below is an excerpt from an
interview Lehner gave in 1997 to the PBS show NOVA.
Question: You've made reference to inscriptions at Giza that
indicate who built the Pyramids. What do the inscriptions say?
Lehner’s answer: One of the most compelling pieces of evidence
we have [of who built the pyramids] is graffiti on ancient stone
monuments in places that they didn't mean to be shown. For
example, above the King's chamber in the Great Pyramid, and in
many monuments of the Old Kingdom—temples, other pyramids.
Well, the graffiti gives us a picture of organization where a gang
of workmen was organized into two crews, and the crews were
subdivided into five phyles. Phyles is the Greek word for tribe.
The phyles are subdivided into divisions, and the divisions are
identified by single hieroglyphs with names that mean things like
endurance, perfection, strong. Okay, so how do we know this?
You come to a block of stone above the King's chamber. First of
all, you see this cartouche of a King and then some scrawls all in
red paint after it. That's the gang name. And in the Old Kingdom
in the time of the Pyramids of Giza, the gangs were named after
kings. So, for example, we have a name … above the King's
chamber in the Great Pyramid, "the Friends of Khufu Gang." This
doesn't sound like slavery, does it?
Source: “Who Built the Pyramids?” Nova, 1997.
Vocabulary
compelling: convincing
hierogplyphs: a writing system used by ancient Egyptians
cartouche: an oval hieroglyph used for names of Kings
and Queens
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Document E: Mark Shiffman (Excerpted)
Dr. Mark Shiffman is a professor of Classical Studies at Villanova
University and teaches courses on the ancient world. The following excerpt
is from a comment he wrote online in response to claims that enslaved
people built the pyramids.
In other words, the workers (or at least some of them) were
well fed and not worked to death and got respectable tombs.
…
So a certain proportion (maybe 25%?) of the workers were
Egyptians of high status, a large number of Egyptian peasants
were ordered to come do the hard labor, and we don’t know how
many slaves may have been employed in the work. Given the
prevalence of slavery in the powerful nations of the ancient world,
it would be surprising if there were not a significant number, and
none of the evidence rules this out. On the other hand, there
seems so far to be no direct archaeological evidence for the
presence of slaves; but since they are not often honored with
tombs, they can be hard to trace.
Two things are worth noting in assessing the “no slaves” claim
and the evidence. One is that no one bothers to tell us in the
broadcast sources how many tombs specifically belonging to
workers have been found and what proportion of the workforce
they might represent. One would have to ask that direct question
of a knowledgeable scholar or consult the Egyptology technical
literature.
Source: Comments of Professor Mark Shiffman, posted online on March 3,
2011.
Vocabulary
prevalence: common
presence proportion: part
or portion consult: ask
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Organizing and Evaluating the Evidence
Documents According to this What evidence does this source use to Do you find this evidence convincing?
document, did support its claim? Why or why not?
enslaved people
build the pyramids?
Doc A:
Herodotus
Doc B:
Textbook
Doc C:
News Story
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Documents According to this What evidence does this source use to Do you find this evidence convincing?
document, did support its claim? Why or why not?
enslaved people
build the pyramids?
Doc D:
Lehner
Doc E:
Shiffman
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Final Claim
In the space below write a paragraph that addresses the question:
Did enslaved people build the pyramids at Giza?
Make sure to discuss evidence from at least two of the documents to support your claim.
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