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Pyramidiots
Of all the ancient structures scattered across the globe, Egypt’s Great Pyramid, built by the Pharaoh Khufu (also known as Cheops) around 2580-2560 BCE on the desert plateau of Giza, has attracted the most attention from ancient astronaut theorists and alternative historians. By some estimates, more has been written about the Great Pyramid than any other topic in ancient history, excepting only the Bible. The sheer number of odd theories about the pyramid has led archaeologists to label fringe investigators “pyramidiots.” There is hardly any modern fringe theory about the Great Pyramid that is not derivative of one in place by 1877, the year James Bonwick wrote the overview of the 47 most popular theories about the pyramid that you are about to read. Thus, the following book is essential reading for understanding the history of pyramid theories and how ancient astronaut theorists and alternative archaeologists employ them.
204 pages, Paperback
First published March 5, 2012
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January 25, 2023
A REPUBLICATION (WITH AN INTRODUCTION) OF OLD TEXTS
Jason Colavito describes himself as a ‘skeptical xenoarchaeologist.’ He explains in his Introduction to this 2012 book, “Of all the ancient structures scattered across the globe, Egypt’s Great Pyramid… has attracted the most attention from ancient astronaut theorists and alternative historians… And of course most of what has been written about the Pyramid is blatantly false speculation, attributing its design and construction to everything from space aliens to sonic levitation to magic. The sheer number of odd theories about the pyramid has led archaeologists to label fringe investigators ‘pyramidiots’ after the term first used by Leonard Cottrell in ‘The Mountains of Pharaoh’ … to describe the Victorian pyramid fantasist Charles Piazzi Smyth… Pyramidiots are endlessly fascinated by the supposed perfection of the Pyramid’s construction, its prime choice of location at the ‘center of gravity’ of earth’s landmasses (whatever that is supposed to mean), and its ability to predict the future once some secret code or another is teased from its endlessly complex and perfect measurements… the evidence for these claims is thin or nonexistent, and such magical perfection is unrecognized by mainstream archaeologists, who instead see in the pyramid a work of ancient genius, but one that embodies several false starts and compromises…
“These authors instead argue that only God or an intelligence radically different from humanity could be responsible for the Pyramid’s amazing measurements and perfection. Later… Erich von Däniken asked several leading questions to prompt readers to conclude that extraterrestrials were responsible for either the pyramid’s plan or its actual construction… the ancient astronaut view of the Pyramid is an entirely derivative affair, one culled from hundreds of years of rank speculation about Egypt’s most important monument… Ancient astronaut theorists merely substituted aliens for God and kept all the rest of [Piazzi Smyth’s] pseudoscientific scaffolding.
“In fact, there is hardly any modern fringe theory about the Great Pyramid that is not derivative of one in place by 1877, the year James Bonwick wrote the overview of the 47 most popular theories about the pyramid that you are about to read… Thus, the following book is essential reading for understanding the history of pyramid theories and the vast literature of fringe work ancient astronaut theorists and alternative historians draw upon in concocting their newest variations on some very old ideas…
“The first half of Bonwick’s ‘Pyramid Facts’ provided a summary of the various measurements and mathematics of the Great Pyramid as they were known in 1877… I have not reproduced this part of Bonwick’s book… The second half of ‘Pyramid Facts,’ entitled ‘Why Was the Great Pyramid Built?’ is the much more interesting half, containing both Bonwick’s list of 47 theories with discussion of summary each and citation of the major proponents of these theories… Bonwick was not an infallible scholar. Many of his citations are incorrect… In this volume, I have fully annotated Bonwick’s work, providing biographic and bibliographic information about each authority…
“To Bonwick’s study of pyramidiocy, I had added two additional sections. The first is Benjamn Wheatly Tracey’s description of authors on the Great Pyramid whose books were published in [1876]… The section added section provides the texts of various primary sources from ancient and medieval authors on the Grear Pyramid. These selected source texts help to provide context for Bonwick’s work and also provide key referents for various ancient astronaut theorists…”
This book will interest those who are skeptical about the many claims made about such pyramids.
Jason Colavito describes himself as a ‘skeptical xenoarchaeologist.’ He explains in his Introduction to this 2012 book, “Of all the ancient structures scattered across the globe, Egypt’s Great Pyramid… has attracted the most attention from ancient astronaut theorists and alternative historians… And of course most of what has been written about the Pyramid is blatantly false speculation, attributing its design and construction to everything from space aliens to sonic levitation to magic. The sheer number of odd theories about the pyramid has led archaeologists to label fringe investigators ‘pyramidiots’ after the term first used by Leonard Cottrell in ‘The Mountains of Pharaoh’ … to describe the Victorian pyramid fantasist Charles Piazzi Smyth… Pyramidiots are endlessly fascinated by the supposed perfection of the Pyramid’s construction, its prime choice of location at the ‘center of gravity’ of earth’s landmasses (whatever that is supposed to mean), and its ability to predict the future once some secret code or another is teased from its endlessly complex and perfect measurements… the evidence for these claims is thin or nonexistent, and such magical perfection is unrecognized by mainstream archaeologists, who instead see in the pyramid a work of ancient genius, but one that embodies several false starts and compromises…
“These authors instead argue that only God or an intelligence radically different from humanity could be responsible for the Pyramid’s amazing measurements and perfection. Later… Erich von Däniken asked several leading questions to prompt readers to conclude that extraterrestrials were responsible for either the pyramid’s plan or its actual construction… the ancient astronaut view of the Pyramid is an entirely derivative affair, one culled from hundreds of years of rank speculation about Egypt’s most important monument… Ancient astronaut theorists merely substituted aliens for God and kept all the rest of [Piazzi Smyth’s] pseudoscientific scaffolding.
“In fact, there is hardly any modern fringe theory about the Great Pyramid that is not derivative of one in place by 1877, the year James Bonwick wrote the overview of the 47 most popular theories about the pyramid that you are about to read… Thus, the following book is essential reading for understanding the history of pyramid theories and the vast literature of fringe work ancient astronaut theorists and alternative historians draw upon in concocting their newest variations on some very old ideas…
“The first half of Bonwick’s ‘Pyramid Facts’ provided a summary of the various measurements and mathematics of the Great Pyramid as they were known in 1877… I have not reproduced this part of Bonwick’s book… The second half of ‘Pyramid Facts,’ entitled ‘Why Was the Great Pyramid Built?’ is the much more interesting half, containing both Bonwick’s list of 47 theories with discussion of summary each and citation of the major proponents of these theories… Bonwick was not an infallible scholar. Many of his citations are incorrect… In this volume, I have fully annotated Bonwick’s work, providing biographic and bibliographic information about each authority…
“To Bonwick’s study of pyramidiocy, I had added two additional sections. The first is Benjamn Wheatly Tracey’s description of authors on the Great Pyramid whose books were published in [1876]… The section added section provides the texts of various primary sources from ancient and medieval authors on the Grear Pyramid. These selected source texts help to provide context for Bonwick’s work and also provide key referents for various ancient astronaut theorists…”
This book will interest those who are skeptical about the many claims made about such pyramids.
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