Stonehenge builders 'used ball bearings to move giant slabs of stone into position'

Stonehenge builders 'used ball bearings to move giant slabs of stone into position'

www.dailymail.co.uk

Neolithic engineers may have used ball bearings in the construction of Stonehenge, it was claimed today.
The same technique that allows vehicles and machinery to run smoothly today could have been used to transport the monument's massive standing stones more than 4,000 years ago, according to a new theory.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Where to start...
How about with - now these guys can make ball bearings? We are not talking a drop of hot metal rolled in to a ball shape, IMO the ball bearing would have to be crazy symetric to work - not only would variation in the symetry effect the purpose and rolling of the bearings it would also cause them to crush as pressure would be more targeted on some bearing area's.
I dont know to me it seems like they answering a hard question with a harder one - how did they make ball bearing that could do the job of carrying 4 ton blocks



www.dailymail.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Ball bearings under such a weight load would be useless and pushed into the earth. I do beleive that logs and rope in a conveyor type setup would be at least more reasonable.

I find it amazing some of the things people claim as possible publicly.

Many ancient civilisations used sound resonant frequency to move heavy stone objects.
There are similar accounts of chanting monks and producing a particular sound/frequency causing objects to levitate.

Originally posted by byteshertz

Where to start...
~snip~

Uhhh, Maybe with your link?

.

Experts hit on the new idea after examining mysterious stone balls found near Stonehenge-like monuments in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. About the size of a cricket ball, they are precisely fashioned to be within a millimetre of the same size. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

Stone balls, of identical size, laid in wooden guides. Giant linear bearings, essentially.

I'm not saying I personally believe the theory, but they did demonstrate it with weight far in excess of 4 tons. I recently watched a special about this on NOVA or something.

Originally posted by TheRemedial
Ball bearings under such a weight load would be useless and pushed into the earth. I do beleive that logs and rope in a conveyor type setup would be at least more reasonable.

I find it amazing some of the things people claim as possible publicly.

Didn't read the link, did ya? The ball bearings were never in contact with the earth. Furthermore, evidence for the "log conveyor" system is non-existent, and this lack of evidence became one of the reasons they got to thinking about it and came up with this theory.

I find some of the things people say amazing as well...

reply to post by remrem


Prove it? I'm calling BS on this.

reply to post by remrem


I have heard about this before, I might put together some info and look a bit more in to it to get a good thread going.

I often wondered if the large stone spheres in Costa Rica could have been used for a similar purpose. They certainly prove the ability to make near perfect spheres from stone using ancient tools. Check out the link.

www.world-mysteries.com...

Originally posted by tjack

Originally posted by byteshertz

Where to start...
~snip~

Uhhh, Maybe with your link?

.

Experts hit on the new idea after examining mysterious stone balls found near Stonehenge-like monuments in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. About the size of a cricket ball, they are precisely fashioned to be within a millimetre of the same size. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

Stone balls, of identical size, laid in wooden guides. Giant linear bearings, essentially.

I'm not saying I personally believe the theory, but they did demonstrate it with weight far in excess of 4 tons. I recently watched a special about this on NOVA or something.

I saw this same show on PBS. The ball bearing idea when they tested it seemed to work at first but as the stone was being transferred down the line, the wooden groove portion gave out under the load... I think the bearings were actually scoring / fracturing the wood somehow.

Frankly, the entire idea seems overly complex... fashioning these spherical balls, making exact linear wooden rails for the block to travel upon. It would require alot of precision on the part of the builders just do build this setup. If one thing they had during this ancient time it would be manpower. The simple method of using logs and brute force would probably done the job just as well and wouldn't take some extreme engineering to think up.

Edit: The other interesting part of that show was they investigated the religious significance of the area. It appears that alot of people inhabited the area surround the site... So it would seem to me there would be ALOT of people available to perform labor. Perhaps adding stones to the site was also some sort of religious exercise, like taking a pilgrimage to mecca.

From the OP's source;

Experts hit on the new idea after examining mysterious stone balls found near Stonehenge-like monuments in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

About the size of a cricket ball, they are precisely fashioned to be within a millimetre of the same size.

This suggests they were meant to be used together in some way rather than individually.

It's a very plausible theory, and they aren't basing this on imagination or guesswork but artifacts found near a site of monumental stone blocks similar to Stonehenge. The fact all the spheres were nearly identical in size does lend credence to their connected use or manufacture.

The Costa Rican Spheres however are much larger and of varied sizes, and had a symbolic/religious use (many were parked in front of huts of tribal VIPs), but perhaps their original use was lost and later tribal leaders began using them for other reasons...?

There is no way they could have done it.
But with log rollers they could have.
I help't a friend move a 4 tone safe.
We use'd roller. Ok metal.
But if you use a lot of wood rollers you could easly do it.
He did most of the work.
As he had been doing it as his job for 40 years.
We lifted it and the rolld it to a lorry
then put it down at its new home.
If one man can move 4 tone.
Then a 100 men and 200 logs could move a ten ton slab.

Originally posted by DisturbedToo
reply to post by remrem

 

Prove it? I'm calling BS on this.

Prove they didn't.

I have read about it in books and some ancient accounts, so no I can't prove it. Neither can you.

Another thought I had after hearing about this was, once you had the "tracks" laid, it would be far easier to shuttle the small stone balls to keep the load moving than it would be to shuttle entire logs in the log conveyor theory. Far fewer people would be necessary to perform the shuttling.Women and children would even be able to help perform this task. It makes good sense from a "lean manufacturing" perspective.
Just a thought.

reply to post by byteshertz
I remember reading about those mysterious stones lying around,that were all the same size.

I guess that's what they were.......

reply to post by DisturbedToo
"Prove It!!!"

Do your own research.

You'll still believe what you choose to believe.

Definite problem.

reply to post by wonderboy2402
They purchased a cheaper type of wood than would have been in the area at the time.

To save money of course,since minds are basically forced to be wasted most times.

..........

Here is a link to the video of the program about the theory.

NOVA Secrets of Stonehenge

J.

Your thread title like so many others is a lie!!

It says in the Article that they "MAY" of used ball bearings.

N O T "have". they use the all important word "MAY".

I do not believe that for a second. As someone said it would be impractical. I think they used logs.