One man, One 26,000lb stone, one 2 pound hammer.

All it takes for me to dismiss every "conspiracy" regarding monolithic structures in history is to remember one thing.

The power of human ingenuity.

Watch the vid, One man splits a 26,000lb slab, using simple concepts, leverage is a hell of a thing.

Now imagine a few 100 in a society that is dedicated to building in this manner, working at it like a normal 9-5 with nothing but time on their hands.

I always feel the Monolithic structure threads that suggest "outside" help are grossly underestimating the power of the human brain.

very ingenious of him. but you miss one thing in these megaliths. no residual holes left in them.

Very cool video! You are right some of the mystery's of the past can be solved considering human ingenuity.

But I noticed the wedges used by the gentlemen in the video were mad of hardened steel, which if I remember correctly was a material not in use until long after most of the worlds megalithic structures were built.

Also, I would love to see a video, or even a reasonable explanation for how the 1800 ton stones were quarried and maneuvered uphill and placed in the Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek Lebanon.

blackthorne
very ingenious of him. but you miss one thing in these megaliths. no residual holes left in them.

and you can tell that from the finished product?

This is just one method of cutting that humans have used, Sand and friction is another, the point in this is what one average sized person is capable of on his own.

The first step in a process that was refined over generations, whole civilizations effort, artisanry of a level Humanity has shown capable of at almost anything it trys its hand at.

crawdad1914
Very cool video! You are right some of the mystery's of the past can be solved considering human ingenuity.

But I noticed the wedges used by the gentlemen in the video were mad of hardened steel, which if I remember correctly was a material not in use until long after most of the worlds megalithic structures were built.

Also, I would love to see a video, or even a reasonable explanation for how the 1800 ton stones were quarried and maneuvered uphill and placed in the Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek Lebanon.

even basic pig iron could be used, its not about hardness, its about exploiting weakness.

Its the same reason we can form and cut diamonds, we find the weakness and we exploit it, human ingenuity.

Cool video and impressive work on his part. I am still more of a believer in the sand cutting method for these types of projects in ancient times.

Sand Cutting

Vasa Croe
Cool video and impressive work on his part. I am still more of a believer in the sand cutting method for these types of projects in ancient times.

Sand Cutting

Yep, there are proven methods to cut stone.

in 100 year span, man went from no flight to the moon.

Put that same brain power on cutting stone, its not hard to grasp what could be achieved with some perspective.

reply to post by benrl


It's quite a leap from a crude cut of a stone (with metal/steel tools I might add) to pyramid building. That's like saying UFO's must be birds because they fly too. Very little logic here and too much of a leap for me.

NOTE: I don't recall anyone finding a single hammer or any tools at the pyramid sites.

I definitely agree human ingenuity is responsible for the megaliths of the world. However they did it.
I would like to know what he used to create the holes he put the spikes and spreaders into though. Also, I'd like to see this done with copper, considering the tools found in Egypt were made of copper from my understanding.

Although it is my opinion, just because we can do something one way now, doesn't mean that's how it was done back then. Vids like this still go a long way toward showing what can be done with thought and experimentation.

S&F.

Klassified
I definitely agree human ingenuity is responsible for the megaliths of the world. However they did it.
I would like to know what he used to create the holes he put the spikes and spreaders into though. Also, I'd like to see this done with copper, considering the tools found in Egypt were made of copper from my understanding.

Although it is my opinion, just because we can do something one way now, doesn't mean that's how it was done back then. Vids like this still go a long way toward showing what can be done with thought and experimentation.

S&F.

The holes would be pretty easy. The link I provided in my earlier post show how. They would use granite sand and a copper tube. Put the sand on top of the stone, put the tube on top of the sand and start spinning it. The sand will cut right into the stone then just snap off the center piece and voila....a hole.

Very interesting way of splitting the granite. However I agree with blackthorne. There is no evidence of the holes they would have made using this method or any similar method.

I do believe that humans created the pyramids and other megalithic structures found throughout the world. However I do not think that they were created during the time frame currently used as the mainstream would have us believe. I think that Humans have risen and fallen numerous times to be as advanced as (or more advances) our current civilization. I am not necessarily saying that previous civilizations had computers or cars or anything that we call advanced. They could have been more advanced in other fields that we cannot comprehend or do not believe to be possible. Maybe that is where myths and legends of "magic" are rooted. We will probably never know the truth about history beyond what is currently believed to be the timeline of human civilization. Even if previous global civilizations had things like cars and computers and skyscrapers there is a high possibility that these things would not be found today.

Lets say a previous civilization doesn't discover plastic (or is advanced enough to know that its harmful to the environment and destroys it all) All they use is concrete and metal to create their cities. One day there is no humans left. Ive read an article (cannot find it. will keep looking and post of i do) that estimates that concrete and metal structures would last 6000 years in the BEST CASE scenario. 6000 years is along time for numerous weather or geologic disasters to happen to strip away these structures to nothing. The only structures that could stand the test of time would be large stone structures that are not subject to a lot of climatic changes. for example the pyramids. hardly any rain for the last 10,000 - 13,000 years, was not subject to any ice ages.

