Stonehenge

[Gaius Octavius]

Maybe this is how they did it:

 

http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/po...ving_big_rocks/

[G-Manicus]

"We're sorry, but this video is no longer available."

[Gaius Octavius]

"We're sorry, but this video is no longer available."

 

It just worked for me. Try again.

Hope that no one else is having a problem.

[G-Manicus]

Here's what I get:

 

[Gaius Octavius]

I got it again!

 

http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/po...ving_big_rocks/

[Primus Pilus]

Truly excellent stuff. I vaguely remember reading about this guy in a local newspaper in the past couple of years. He's been at this for a considerable length of time.

 

Here's his home page.

[Moonlapse]

Wally Wallington is an excellent name.

[EP Healy]

This is great stuff. I've always been convinced that we over-complicate the construction of many of the monuments of the ancient world.

[Marcus Caelius]

Here's a review of his DVD that I posted here in September:

 

Private DVD About Ancient Construction

Not quite sure where to place this.

 

Anyway, I wanted to call attention to this website and DVD: http://www.theforgottentechnology.com/

 

Essentially, a retired carpenter in Flint, Michigan, has developed several simple machines and techniques that are allowing him, singlehandedly, to construct a half-scale (?) model of Stonehenge in his back yard, made out of 21,000-lb blocks of concrete. These techniques and machines very well could have been known by the ancients and, extrapolating from his own experience, would mean that the Great Pyramid could have been built by very few men over a comparatively short period of time; I *think* he says something like 500 men could have performed all the hoisting within 20 years.

 

In the process, he explodes several myths about ancient construction. For example, he illustrates how the well-known and modern 3-4-5 rule of modern carpentry used to square porches and walls (aka the Pythagorean Theorem) yields all the major elements of the Great Pyramid, all without reference to standard measurements, either ancient or modern. Between that and his practical on-camera demonstrations, he also renders ridiculous the New Age claims that the ancient Egyptians had extraterrestrial help in the construction; such assistance simply was not necessary, and neither was the many thousands of laborers posited by more conventional historians. Here's a hint: he uses special-purpose levers (which structurally look like prototypes for modern wrenches), and gravity, almost exclusively. Oh; he also uses pebbles and rocks to help move the larger blocks.

 

Unfortunately, Mr. Wallington, the carpenter involved, is not as skilled at web-page design or DVD production. The web site is not intuitive at all; you have to run your cursor over every photo and paragraph, clicking as you go, to find all the goodies. The DVD ($15) is both fascinating and frustrating. Sound reproduction is terrible with his live narration often drowned out by the wind, and the picture often freezes; on my copy, it even skips over an entire section showing how he raises upright columns (fortunately, this is a scene shown on the web site, so I already knew how he did it).

 

BTW, while viewing the web site, be sure to click on the "Forgotten Technology on Discovery" link. This is one of those hidden goodies I mentioned, and is perhaps the most important.

 

If Wallington can clean up the DVD, perhaps find at least a semi-professional producer/technician, this DVD belongs in every high school and college library. As is, despite the glitches, it is worth the $15 simply because his machinery is so simple and basic as to be unbelievably brilliant, and absolutely must be seen.

 

Here's a quote from the web site:

 

"I have found that ancient legends from around the world are true. Some megaliths could have been set in place by as few as one man. I could build The Great Pyramid of Giza, using my techniques and primitive tools. On a twenty-five year construction schedule, (working forty hours per week at fifty weeks per year, using the input of myself to calculate) I would need a crew of 520 people to move blocks from the main quarry to the site and another 100 to move the blocks on site. For hoisting I need a crew of 120 (40 working and 80 rotating). My crew can raise 7000 lb. 100 ft. per minute. I have found the design of the pyramid is functional in it

[caldrail]

Trouble is though, this guy is the only person in the world to have discovered these techniques in the last few thousand years? So why would we believe the egyptians or the stonehenge builders did anything similar? Truth is, he's an original thinker and very gifted in terms of physical mechanics. Plus, I suspect, his education in the modern world enabled him to take this next step.

 

Of course I could be wrong, and we're all dunces compared to those ancient master stone-manipulators.

 

How could we possibly know which is correct?

Edited December 9, 2007 by caldrail