Technologies for erecting huge temples and moving boulders

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

For more than one millennium, people have been interested in the question of how, after all, the ancient people, who had only the simplest equipment, managed to move boulders over a huge distance, and then erect magnificent buildings from them. What fantastic and even ridiculous versions were not invented by scientists and builders. And finally, they were able to identify. More details later in our review.

Scientists claim that they have finally learned how ancient people managed to move boulders and build huge temples.

Researchers of antiquity have been trying for centuries to unravel the mystery of how ancient civilizations were able to build incredible structures without the use of heavy construction equipment. Especially when you consider that some operations and manipulations with stone blocks of such gigantic dimensions are beyond the reach of even modern builders. What versions have not been put forward by the researchers of antiquities, but few have advanced beyond fantasies about aliens, the help of the gods and any such nonsense. More reasonable assumptions are among modern scientists, who empirically began to look for answers to questions.

Recently Cambridge Matter Design LaboratoryTogether with CEMEX, at TED 2019 in Vancouver, she demonstrated how easily a person can move concrete blocks up to 25 tons. It's hard to believe, but they clearly showed how ancient civilizations could use this particular method in the construction of magnificent temples.

Remarkable: Matter Design is a research lab and design studio rolled into one that uses alternative ways of thinking to bring the most incredible hypotheses to life. The team of professionals and consultants with whom the laboratory cooperates specializes in the identification of ancient knowledge and the development of computational and design methods, while translating forgotten technologies into a modern digital channel, fully or partially introducing them into life. Led by lab founders Brandon Clifford, Johanna Lobdell and Wes McGee, the team collaborates with industry partners, historians, artists, composers, and other creatives.

At the presentation of the prototype, ordinary people, without much effort and any equipment, were able to install a monolithic structure from concrete elements that have a rather impressive weight. Of course, these were not natural stones, but specially molded parts, but this did not make the weight less. To test their theory about the ancient method of moving multi-ton stones, modern specialists took as much as 5 years to create prototypes, until they managed to reveal the secret of ancient architects and engineers-scientists (they cannot be called otherwise!).

As it turned out, the whole trick lies in the fact that the ancient builders were able to balance the center of gravity, thanks to which it was possible to ensure stability when moving. It was this trick that made it possible to roll blocks without much effort over long distances and even into hard-to-reach places. To test this hypothesis, the researchers created massive structures using concrete of different densities, which had rounded edges and special indentations for installing a handle to facilitate movement.

Of course, such a movement required meticulous preparatory work, because it was necessary to balance the center of gravity in the block and round off the edges manually, and the holes or protrusions that can be observed on some of the surviving copies of ancient masonry were also made by craftsmen without special machines. But after these manipulations, a stone of any size and weight could be moved even to the most inaccessible places. Putting such huge puzzles into a monolithic structure is very painstaking work and takes a lot of time, but this technology is much easier than using brute force to pull heavy stones for long distances.

According to the editorial office of Novate. Ru, archaeologist Alessandro Pirattini (Ph. D. La Sapienza University in Rome), based on the American University of Notre Dame du Lac, conducted research on the technical aspects of ancient Greek temple architecture. For several years he studied the construction of the first stone temples in Greece. Thanks to this, he accumulated extensive experience with archaeological materials and was able to show by example how the ancient Greeks (they are considered the pioneers in this matter) managed to lift massive stone blocks from quarries and build huge temples from them.

Researchers for many decades believed that the ancient Greeks first made earthen embankments and laid logs, and then moved stones along a slope. And after the completion of construction, these structures were dismantled. But Alessandro Pierattin refuted these assumptions, based on a careful study of all the grooves and grooves in the stones that have survived to this day.

According to the archaeologist, ancient builders inserted ropes into specially created recesses, which were made parallel to each other, and with the help of winches raised them to the right place, and then, using wooden rollers and levers, the slabs were easily laid tightly to each other. After installation and careful adjustment of the blocks, the ropes were simply pulled out.

These statements are based on the experiments carried out, during which the simplest devices were created and the mechanism for lifting and laying stone blocks up to 400 kg was worked out (the ropes of that time could not withstand more weight). Pirattini believes that this technology was first used in Isthmia and Corinth in the middle of the 7th century. BC, and these primitive systems can be safely considered innovative technologies of those times.

Despite the fact that many of the ancient architectural monuments are already practically in ruins, this does not in any way implore their significance, but on the contrary, even more attracts millions of tourists to see with their own eyes what our ancestors created.