Man moves huge blocks easily with no heavy equipment.

[EdEarl]

The attached youtube video shows a man moving multi-ton stones with sticks and stones, no heavy equipment. The sticks are mostly dimension lumber (e.g., 2x4s and 4x4s, IDK metric for these). For example, he lifts a 20 ton block several almost a meter (yard) by making two fulcrums less than a meter apart, and uses a teeter-toter motion of the block to lift one side and then the other one 2x4 at a time. He also plants one in the ground as a monolith. And rolls heavy blocks with ease. If the Egyptians and Celts moved stones with these techniques, it was easier than I ever imagined.

 

[Daedalus]

I've seen his stone lifting technique performed by researchers on a show about Stonehenge on NatGeo about a year ago. I don't remember the name of the show, but we've known about these techniques for millenia thanks to Archimedes. It's not a far stretch of the imagination to think that ancient architects were aware of them too.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Daedalus

[DrKrettin]

Interesting, but to be honest, I can't see anything new here. In fact, I've used the same methods (on a smaller scale) to erect a barn myself.

[John Cuthber]

What is amazing is that people can say " it's difficult to move big rocks- so space aliens or Gods must have done it" without realising that the only reason "it's difficult" is that they don't know what they are doing.

 

The other amazing thing is that people by books written by those ignoramuses.

[AbstractDreamer]

Clever and resourceful!

 

But still, how did the ancients use that rock-pivot-move technique on soft ground?

 

I still think it was more man power + a lot of time + some clever engineering.

[Fuzzwood]

Make sure you put down a big enough surface to do this stuff on first.

[AbstractDreamer]

How did the ancients put down a big enough surface, and then remove all evidence of the surface?

 

Ancients built it, aliens only removed it.

Edited December 8, 2016 by AbstractDreamer

[Phi for All]

Clever and resourceful!

 

But still, how did the ancients use that rock-pivot-move technique on soft ground?

 

I still think it was more man power + a lot of time + some clever engineering.

 

Clever engineering, like figuring out how to make a solid surface to work on?

[AbstractDreamer]

 

Clever engineering, like figuring out how to make a solid surface to work on?

No, making a solid surface is easy.

 

Making 140 miles of solid surface is not. Not around 3000 BC.

 

Clever engineering like releasing the stones from the quarry face, dragging the stones 140 miles from the quarry to the henge (by pathing solid surfaces if using this technique), lifting up and down hills, or over marshland, and perfectly align them. They probably didn't even need to use this rock-pivot technique and relied more on brute force.

 

But that's fine if you want to think this is the technique they used to move the stones 140 miles.

Edited December 8, 2016 by AbstractDreamer

[AbstractDreamer]

PS Really? I get -2 rep for #7? For mentioning aliens? No one able to detect the sarcasm? Makes you wonder. lol

Edited December 8, 2016 by AbstractDreamer

[Ken Fabian]

The simplest and most compelling explanation for how the Egyptians moved blocks of stone I have come across is lashing crescent shaped timbers around the blocks and rolling them. The doco I saw claimed such pieces - flat on one side (chord of a circle) and a section of circle circumference on the other and with a deep slot carved around it for ropes - were found in burial chambers but their function was not recognised. 8 such pieces would effectively lash two wheels around each block which could be rolled with relatively ease and would be reusable for similar sized blocks. I think a variant of this with 4 pieces that cradle the block rather than 8 was excavated. Even going up ramps would be relatively uncomplicated - I'd hesitate to say "easy" - I'd probably wrap ropes around and have teams pull, with people with blocking wedges keeping pace behind.

 

Even so I doubt only one method was in use - depending on what size, shape and fragility of what needed to be moved, and the terrain, other methods probably had their place.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Ken Fabian

[AbstractDreamer]

ball bearing technique ~20:00 ~45:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64j0yGpjg-w

 

rowing-lever technique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-J_6Jct_X8

 

IMO, both more feasible than rock-pivot technique, at least for small scale monoliths.

Edited December 9, 2016 by AbstractDreamer