Editing Pyramid (section)

==== Greece ====
{{Main article|Greek pyramids}}
[[File:Elliniko Piramid - panoramio.jpg|thumb|left|[[Pyramid of Hellinikon]]]]
[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (2nd century AD) mentions two buildings resembling pyramids, one, 19 kilometres (12&nbsp;mi) southwest of a still standing structure at Hellenikon,<ref>{{cite book|title=Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-30593-8|author=Mary Lefkowitz|author-link=Mary Lefkowitz|editor=Garrett G. Fagan|page=188|chapter=Archaeology and the politics of origins}}</ref> a common tomb for soldiers who died in a legendary struggle for the throne of [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]] and another that he was told was the tomb of Argives killed in a battle around 669/8 BC. Neither survives and no evidence indicates that they resembled Egyptian pyramids.

At least two surviving pyramid-like structures are available to study, one at [[Pyramid of Hellinikon|Hellenikon]] and the other at Ligourio/Ligurio, a village near the ancient theatre [[Epidaurus]]. These buildings have inwardly sloping walls, but bear no other resemblance to Egyptian pyramids. They had large central rooms (unlike Egyptian pyramids) and the Hellenikon structure is rectangular rather than square, {{convert|12.5|by|14|m}} which means that the sides could not have met at a point.<ref>{{cite book|title=Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-30593-8|author=Mary Lefkowitz|author-link=Mary Lefkowitz|editor=Garrett G. Fagan|pages=189–190|chapter=Archaeology and the politics of origins}}</ref> The stone used to build these structures was limestone quarried locally and was cut to fit, not into freestanding blocks like the Great Pyramid of Giza.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bartos |first=Nick |date=2016-12-16 |title=Travel: Pyramids of the Peloponnese, Greece |url=https://www.world-archaeology.com/issues/travel-pyramids-of-the-peloponnese-greece/ |access-date=2025-02-16 |website=World Archaeology |language=en-US}}</ref>

These structures were dated from pot shards excavated from the floor and grounds. The latest estimates are around the 5th and 4th centuries. Normally this technique is used for dating [[pottery]], but researchers used it to try to date stone flakes from the structure walls. This launched debate about whether or not these structures are actually older than [[Egypt]], part of the [[Black Athena]] controversy.<ref>{{cite book|title=Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-30593-8|author=Mary Lefkowitz|author-link=Mary Lefkowitz|editor=Garrett G. Fagan|pages=185–186|chapter=Archaeology and the politics of origins}}</ref>

[[Mary Lefkowitz|Lefkowitz]] criticised this research, suggesting that some of the research was done not to determine the reliability of the dating method, as was suggested, but to back up a claim and to make points about pyramids and Greek civilization. She claimed that not only were the results imprecise, but that other structures mentioned in the research are not in fact pyramids, e.g. a tomb alleged to be the tomb of [[Amphion]] and Zethus near [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], a structure at Stylidha ([[Thessaly]]) which is a long wall, etc. She pushed the possibility that the stones that were dated might have been recycled from earlier constructions. She claimed that earlier research from the 1930s, confirmed in the 1980s by Fracchia, was ignored.<ref>{{cite book|title=Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-30593-8|author=Mary Lefkowitz|author-link=Mary Lefkowitz|editor=Garrett G. Fagan|page=195|chapter=Archaeology and the politics of origins}}</ref>

Liritzis responded that Lefkowitz failed to understand and misinterpreted the methodology.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Liritzis |first=Ioannis |date=2011-09-01 |title=Surface dating by luminescence: An overview |url=https://www.geochronometria.com/Surface-dating-by-luminescence-An-overview,185835,0,2.html |journal=Geochronometria |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=292–302 |doi=10.2478/s13386-011-0032-7 |issn=1733-8387|doi-access=free |bibcode=2011Gchrm..38..292L }}</ref>