Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 31, 1993                   TAG: 9305310080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: By MIMI MANN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: GIZA PLATEAU, EGYPT                                LENGTH: Medium

IT WAS NO PICNIC, BUT BUILDING PYRAMIDS HAD ITS MOMENTS

Life wasn't all work and no play for the workers who built the pyramids, tombs and temples of Giza Plateau.

"History is life," said Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, in charge of an ancient cemetery yielding volumes of information about the life and times of the pyramid work force.

Archaeologists have discovered all kinds of information about the pyramid builders:

Beer was dished out three times daily. There were five kinds of beer and four kinds of wine available.

They could build strong bodies in 12 ways - with 12 varieties of bread.

Neatly trimmed pencil moustaches were in vogue, and workers had nicknames still popular today, like Didi and Mimi.

Their lives averaged 36 to 38 years, and industrial accidents took a toll. Six skeletons revealed deaths from injuries. Many others had bent spines from the weight of stone blocks they carried.

Ordinary Egyptians were monogamous, but some played around. And they kept up with the Joneses.

Much of the new information comes from excavations over the past nine months in cemeteries found near the pyramids about three years ago.

Recently found texts show that the pyramid builders were not slaves, as was long believed, but were free Egyptians working for the gods. The Pharaoh provided them with food, clothing and shelter.

It is not clear how many workers were involved in building them, but the three major pyramids at Giza were built over a 70-year period beginning about 2,551 B.C.