Products having an odor are to be found in a text related to the Great Pyramids. In his Book II, Euterpe, the Greek historian Herodotus relates what priests at Memphis told him on the pyramid of Cheops: “Engraved on the pyramid in Egyptian characters is the amount spent on the workers in horseradish, onions and garlic; and the person who interpreted these inscriptions for me told me, as I remember well, that this expense came to sixteen hundred talents of silver. (more than 100 Million Euro of 2001)”. Popular imagery is found in this description and the workers are described as stinking of garlic and onions.
We have claimed (Davidovits, 1978, 1982) (see also books from J. Davidovits ) that this description relates to the cost of the expeditions undertaken for collecting minerals of the arsenate types, located in the turquoise and copper mines of the Sinai. A simple method in petrography for the identification of natural minerals and ores is to heat them with a small blow lamp. If they immediatly release a smell of garlic, they belong to the arsenate family (arsenate of copper or of iron).
We looked at the hieroglyphic names of minerals and ores which could contain the meaning of onion, garlic, radish. We found a representative for each of these 3 odors:
The onion-stone: in col. 15 the “uteshi stone” ends with an ideograph which has been the subject of discussion. Brugsch reads HEDSH, and gives the meaning white, whilst Barguet reads differently, and does not translate, whereas Harris states from the photograph that the reading must remain in doubt. Our reading from the photograph is HEDSH, but our translation is onion. The uteshi stone could be the stone which smells like onion.
The garlic stone: Garlic has been suggested for HUTEM and TAAM, i.e. the root word TEM. In col. 16, the ore TEM-IKR could represent the garlic stone, the prefix KR meaning weak, i.e. the stone which has a weak smell of garlic.
The radish stone: Radish corresponds to KAU and KA-T. In col. 16, the ore KA-Y could mean ‘ore with a smell of radish’.
UTESHUI HEDSH (onion , left), TEM (garlic, center), KA-Y (radish, right)
The translation introduces the elements discussed above:
(Col. 11): There is a mountain massif in its eastern region (of Elephantine) containing all the ores, all the crushed (weathered) stones (aggregates suitable for agglomeration), all the products
(Col. 12) sought for building the temples of the gods of the North and South, the stalls for sacred animals, the pyramid for the king, all statues that stand in temples and in sanctuaries. Moreover, all these chemical products are set before the face of Khnum and around him.
(Col. 13)…there is in the midst of the river a place of relaxation for every man who processes the ores on its two sides.
(Col. 15) Learn the names of the stony materials which are to be found…bekhen, dead (weathered) granite, mhtbt, r’qs, uteshi-hedsh (onion stone),… prdny, teshy.
(Col. 16) Learn the names of the rare ores located upstream…gold, silver, copper, iron, lapis-lazuli, turquoise, thnt (chrysocolla), jasper, Ka-y (radish stone), menu, esmerald, temikr (garlic stone), more over, neshemet, ta- mehy, hemaget, ibehet, bekes-ankh, green make up, black antimony, red ochre…
(Col.18).. .I found the god standing.. .he spoke to me: “I am Khnum, your creator, My arms are around you, to steady your body, to
(Col. 19) safeguard your limbs. I bestow on you rare ores upon rare ores… since creation nobody ever processed them (to make stone) for building the temples of the gods or rebuilding the ruined temples…”
The Famine Stele describes the invention of building with stone attributed to Zoser and Imhotep, builders of the first pyramid, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara (2,750 BC). According to the text, this invention of building with stone occurs through processing different minerals and ores which could be chemicals involved in the fabrication of man-made stone, or a type of concrete.
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