It turns out that the ancient Egyptians were a lot smarter than the people currently studying them!

For years, Egyptologists have been looking at pictograms and interpreting them however they want, usually giving some kind of religious meaning.  Everything seemed to be some crazy religious purification ritual or something.

In reality...not so much.

Check out this wall painting of the moving of a large stone statue.  In the front of the sled, you see the "purification ritual" taking place for the moving.

Colosse-djéhoutihétep
Schematic from the tomb of Djehutihotep depicting the transport of a colossal statue. Notice the person standing by the statue’s foot is pouring water over the sand right in front of the sled / Wikimedia
Read more at http://www.iflscience.com/physics/mystery-how-egyptians-moved-pyramid-stones-solved#Yhoye1sCS6IeyzeS.99
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Nope, not religious at ALL!

They're getting the sand a little wet, so it won't pile up in front of the sled, and things will slide easily along!  Like building sand castles, you get the sand a little wet, and it sticks together, allowing stuff to slide over it!

It took half as many people to pull those massive rocks to the construction site than the Egyptologists had originally thought, since the sand was wet, and the sleds could slide much more easily.

lab-setup
Thanks to the University of Amsterdam. See, you can more than just smoke pot there!
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