Beer & Kites Build Pyramids
Silk kites and beer will be the tools of choice for Cal Poly Pomona students as they try to build a pyramid.
Architecture students in the cement and masonry structure class will construct a 106-ton pyramid without modern tools.
Instead, they will use a technique that could have been used by ancient Egyptians.
Maureen Clemmons, president of the management consulting practice Transformations, explained the theory during an introduction to the course Thursday.
Cal Poly Pomona will be one of several colleges helping Clemmons research the theory. The class of 100 will use her seven years of scaled testing to figure out if building at a large scale would be feasible.
“How can you turn the opportunity away?” said Gary McGavin, associate professor of architecture at Cal Poly Pomona and instructor of the cement and masonry class.
Clemmons proposed the idea that a smaller work force and innovative use of available resources made making the massive Egyptian monuments easier than once believed.
In her research, Clemmons claimed that hieroglyphics show ancient Egyptians using their sailing knowledge to harness and use wind in their favor.
“The Egyptians are credited with inventing the sail. They were talented with harnessing the wind,” Clemmons said.
She also found clues that offer other explanations into what their symbols of power came from.
The ankh, shen and pharaoh scepters are symbols of power that Clemmons said are actually representations of tools used in the construction of the monuments.
“Simple tools became great symbols of power … and eventually became a part of the alphabet,” Clemmons said.
While researching the best way to provide a sturdy foundation for the monuments, Clemmons’ research team found that using beer would compact the soil efficiently.
Since beer was the drink of choice for the ancient Egyptians, the idea that they used beer to compact the ground is feasible, Clemmons said.
“It’s cool how she thought of all the symbols as tools,” said architecture student Jason Sanchez. “She put all the pieces together like no one else has before.”
With this latest research in mind, the Cal Poly students will focus the 10-week course in constructing a cement pyramid near Palmdale using Clemmons’ techniques.
The students will still perform calculations and assignments during the class as in the normal version of the course, but all the projects will be related to the pyramid construction, McGavin said.
Several places have already expressed interest in acquiring the pyramid once it is completed. However, no final decision at to the pyramid’s fate has been made.
Source: Pasadena Star News
Related story: ‘Kites Link Japan to Pyramids’
Tags: Modern Pyramids, News, theory
