Are the pyramids too old?

Question

In Robert Temple's ¹ book "Egyptian Dawn", the author exposes a series of problems with Egyptology that he found while exploring Egyptian temples and ruins. When he applied a technique called surface luminescence dating ² to date stones of Menkaure's pyramid he found that they are too old; the pyramid couldn't have been built in Menkaure's lifetime.

Also when comparing the tomb of the last king of the Second Dynasty (which has impressively low technology applied to it) with the Pyramid of Djoser (the Step Pyramid, built by the first king of the Third Dynasty), there is a clear difference in technology. Such technology couldn't have evolved in the span of 20-30 years that separates them, says Temple.

I couldn't find any direct criticisms of this specific book, so my question is: are these real problems? Or is Temple speculating here? And if a respected dating technique indicates that some monuments and temples are too old, and if there are problems with the progression of technology from one dynasty to another, how come I can't find sources talking about it besides Temple?

_{¹ Yes, he is the same guy who wrote a book about aliens coming from Sirius and bringing knowledge unavailable to normal humans, although Egyptian Dawn seems to be a more sober book.
² First applied to ancient monuments by prof. Ioannis Liritzis, a Greek scientist.}

Answer 1

Robert Temple has zero credibility in archaeology. He's written multiple ancient-astronaut books, one of the quotes on his web page about his books is from an author of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, and his page about Egyptian Dawn includes these points:

• Exposing faked evidence which has been credulously accepted by the Egyptological community.
• Revealing who really built the pyramids

These are sure signs of a pseudo-archeologist. He also makes use of one of the basic techniques of pseudo-archaeology: failing to understand margins of error. The Step Pyramid of Djoser is approximately 4,700 years old. No absolute dating method, of which luminescence dating is an example, is accurate to 20 years in 4,700. His claim that the period is only 20 years is thus unsupported.

There's a simple reason that you haven't found any reviews or counter-arguments to Temple online. He has no credibility, and nobody with any knowledge of the field believes anything he writes. Responding to him, even to say that he's talking utter rubbish, would risk making him more credible. It's worse than fiction because people know that they shouldn't believe fiction. This stuff actively spreads wrong ideas.

"Speculating" would be a favourable description of what he's doing here. "Sensationalising" would be more accurate. He's taking a margin of error in dating, and a missing step in building, and using it to support some more fantastic theory. This is the way pseudo-archeologists work. They take a number of possibly reasonable questions, interpret them selectively, and use them as "evidence" to make a wild idea seem plausible.

Answer 2

I'm not sure why the books referenced would have anything to do with the actual age of the Pyramids, whether in regards of being too old or not. I've been to Giza many times and I'm intimately familiar with the Pyramids, but as far as I know, there's still no specific factual confirmed age, despite the many radio-carbon dating attempts, which have merely resulted in guesstimates of proximate timelines.

Although the last testing seems to imply somewhat accurate results, a closer look at the final report reveals the samples used in testing to obtain those specific numbers were primarily plant based, found in and around the immediate areas of interest, as opposed to a processes of data recovery testing actual samples from the Pyramids themselves, as needed to obtain an even remotely accurate timeline, let alone the pin pointing of any specific tenures in the historical grid.

The particulars as to why that is, are as much a mystery as the dates themselves. And seeing how one cannot foresee the future, any possibilities of one day knowing a bonafide answer with 100% accuracy, within our lifetime or before the next extinction, which ever comes first, remains in the air until such time.

Anything to the contrary is simply poppy cock, with a dab of cootchie moose.