Egypt: ‘mystics' and ‘fact-finders'

Press, 16 June 1979, Page 17

Egypt: ‘mystics' and ‘fact-finders'

Mummies: Death and Life in Ancient Egypt. By James Hamilton-Paterson and Carol Andrews. Collins. 224 pp. $16.65. Secrets of the Great Pyramid. By Peter Tompkins. Appendix by Livio Catullo Stecchini. Penguin. 416 pp. $9.95. (Reviewed by D. H. Gilmore) There is fascinating interest in the many theories put forward by those who delve into the mysteries of early Egyptian civilisation, for the most part in heated conflict with each other’s opinions. Roughly, the savants may be divided into two main groups: the “mystics,” who read all kinds of metaphysical meanings into the ruined remains of a civilisation that flourished 4000 years ago, and the “factfinders,” who, as vociferously, claim that one single hard fact is worth a bucketful of theory. Here are two readable and well-pro-duced books presented from these opposite camps. “Mummies” clings tenaciously to known facts — some of them grisly, to say the least — of the ancient Egyptian way of death; the climatic conditions that led, possibly accidentally, to natural mummification, lat.er developed into a fine art as civilisation progressed; and the evolution of primative “markers” of stone to the later pyramids and the cliff tombs at Thebes and Luxor. These writers scoff at any suggestion that these monu-

ments have any of the “transcendental” significance attributed to them by many other researchers, and seem at pains to keep their work, literally, “down to earth.” Incidentally, they stress a point often overlooked — such funereal monuments as survive today in pyramids, tombs and temples, represent only the upper strata of Egyptian society. Little, if anything, is recorded of the teaming millions who must have supported the great civilisation. As the authors point out, “It is rather as if, in four thousand years’ time, the remains of our present civilisation were discovered, but the only things which had survived were cenotaphs, cathedrals and the records of Whitehall ministries.” The resultant views of researchers must, perforce, be lopsided. First published in 1973, Peter Tompkin’s “Secrets of the Great Pyramid” has been republished by Penguin Books in a quarto paperback edition — not the most convenient format for a work of this size — and presents another aspect of what may be termed the “Great Egyptian Controversy.” After dealing chronologically with the history of exploration and research into the Great Pyramid of Cheops, from early Grecian times to the present, Tompkins proceeds to develop the thesis that this man-made mountain, rising to the height of a 40-stor-eyed building at Giza, was erected to precise geometrical, geodetic, astro-

nomical and mensuration specifications for purely scientific purposes. He pleads his cause very plausibly, although his advanced mathematics are apt to baffle the average reader, and his conclusions are endorsed by a 95page appendix provided by Professor Stecchini, Professor of Ancient History at William Paterson College, New Jersey, a specialist in the history of measurement. Impressive though the weight of their arguments, one cannot help feeling that it must be a case of “preaching to the converted” as far as their main theme is concerned. The sceptics may still remain unconvinced. For whatever reason its builders toiled at the erection of this colossal monument — the last survivor of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world — they could hardly have foreseen that some 40 centuries later Czechoslovakian housewives would receive milk delivered in cartons scale-mod-elled on their handiwork, it having been discovered that a container of that precise shape preserves its contents from “physical, chemical and biological change” — a fact that modern science has yet to explain. This is just one of the many delightfully irrelevant snippets of practical information that lighten the way of the reader through the “secrets” revealed by Mr Tompkins. Both the books reviewed are well illustrated and both contain excellent indices and bibliographies.