of Egyptology. Yet after even a cursory investigation of the artifact one cannot help but question
the unfathomable reasoning behind this conclusion.
The Famine Stele actually describes an ancient method for manufacturing limestone. It names
the aggregates needed for the raw material and the plant extracts that are required to then bond
the mixture of aggregates together. Could the pyramids have actually been cast instead of built by
teams of men maneuvering hewn blocks?
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but surely the fact that such a Stele even exists at all should give
scholars a reason to at least examine the methods described in the ancient text to see if there is
any validity to them. Indeed, I believe the Famine Stele needs to be made the subject of some
very serious and rigorous research before being so readily dismissed. The simple fact that people
of ancient times bothered to right this text down (carved in stone so it would last a very long
time) coupled with the fact that the Stele describes such a thing as manufacturing stone should
give cause for even the most mentally obtuse to consider it worthy of some serious investigation.
Fig.84The Famine Stele was discovered in 1889 by C.E. Wilbour and was subsequently deciphered
by various scholars: first Brugsch in 1891, then Pleyte in1891, Morgan in 1894, Sethe in 1901
and finally by Barguet in1953. The hieroglyphic text was then examined and the previous
translations were all compared with each other. Unfortunately the Stele is slightly incomplete and
somewhat damaged with a section that has been broken off near the top but we can still glean
enough information from what does exist to kind of ‘fill in the blanks.’
One third of the Stele deals with the building of monuments involving three of the most
renowned characters of ancient Egypt: the Pharaoh Zoser, the Scribe Imhotep and the God
Khnum. The remainder of the Stele speaks of various aggregates and plant extracts to be used in
the process of manufacturing stone, possibly even for the monuments mentioned.
The text contained in this unique artifact has almost exclusively been considered to be
interesting but fanciful and has been dismissed as a topic of no real use to any serious investigator
of Egyptian antiquities. Yet in studying the Stele an intriguing question emerges: What would
happen if we actually tried it and did what they described? Could the stone of the Pyramids have
actually been mixed and poured into place at the site using plant extracts and aggregates available