I do not for one second believe that the great pyramid was built by Khufu. The argument that he built it based on one block with his name carved in it is very weak. Its not impossible but in my opinion he didn't have it built. I believe that the Egyptians stumbled across this large structure while they were nomadic and started building around them.

Don't get me wrong. I believe that the Egyptians were very good builders eventually. they created numerous temples and structures. The thing that most of them have in common however is that they were ordained with motifs and "signatures" of the rulers who had them built. This is not the case with the greatest structure in Egypt and that does not hold water with me.

I believe that we did build the pyramids. I do not believe it was using primitive methods and not by the Egyptians. In my opinion the pyramids are much too precise, on a block by block basis and also over such a large area that using primitive methods would not work. The pyramid is too large. if each block was off even a fraction of a percent then the whole project would have failed.

Still, a very interesting video.

blackthorne
very ingenious of him. but you miss one thing in these megaliths. no residual holes left in them.

Not just that but the precision and mammoth size of them!

When you had a ruling class performing wonders they didn't want to give away their secrets so they taught the subject population a 'manual' way for smaller mass objects.

reply to post by Vasa Croe

The holes would be pretty easy. The link I provided in my earlier post show how. They would use granite sand and a copper tube. Put the sand on top of the stone, put the tube on top of the sand and start spinning it. The sand will cut right into the stone then just snap off the center piece and voila....a hole.

Agreed.

I would like to know how the guy in the video did it though. He said they were using 19th century technology. I was just curious as to how he drilled his holes.

benrl

blackthorne
very ingenious of him. but you miss one thing in these megaliths. no residual holes left in them.

and you can tell that from the finished product?

This is just one method of cutting that humans have used, Sand and friction is another, the point in this is what one average sized person is capable of on his own.

The first step in a process that was refined over generations, whole civilizations effort, artisanry of a level Humanity has shown capable of at almost anything it trys its hand at.

edit on 23-10-2013 by benrl because: (no reason given)

Imo the refinement came after the collapse era occured when all the decent tech was either destroyed, hidden or stolen away.

Humanity had advanced so well earlier on it didn't need to be using manual techniques. They were a fall-back option for if their advanced stuff stopped working.

reply to post by crawdad1914


There is one thing wrong in what you said - In Baalbek, the Quarry is uphill, the temple is downhill. So rollers, and an understanding of Gravity & ingenuity helps!

blackthorne
very ingenious of him. but you miss one thing in these megaliths. no residual holes left in them.

Because they couldn't be ground off?


@OP

Good presentation. At one time, being a stonemason was a very nobel craft/trade... The current use of engineered equipment makes us all forget exactly what we could accomplish by hand in the past.

reply to post by benrl


There's little doubt that this was the way it was done for thousands of years but the thing that gets me is how did they manage to move such massive pieces of stone. Take for example the megaliths in Baalbek Baalbek Enigma. How could they move a stone that's 68 x 14 x 14 feet, weighing 1500 tonnes, lol.

How did this guy get a 26,000 slab of granite right outside his cabin? If he did that without the use of modern technology I would be really impressed. Interesting video none the less.

GEmersonBiggins
reply to post by benrl

 

It's quite a leap from a crude cut of a stone (with metal/steel tools I might add) to pyramid building. That's like saying UFO's must be birds because they fly too. Very little logic here and too much of a leap for me.

NOTE: I don't recall anyone finding a single hammer or any tools at the pyramid sites.

It is quite a leap isn't it.

Its almost as if there was this thing, that humans possessed that allowed them to learn quickly and build on the experiences of the past.

That must be how we went from kiddy hawk to the moon, Aliens.

Look im not saying this was the method, I am saying the human mind is powerful, and when directed can accomplish wonders that don't need mysterious entities or secret knowledge to solve.

What amazes me more than this video is that people are still falling for the "Mysteries of Egypt" dialog that seems to proliferate on a viral level with all things Egypt and tanget off from there to everything else megalithic.

1. We know the Egyptian language, can read it, and have a wealth of records they left, as well as copious scholarship in the results of entire armies of Historians and Archaeologists.

2. We have solid examples of the evolution of pyramid building as well as the learning curves, mistakes and engineering principles successful in Pharaoh Sneferu's 3 pyramids, (the first 3 pyramid attempts ever built) where we see the crumbled remains of the first failed attempt at Median, where then we get the bent pyramid (which was kinda successful as proof of concept) and then eventually the first "TRUE" pyramid with the successful completion of the Red Pyramid.

3. We know the Whos, the Wheres, the Whats, and Whens, and most of the Hows as well. We have their tools. We have the qarrries. We have the worker villages attached to sites. We even have worker graphitti surreptitiously carved into some stones, and in most cases the names of the architects, as well as their own tombs, who were in charge of and responsible for the engineering .

4. The OP video isn't the first to demonstrate some primitive alternatives to stone work. Moving and cutting megalithic stone isn't as difficult as many would have people think. Further, many of these bronze age megalithic sites come from cultures still familiar with stone age technology. A few hundred thousand years of experience in shaping precision stone tools using stone and bone should count for something, no?

There is very little by way of "mystery" or magical anything to megalithic building should anyone want to use the internet for what it was invented for and research the abundance of scholarship and academic resources online addressing these topics.

Then again, for some, the internet is cats.