MSF <foster...@protonmail.com> wrote: This is one of my favorite subjects. Not Hutchison, but speculation about > how the ancients were able to cut and transport those huge blocks of stone.
Conventional techniques, I believe. Long ago I saw a video with a large group of enthusiasts in England. They had a gigantic concrete block the size of a stonehenge stone. They hauled it a good distance using cut logs as rollers. Then they dug a hole and erected it. I don't recall if they put another stone across the top. I don't think so. That would have cost a lot. But they demonstrated various techniques that would have accomplished that. They used wood, ropes, and other manual equipment. They wanted to raise a large mound of dirt at one point, but safety standards forbid that, so they used modern scaffolding in the shape of a dirt mound. They had to experiment with various ways to use human power, and wooden levers, and they had to consult with engineers to keep from crushing someone by accident. So it was not a pure recreation of 5,000 year old techniques. But it demonstrated how those techniques might have worked. I do not know how people cut stones 5,000 years ago, but they did in England, Central America and elsewhere.
