SIAP but I am getting annoyed again at one conspiracy I see pop up way too much. Pyramids. sure they may be older, or not used for storing a dead guy, or whatever like that, that's not what I am talking about.
I am talking about the nonsense of them being given to mankind by aliens, or some other advanced common civilization. There are a number of issues with this.
1. timelines. They were built at drastically different times. The Egyptian pyramids are considered the oldest and those go back to like 5000 BC, at least,, the American Pyramids are newer, about 1000 AD. Thats a 6000 year difference. if there was one source for this knowledge why would they be built over that wide of a period of time? The reason is because those civilizations figured out pyramids on their own at different dates.
2. "technology/construction". "How did these varied civilizations come up with such very similar designs?" simply put, pyramids are the most efficient way to stack stones and for them to stay there. you build a cube, the edges fall down. a rectangular cube has the same issue. A sphere? A diamond? how do you get them on a point? its literally the natural order of things. You take a handful of gravel, dump it on the ground, what do you find? A bunch of stones that bounced all over the place, and a larger pile directly under where it was dropped, in a rough pyramid shape. a Pyramid has a large base, is built of layers, and each layer is smaller than the next, it doesn't get more structurally stable than that if you aren't bonding things together. Also you can look at nature, mountains, tall AF, wide base, each layer typically smaller than the next. again it doesn't take a modern architect or engineer to figure this stuff out, nature does it for them. This assumption also relies on the sampling bias of what is left behind. These civilizations built more than the pyramids, its just the pyramids are all typically the largest things we have left. Why? Because those other buildings aren't as efficient as standing up as a pyramid is. so we assume because the pyramids are the same the other buildings would be the same, and we use that conclusion to justify that these civilizations were more similar than they probably were. They also tend to point out that the pyramids were "All" built of stone. hmmm, again sampling bias. the pyramids we have left are made of stone, they may have made pyramids out of other materials that broke down faster. in fact thats what some people think a lot of the American mounds are, "broken down" earthen pyramids.
3. patterns. I have seen various sources try to find common patterns in the pyramids or associated structures, some of it going back to the very geometry of the pyramid. Like the applying the golden ratio to the various pyramids to prove they have some sort of deeper connection than the base form. there are a couple problems with this. first they apply the ratio through an arbitrary distance away. if you stand 1011ft from the pyramid of giza, and if you stand 823 ft from machu pichus pyramid, you find that the pyramidal shapes superimposed the golden ratio at the same point. completely arbitrary. secondly they have to scale the ratio different when applying to these pyramids differently. the golden ratio is 1:1.6....., well what determines that "1". each civilization had a different metric of measurement that aren't compatible. so this is just another way they are skewing the ratio to fit the pyramids. They also tend to point out the various similar symbols either on the pyramids or the surrounding structures. Like the Aztec Pyramid of the Sun has a similar symbol as the Indian Temple of the Sun which has an associated pyramid. well no crap. these civilizations weren't advanced enough to have god's that went beyond the physical world around them, so yes there are going to be overlapping symbolism. but tying this back to the first point of the difference in timelines there is no reason to think they learned this from a shared common point.
4. function. OMG they all used these pyramids for ritualistic purposes, that must mean they all come from a common idea. NO. if your civilization has something like a religion and can rely on a large workforce, they are going to build large structures for the purpose of some ritual. You don't build a massive freaking building to bury Joe the gardener, or build it so that Susan the librarian has a place to stay. thats just common freaking sense. only a large centralized entity could amass the resources for them, like a government who often relied on rituals to keep the uninformed masses in line, or religion, who used rituals to keep the uninformed masses in line. Also I have seen a lot of bs, that relies on ignoring the cases that don't match this, about many of the stepped pyramids having a set of smaller steps to form stairs at the middle of the base going straight up. again that is purely a function of what is the easiest, most efficient to do. You don't build it on a corner, or else you having to work out the stairs in three planes instead of two. you place it in the middle if you want to get to the highest point, if you place it on a side it will hit a ridge before it hits the peak. so if you want to get to the top your literal only two choices are the complicated corner, or the easy middle, hmmmmm, we don't need aliens to tell us which is better. and yes these use steps of smaller stones because some of the big rocks are 6'-0" there is no dignified way for your important figure to make it to the top if they are having to haul themselves over a 6'-0" stone. and the pryamids that don't fit this mold are typically just pyramids that don't have expressed steps, or use a "stepped" stair system. where three stairs hit a common landing and go down to two, and then on down to one to reach the peak.
