HistoryTube
  • Blog
  • YouTube
    • Ancient America
    • Ancient China
    • Ancient Egypt
    • Ancient Rome
    • Holocaust
    • Tudors
    • World War I
    • World War II
    • History Meets English
    • History Meets Geography
    • History Meets Reality TV
    • History Meets Science
    • Royals
    • Time Team
    • YouTube Channels
    • Bettany Hughes
    • Tony Robinson
    • Lucy Worsley
  • About Me
    • Portfolio
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Me

History Docs

Need a Documentary for a Class?  Check out my reviews!

Lost City of the Pyramid Builders

1/31/2023

0 Comments

 
Lost Cities of the Pyramid Builders explores the lives of the people who built the pyramids of Ancient Egypt for decades, their lives have been shrouded and myths and mysteries.  New evidence is rewriting the history of the pyramids.  Burials have been discovered and these burials are of the people who built the pyramids.  How were these pyramids built?  Were the pyramids built by slaves?  Or was this a community construction project for their Pharoah?  The Run time is 49:22.
​
The Great Pyramid was the largest pyramid built and then two more pyramids were built, each getting smaller and smaller.  This feat would never be accomplished again.  What is documented about the pyramids is found in the temples of dead nobles.  The people who built them were lost to history.  Ancient Hearsay tells us that the pyramids were built by slaves.  Ancient Greek historians said so on visits to Egypt.  Hollywood reinforced the myth.

However, a blockbuster discovery shattered that myth.  In 1990 a digger hit a large block buried in the sand.  Archeologists moved onto the site and discovered a wall of a large building.  They kept digging and started finding evidence of a large settlement.  What was this settlement?  Why was it so large?  Could this be where the people who built the pyramids lived?

The first thing discovered on the site was a bakery and the jars that were used to bake bread.  Food was being produced on a vast scale.  A few months later, another blockbuster discovery was made at a site higher on the site.  A horse’s leg went through a hole and discovered a wall.  It was the wall of a tomb.  These tombs were the tombs of the people who built the pyramids.  The people in them were bones and had a few simple objects in them. 

There was no doubt about these tombs: these were the tombs of the pyramid builders.  There were tombs for bakers, builders, and overseers.  Additional to the tombs, the archeologists found remains of the food they ate.  There were fish bones and meat bones in enormous numbers.  Cattle bones were found on the site and this was a high-cost item to be found on the site.  This seems to hint that the people who worked on the pyramid were not slaves.  They were a group of people well-fed.

More than 600 skeletons have been found in the tombs.  There were an equal number of men and women on the site.  There were bones of children found on the site as well.  The bodies were DNA tested and it was discovered that the pyramid workers were families.  This would smash the myth that the pyramid builders were slaves.  More surprises were to come.  Another thing that was revealed about the bones is that the Pyramid Builders had medical care on-site.  There was evidence of broken bones being healed and there was evidence of amputation on the site.

The growing body of evidence shows that the pyramid builders were a well-fed and privileged group of people.  The work was grueling and so the pyramid builders had access to doctors who treated them on site.  They had the highest standard of medical care available for their age, they would need this care because pyramid building took a toll on the body.  Unfortunately, the pyramid builders had a shorter lifespan.

How did the pyramid builders do it?  The Greek historians were told that the pyramids were built by hauling rocks using leavers and that a hundred thousand slaves worked on the site.  However, the numbers do not add out.  In fact, there is a theory that 5,000 people stayed on the site permanently while other people came and left the site.  An American builder ran the numbers to test the Greek Theory.  So how did this American builder figure out how many people were needed to build the pyramid?  Tune into this episode to find out more.

As I reviewed this episode I realized that this was originally shown on PBS as a Secrets of the Dead episode.  At the time I remembered this would be an excellent documentary to show in a class and watching this documentary again so many years later reinforces that believe.  This documentary is highly recommended for classroom viewing, especially in a middle school history class.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I'm a librarian with an active imagination who likes to create.  Genealogist and Researcher.

    Like what you see?  Don't forget to smash the bookmark button!

    Blogs posted five days a week for the school year September-May and for summer blogs posted three days a week June-August!

    If you can, try to purchase these documentaries to support these historians!  If you can't purchase, subscribe to their channels or podcasts!

    Worksheets

    My Teachers Pay Teachers Store!  Worksheets available as a Word Document.

    Lulu Store

    I am also on Lulu!  If you're interested in genealogy I have several books available!

