Consider the contortions required to paint, in situ, the Gang Name containing Khufu’s Cartouche in the dark, stifling confines of the 1837 Great Pyramid environment known as Campbell’s Chamber. Frequently, the cartouche is presented as a modest hieratic scrawl on an unassuming stone plane, thusly:
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Campbell’s Chamber Gang Name Sketch after J. S. Perring 1837
Factually, the gabled roof stone surface that backs the Gang Name is confined to an awkward location beginning at a low, limestone, knee-wall ledge above an irregular granite beam floor:
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Campbell’s Chamber Gang Name Section/Elevation Sketch after J. S. Perring 1837
Physical access to the location is constricted above and below:
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In July of 2007, 60 Minutes Australia aired a story featuring archaeologist John Romer that illustrates the difficulties a forger’s extremely restricted positioning (necessary to counterfeit an image on the underside of the chamber’s roofing stones) would have encountered.
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An alleged right-handed perpetrator would necessarily be required to bend at the waist, twisting his torso sufficiently clockwise to paint an approximate two foot long continuous ‘shenu’ with a single stroke above his head, in virtual darkness. The limitations of the culprit’s confined working space are further exemplified by the narrow area between the knee-wall and the raised granite beam shown to the left of Dr. Hawass in the image below:
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Surely a conniving forger could have located a more advantageous setting to perpetrate his devious fraud.
Dr. Troglodyte
Factually, the gabled roof stone surface that backs the Gang Name is confined to an awkward location beginning at a low, limestone, knee-wall ledge above an irregular granite beam floor:
Physical access to the location is constricted above and below:
In July of 2007, 60 Minutes Australia aired a story featuring archaeologist John Romer that illustrates the difficulties a forger’s extremely restricted positioning (necessary to counterfeit an image on the underside of the chamber’s roofing stones) would have encountered.
An alleged right-handed perpetrator would necessarily be required to bend at the waist, twisting his torso sufficiently clockwise to paint an approximate two foot long continuous ‘shenu’ with a single stroke above his head, in virtual darkness. The limitations of the culprit’s confined working space are further exemplified by the narrow area between the knee-wall and the raised granite beam shown to the left of Dr. Hawass in the image below:
Surely a conniving forger could have located a more advantageous setting to perpetrate his devious fraud.
Dr. Troglodyte
