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The great ancient monuments are manifestations of the ruling classes’ fear of the oppressed and exploited who revolt.
lundi 8 septembre 2025, par
The great ancient monuments are manifestations of the ruling classes’ fear of the oppressed and exploited who revolt.
The pyramids of Giza, in Egypt, an unintentional tribute from the oppressors to the oppressed... What do the pyramids themselves mean if not that those who had them built cannot and should not be challenged ? How is it that, precisely, the construction of the giant pyramids was followed by the most devastating revolutions, to the point that the dynasty disappeared for a very, very long time ?
What do the great massacres on top of the pyramids of Central and South America mean, if not the terror in which the defeated and enslaved peoples were kept ?
Many of the great ancient monuments that the world admires (the pyramids of Egypt and Central and South America, the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall, the palace of Angkor, etc.) are manifestations of the ruling classes’ fear of the oppressed, who had to be impressed and terrorized to ensure the survival of the established order.
The fear of the ruling classes of antiquity in the face of exploited and oppressed peoples who revolt is monumental indeed. We have seen it in multiple episodes, from Spartacus to other slave revolts, from the revolt of peoples against the Amerindian empires to that against the European, African, Middle Eastern or Asian empires.
What is the meaning and purpose of building huge, extremely expensive monuments in antiquity and ancient times, requiring enormous effort ?
Who were these great buildings designed to impress ? The gods ? Certainly not ! The demons ? No more ! It was rather the oppressed and exploited common people who had to be convinced of the unassailable and all-powerful nature of the ruling classes !
The Khmer temple of Bayon at Angkor with its four god-king heads in each tower is intended to indicate that the god Brahma is like two drops of water to King Jayavarman VII.
https://vietnamdecouverte.com/bayon-angkor
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayavarman_VII
This temple celebrates the crushing of the Cham revolt
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cham_(peuple )
The Pharaohs of Egypt and the fear of “chaos” and revolutions
The Egyptian state was built to eradicate the revolution...
Some dates from ancient Egypt
Before 7000 BC, there were three regions where three different societies, three civilizations, developed :
* a pottery-producing economy in Khartoum (Upper Nubia)
* the so-called Nabta Playa 1 company in Lower Nubia
* the so-called Garounien society in Fayoum
from 6900 BC to 6400 BC, Nabta Playa 2 civilization in Lower Nubia
then a "hole" of at least 600 years, in which we no longer find any trace of civilization... without there being any trace that a war, that an invasion destroyed the previous societies.
In the 6th millennium, an arid phase, with a considerable drop in the level of the Nile, led to the fall of civilization, probably through social revolt and political destabilization.
from 5800 to 5400 BC, Neolithic civilization of Fayoum
from 5400 to 5000 BC, civilization of Merinde Beni Salame, north of the Nile Valley
From 5000 to 4500 BC, there were two different civilizations simultaneously :
*That of El Omari in the north of the Nile Valley
* the Neolithic one of Khartoum in Upper Nubia
from 4200 to 3800 BC, the so-called Badari culture in the south of Middle Egypt, a homogeneous cultural group whose funerary material already reveals a complex and unequal society.
From 3800 to 3500 BC, the Nagada 1 or Amratian civilization in Upper Egypt had an area of occupation that extended towards the South, cereal agriculture intensified and the phenomenon of hierarchization accelerated. This phase is called Amratian (from the site of El Amrah) or Nagada I.
At the same time, a culture of pastoralist-farmers developed in Lower Egypt, maintaining privileged relations with the Near East. On the other hand, imports from Upper Egypt were very modest.
Two other societies coexisted in Egypt with Nagada 1 :
from 4000 to 3300 BC, the so-called "Group A" culture of Lower Nubia
from 4100 to 3500 BC, the cultures of the northern Nile Valley with the cities of Maadi, Wadi Digla, Heliopolis and Buto
From 3500 to 3400 BC, the Nagada II civilization in the north of the Nile Valley (Maadi). The situation changed in the middle of the 4th millennium. The Nagada chiefdoms extended northward beyond the Delta and southward to the second cataract. The process of hierarchization became more pronounced, and the tombs of the elite revealed luxurious objects : daggers with decorated handles, jewelry, makeup palettes, etc. This phase is called Gerzean (from the site of Gerzeh) or Nagada II.
The Gerzean was 3500 BC in Nubia (present-day southern Egypt and Sudan), 350 years before the first king and 800 years before the first Pharaoh ! And they weren’t the first to develop a civilization in Egypt...
From 3000 BC, the so-called Naqada civilization unified in the Nile Valley and the delta. This is Naqada 3. It is marked by the beginning of writing and the development of the political direction of society.
It is a highly civilized society, already very wealthy, engaged in extensive trade, and familiar with almost all the techniques, arts, and crafts that would be those of Pharaonic Egypt. It develops for two hundred years, but is threatened by a new revolutionary social crisis of the type that previously destroyed multiple civilizations in Egypt.
3000 BC, development of the cities of This, Memphis, Saqqara with constructions in mud brick and cut stone
From 3100 BC, the first attempts to build a stable social order by creating a centralized leadership began. These were the rulers of Hierakonpolis who attempted to govern both Upper and Lower Egypt.
from 2700 BC, birth of the pharaonic state of the Old Kingdom
2600 BC, structuring of the administration
2500 BC, construction of the giant pyramids of Giza begins
2480 BC, strengthening of the clergy hierarchy and development of bureaucracy
2260 BC, the social revolution overthrows the pharaonic state for 150 years
2110 BC, birth of the second pharaonic empire known as the Middle Kingdom
1200 BC, new great social revolution which permanently overthrew the regime of the Pharaohs
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article2102
This is how the pyramids of Egypt were financed
https://www.linternaute.com/actualite/histoire/5117939-article/
The pyramids and other means of repressive terror did not save the Pharaohs from revolutions. It was after the construction of the three great pyramids of Giza that the people of Egypt (revolted by the efforts of these great works and the taxes that financed them) overthrew the regime of the Pharaohs for the first time in a lasting way.
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article222
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article5117
The Khmer Emperors and the Fear of “Chaos” and Revolutions
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_khmer
The crushing of the revolt that marked the beginning of the Ming dynasty in 1368 was celebrated, in the early 1400s, by the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing, a truly gigantic and absolutely impressive palace of the Ming emperors. At the same time and for the same purpose, to stop the revolts and revolutions and definitively establish imperial peace, the Temple of Heaven in Beijing was built, in which sacrifices were dedicated to Heaven to protect order against chaos.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_de_la_Chine
https://www.superprof.fr/blog/monuments-celebres-histoire-chinoise/
Revolutions in Ancient China
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article223
Were the ruling classes of antiquity afraid of the common people ?
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article5640
Political and social revolution existed in ancient times
https://www.matierevolution.fr/spip.php?article7739
No wonder : don’t we see the same thing in more recent times ?
Didn’t the French monarchy build the Bastille in 1370 against the Parisian people after the revolution of Étienne Marcel ? Didn’t it build the Palace of Versailles for Louis XIV after the Fronde revolution ?
Didn’t the French bourgeoisie build the Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre to glorify the bloody crushing of the Paris Commune in 1871 ?
From ancient Greece to the Indian civilizations of the Americas, gods to scare...
Fear is linked to the subversion of the established order.
https://www.france-mineraux.fr/mythologies/mythologie-grecque/divnites-grecques/phobos/
https://www.unige.ch/expositions-virtuelles/figures-de-la-peur/introduction.html