Tom Toles for February 10, 2011

The biggest question is, what’s in queue to take his place?

Excellent historical reference! This is an exceptionally good toon, combining the demand for freedom of the Jews from the Pharaoh and an oblique reference to their enslavement which provided much of the labor to build the pyramids. What a great wedding of history to the present.

Actually, the pyramids weren’t built by slaves,at least not entirely, they were largely built by contract labor, ( At least the Great Pyramids were constructed that way. )

In many times & places, slaves were entitled to half the proceeds from their labor, & were often able to buy their freedom. Archeologically this can be indistinguishable from “contract labor.” They were still property, that you could throw in the wood chipper on a whim, but the American view of slaves as livestock wasn’t common. When the cattle object, you’re in trouble.

lowC,

They may have been responding to my post. I hadn’t followed your link when I posted. I was responding purely to the toon itself.

Most scolars believe that Abraham lived circa 1800 BC. The pyramids were already up by then (constructed in the 2000 BC) so they were not built by hebrews (Abraham’s descendants)

The temples of Amarna, Karnak, Lusqor, Abu Simbel and the King’s valley, on the other hand…

Whoever gets to rule Egypt after Mubarak won’t be able to hate and snob westerners. They need western tourist dollars way too badly for that.

Thanks for the info FMC. I amend my comment to include the temples you listed rather than the pyramids.

^Just out of curiosity, how could that be known?

^Thanks DrC. Is there a good online resource for this information? If not, what printed sources would you recommend?

So very well reasoned and expressed, it’s worthy of a textbook on historiography.

^^Thanks for the pointers! Will see what I can find.