Test results from Middle Kingdom pyramid (Senwosret II).Ancient Egypt’s population was restricted to the narrow confines of the Nile Valley with, we assume, a sparse cover of trees.

Radiocarbon technicians prefer to test wood and wood charcoal because their high molecular weight mitigates material loss during the rigorous pretreatments required for radiocarbon testing.It is likely that, by the pyramid age, the Egyptians had been intensively exploiting wood for fuel for a long time.Because of the scarcity and expense of wood, the Egyptians would reuse pieces of wood as much as possible.We focused our collection efforts on tiny pieces of these materials, along with reed and straw left by the ancient builders.

In 1984 we conducted radiocarbon dating on material from Egyptian Old Kingdom monuments (financed by friends and supporters of the Edgar Cayce Foundation).We thought that it was unlikely that the pyramid builders consistently used centuries-old wood as fuel in preparing mortar.