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020

    Categories

    All
    1065
    1066
    1900's Island
    Abandoned
    Abraham Lincoln
    Africa
    Alexandria
    Alex Langladas
    Alfred The Great
    Amazon River
    America
    Ancient Egypt
    Ancient Rome
    Ancient World
    Ancient Worlds
    Andes Mountains
    Angkor Wat
    Anne Boleyn
    Athens
    Australia
    Austria
    Bath
    Battleships
    Beatrix Potter
    Bernadette Banner
    Bettany Hughes
    Biographics
    Biographies
    Bismarck
    Britain
    Caitlin Doughty
    Caligula
    Cambodia
    Castles
    Central America
    Charlemagne
    China
    Christmas
    Cleopatra
    Cornwall
    Dam Busters
    Dame Patricia Routledge
    Dan Snow
    Denmark Strait
    Edwardian Farm
    Edwardian Home
    Edward The Confessor
    Egypt
    England
    Ethiopia
    Experimental History
    Exploration
    Farm
    Fashion History
    First Nations
    Flintstones
    France
    Franz Joseph
    French Revolution
    Full Steam Ahead
    Genealogy
    Genetics
    Geographics
    Geography
    Georgian Period
    Germans
    Germany
    Greece
    Greeks
    Gus Casely Hayford
    Gus Casely-Hayford
    Hastings
    Helen Castor
    Helen Of Troy
    Henry VIII
    Hidden Killers
    Highway
    History
    Holocaust
    Home
    Hood
    Ice Cream
    Immigration
    Irish Palace
    Jago Cooper
    Jane Austen
    Japan
    Joann Fletcher
    John Gater
    Judith Flanders
    Kathleen Martinez
    Kew Gardens
    King George III
    Knights Templars
    Korea
    Lady Jane Grey
    Leyte Gulf
    Lincoln Highway
    Lithuania
    Lost Kingdoms
    Lost Legions
    Lucy Worsley
    Lusitania
    Mammoths
    Marco Polo
    Marie Antoinette
    Mary Beard
    Mary Boleyn
    Maryland
    Medieval Period
    Meet The Romans
    Mick Aston
    Middle Ages
    Minoans
    Monarchy
    Musashi
    Napoleon
    Neil Oliver
    New Zealand
    Nicholas II
    Paul Mearns
    Pearl Harbor
    People Of The Clouds
    Peter Ginn
    Phil Harding
    Pompeii
    Portsmouth
    Prince Philip
    Prince Regent
    Prussia
    Pyramids
    Queen Elizabeth II
    Queen Luise
    Queens
    Railroads
    Reality TV
    Ronald Hutton
    Royal Fibs
    Royal Myths
    Royal Secrets
    Royalty
    Royal Women
    Russia
    Russian Revolution
    Ruth Goodman
    Salem
    Serbia
    Simon
    South America
    Spain
    Sparta
    Spy
    SS Atlantic
    STEAM
    STEM
    Stewart Ainsworth
    Stonehenge
    Stuart Peachy
    Suzannah Lipscomb
    Tales From The Green Valley
    The Family
    The Vikings
    Time Team
    Time Travels
    Time Walks
    Tirpitz
    Titanic
    Tom Pinford
    Tony Robinson
    Top 10
    Tracy Borman
    Trains
    Trojan War
    Tudor
    Tudor Monastery Farm
    Tudors
    Turn Back Time
    United-states
    USS Indianapolis
    Varus
    Victorian-bakers
    Victorian-bakers
    Victorian-farm
    Victorian-farm
    Victorian-home
    Victorian-pharmacy
    Vikings
    Warsaw Ghetto
    Wartime Farm
    White Palace
    White Star Line
    Who Do You Think You Are?
    Wilhelm Gustloff
    William The Conqueror
    Winston Churchill
    Witches
    Witch Hunting
    World War I
    World War II
    YouTube

    Privacy Policy

    HistoryDocTube will not collect any personal information and will not sell any personal information to a third party.  We will not request any personal information. 

    ​The purpose of this blog is to share information on what can be used in a classroom, private school, or home school setting as well as serve as a portfolio of my personal and professional work. 

    The reviews are my opinions and should be treated as such.  I just want to provide a tool for teachers to select documentaries for their classrooms.

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Blog
  • YouTube
    • Ancient America
    • Ancient China
    • Ancient Egypt
    • Ancient Rome
    • Holocaust
    • Tudors
    • World War I
    • World War II
    • History Meets English
    • History Meets Geography
    • History Meets Reality TV
    • History Meets Science
    • Royals
    • Time Team
    • YouTube Channels
    • Bettany Hughes
    • Tony Robinson
    • Lucy Worsley
  • About Me
    • Portfolio
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Me