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Archaeology

Propaganda of the pyramids

Nature volume 424, pages 891–893 (2003)Cite this article

You would have thought that massive monuments would be built by states at the apogee of their pomp and glory. Not so, according to an argument in which it is states on the up that need to impress.

It seems obvious that huge ancient monuments, such as the three Great Pyramids at Giza in Egypt, should be taken as testimony to a powerful ancient state behind them. As Joyce Marcus argues1 in a contribution to a newly published book, that conclusion is indeed what the builders wanted us to draw — but it's the opposite of the truth. Often, the biggest monuments were built early in a state's history, before it reached its peak power. They were built for propaganda, precisely to conceal the state's lack of real clout.

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References

  1. Marcus, J. in Theory and Practice in Mediterranean Archaeology: Old World and New World Perspectives (eds Papadopoulos, J. K. & Leventhal, R. M.) 115–134 (Cotsen Inst., Los Angeles, 2003).

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  1. Departments of Geography and Environmental Health Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095-1524, California, USA

    Jared Diamond

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  1. Jared Diamond
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Diamond, J. Propaganda of the pyramids. Nature 424, 891–893 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/424891a

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