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A paper proposing that the Dixon Relics of 1872 were part of an inclinometer for surveying and astronomical alignment.

 By Crichton E M Miller

All Rights Reserved

©1999 and 2003 Crichton E M Miller

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The 1872 Dixon Relics in the British Museum

The following paper is development of a theory advanced by the author over a period of six years of investigation and research on ancient methods of navigation, surveying and astronomy.

It was first published in original form in 2000 in Hera Magazine in Italy and in the book by the author:

The Golden Thread of Time, ISBN 0-9541639-0-7 Pendulum Publishing. 2001.

The Author has provided the reconstruction and demonstration of the Dixon Relics found in 1872 in the Great Pyramid as an ancient Egyptian geometrical spherical measuring instrument capable of surveying and astronomy to an accuracy of 3 arc minutes, which may have been used for surveying by the architect of the Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) at Giza.

Firstly and most importantly, it is exceptionally difficult, if not impossible to construct any building project without the use of a surveying instrument.

Such a surveying instrument would be known in modern times as a theodolite and it is used by surveyors prior to drawing and final planning by the architect.

The theodolite is an instrument that measures angles via optical lenses and mirrors to achieve levels and topographical differences based on 360 º observations and marker poles.

Mainly it is used for vertical angle differences but can be adopted for horizontal triangulation.

Theodolite

However, it would seem that a further factor has to be taken into account when considering the construction of the Great Pyramid of Khufu and that factor is that the pyramid appears to be aligned to a meridian and at precise latitude.

The architectural planning seems to take into account the solstices and equinoxes and to incorporate complex shafts that seem to be aligned with certain stars requiring the measurement of precise stellar angles. See The Egyptian Cross

Most Archeaoastronomers specializing in the field consider that the Great Pyramid was aligned to the north circumpolar stars at the time of construction in around 2500BC and in fact quite recently Kate Spence of Cambridge University, England made a brave but impractical suggestion in one of her papers that the stretching of the cord ceremony and the use of a plumb line aligning two circumpolar stars was the method of surveying.

To achieve these objectives requires another instrument that would be equivalent to a modern sextant used by mariners.

A sextant is a more sophisticated instrument than its predecessor which was known as a quadrant.

The quadrant incorporated the use of a quarter circle divided into 90º which when held at an angle by the observer read the degree off against the scale with the use of a plumb line attached to a plumb bob. See Instruments.

The sextant, which really means the sixth part of a 360 º circle, incorporates an optical lens and mirrors in the same way as a theodolite. See Instruments

All of the foregoing instruments take vertical observations.

So you may see that both the sextant and the theodolite employ similar principles as  and therefore it is logical to consider that the ancients Egyptian architect used an instrument that incorporated the same ability to survey and measure stars.

Instrument Type

The type of instrument we would be looking for should be able to achieve all the requirements of an Architect/ Astronomer and still use the basic materials available to the Egyptians at the time .

Simple Surveying device with plumb line and scale

 Patent granted to Crichton E M Miller in November 2000

This working example of a cross type of instrument with a measuring rod set at 45 degrees to the upright , cross bars for sighting and a plumb line shows clearly how linear angles can be found.

An exponential scale of 90 centimetres gives this particular instrument  an accuracy of 3 arc minutes, which is a coincidence with the reported inaccuracy of the pyramid alignment.

Charles Piazzi Smyth in his 1878 book “The Great Pyramid” recorded the relics found in the north shaft of the Queens chamber by Dixon and Grant.

Plan and entrance to the North shaft of the Queens Chamber in the pyramid of Khufu

These items were found in the hermetically sealed north shaft broken into by a Bill Grundy under the direction of W Dixon.

The relics were sent to Piazzi Smyth in a cigar box where they were recorded in his diary with accompanying drawings and sketches.

The diary recording of the 1872 items consisted of the following items;

Drawing of the Dixon relics

A slat or rod of cedar wood about 13 centimeters long and identified by Piazzi Smyth as a part of a measuring rod)

A granite ball weighing 1lb 3 ounces

A bronze/copper hook type of instrument, 5 centimeters long, with a part of a wooden handle still attached.

No further public examination of the shafts in the Queens chamber was carried out  for 70 years until 1993, when Rudolf Gantenbrink developed a remarkable robot known as Up haut 2 to explore the shafts and to install a ventilation system in the Pyramid of Cheops, designed to reduce humidity within the pyramid. He was subsequently, to make the most accurate internal survey of the shafts to date.

This work was undertaken on behalf of the Egyptian Government with the approval of Dr Zahi Hawass.

The operation was a success and a credit to Rudolf Gantenbrink, his team and his remarkable robot.

 What is relevant to my theory is  that in 1872, Waynman Dixon had explored the northern shaft with an extendible iron rod.

North shaft of the Queens chamber

"After an initial horizontal section of 1.93 meters (penetrating the first block of the Queen's Chamber wall), the shaft bends upwards. Based on 14 measurements made over a distance of 17 meters, the shaft's angle of ascent fluctuates between 33.3° and 40.1°." http://www.cheops.org

It had seemed, according to the Uphaut team that Dixon’s crude rod had apparently damaged the original artifact from which the relics originated and dislodged them so that they rolled to the bottom of the shaft where they were recovered by Waynman Dixon.

However, since then further investigation has blamed this intrusion with the sectioned rod on a later investigation in the 1920’s and there fore could not have been the cause of the damage or dislodging of the relics.

Although the shaft was hermetically sealed before Waynman Dixon and Bill Grundy opened it t here is clearly some deterioration over the thousands of years that the artifact had laid in the shaft ,which is evident in some of the detritus lying on the slope of the shaft, under the rod and in the corners.

 On the video footage of the shaft, taken by Up haut 2 in 1993, there can clearly be seen the remainder of a long wooden rod measuring over 2 meters or around 7 feet from which the 13-centimeter piece of rod had broken while an object that appears to look like a rectangle of wood or metal, with two corresponding holes to match the rivets on the metal instrument lies below the remains of the rod.

It has been suggested that the wooden rod at the top of the shaft is the remnants of an earlier attempt to probe the shaft with a length of wood that broke as it rounded the corner, however this is completely impractical suggestion, since the thinness of the lat would not allow such a deep penetration of a distance of 55 feet or 17 meters to the top of the shaft.

 Rudolf Gantenbrink was unable to explore the shaft further for technical reasons.

It is highly likely that the relics ,known as the Dixon Relics which were discovered in the North shaft of the Queens chamber in the Great Pyramid of Cheops by Waynman Dixon and Dr Grant in 1872, may have been one of the greatest Egyptian treasures to have been found to date.

Understanding them will open all kinds of avenues of new research into the ancient past and the roots of mathematics, astronomy and religion.

The shaft has since been explored again in 2002 by Dr Zahi Hawass and the National Geographic in search of a secret chamber, sadly there has been no further reports on the artefacts seen by Uphaut and Rudolph Gantenbrink.

Having collated the information available from the relics found in 1872 and those seen in the shaft in 1993, a theoretical reconstruction of the instrument can be made .

 To continue this exploration Go to The Dixon Relics Part 2

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©The Author, Crichton E M Miller, reserves all rights under the Patents and Copy right acts to be recognised as the author of this work.

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