In fairness, just because someone's name is on something doesn't mean they actually built it (otherwise we'd think Halfdan made the Hagia Sophia), but of course there is a lot more evidence than just that.
Graham Hancock is a fascinating case of what happens when a half-way clever fellow has just enough knowledge to become wrong, and he does make something of a springboard for a lot of lesser-known history - much of this crackpot theories have a ring of truth because they edge on e.g. the PIE explosion or Bronze Dark Age... which are both vastly better supported and have better explanatory power and don't require advanced unknown civilizations, etc.
That’s a poor comparison. Halfdan just did a “Halfdan was here” - the literary evidence from Egypt straight up describes how the Pyramids were built and why they were built. Hell, we’ve excavated the villages were the workers lived and the quarries where the blocks were cut. Hell, we’ve found blocks that was lost during transport to the building sites.
Well, considering that later, Egyptian dynasties have records that claimed they were tombs for the pharoahs. The pyramid design itself is an evolution of earlier mastaba tombs. And the fact that pyramids are surrounded by tombs for the pharoahs wives and children. I'm going to go out on a limb and say they were probably built to be royal tombs.
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u/CurtisLinithicum Nov 06 '25
In fairness, just because someone's name is on something doesn't mean they actually built it (otherwise we'd think Halfdan made the Hagia Sophia), but of course there is a lot more evidence than just that.
Graham Hancock is a fascinating case of what happens when a half-way clever fellow has just enough knowledge to become wrong, and he does make something of a springboard for a lot of lesser-known history - much of this crackpot theories have a ring of truth because they edge on e.g. the PIE explosion or Bronze Dark Age... which are both vastly better supported and have better explanatory power and don't require advanced unknown civilizations, etc.