Lost Technologies of the Pyramid Builders - Possible Evidence for Acoustic Engineering in Aswan

Mainstream science maintains there's nothing special about how the ancients quarried and shaped thousands of megalithic blocks all across the globe: it's the result of hard work, time, manpower and skill. But I'm not so sure if it's as simple as that, in fact I rather doubt it.

The aerial image below shows a part of the unfinished obelisk at the Aswan quarry in Egypt. It kind of illustrates the whole dilemma that me and others are running into when thinking about which tools the pyramid builders used to extract and shape massive amounts of granite for their megalithic monuments.



Egyptologists tell us that round dolorite balls were used to pound those distinct patterns into the granite. Many workers in a row would pound away for weeks and months to achieve the result we see today. But does that explain the rectangular patterns we see on the obelisk? I don't think so, since said pounding technique would easily allow for creating flat surfaces without leaving these bevelled edges behind.

But the pattern itself is not unfamiliar to us. It emerges naturally under certain circumstances, eg. when frequencies and vibrations create interference patterns in the sand at beaches or in the desert:


A similar effect occurs when substances oscillate on a so-called "Chladni" plate:


When causing a metal plate covered with sand to vibrate at a certain frequency, specific patterns start to emerge and the grains of sand settle in regions where the particular frequency causes the least motion on the plate. Ernst Chladni was a German physicist and musician who did various experiments with sound, vibration and resonance in the 18th century and the so-called Chladni figures (patterns) have subsequently been named after him.

Chadni-plate demonstration: As mentioned above, at points where there is no motion or vibration are called "nodes" and sand would settle in places where the value of the vertical axis is "0", as shown in the diagram below.



Standing Waves, Interference Patterns and "Sound Dunes"
When looking at the various marks and patterns left behind in the area in and around the unfinished obelisk, there seems to be a strong resemblance to vibration patterns caused by specific frequencies. Again: why would dolorite balls be used to carve into the granite but then the workers leave behind regular bevelled edges? Perhaps we can instead assume that an unknown tool (or method) created these distinct patterns as a natural result of its application? Something that has to do with frequencies, vibration and resonance? I admit this sounds a bit odd since it would require that the method temporarily turned the top layer of stone into a soft and clay like substance (as might have been the case for the Inca walls in Peru as well). But IMO the similarity to the above mentioned vibration patterns might justify a second thought.

Another question would be: why did the ancient stone masons and workers proceed in parallel sections starting from the adjacent plateau (1) down to the trough (2) all the way across to the top of the obelisk (3). There's no obvious reason to proceed like that when pounding, unless you have a method or device that creates these features as a by-product so to speak.

Too far fetched? Maybe, but the stone pounding theory isn't too convincing for me and I would love to see images of other contemporary quarries showing similar marks. But of course all this is up for debate, so have at it ATS!

@Mods: Feel free to move this into ATS Skunk Works if more appropriate.



SOURCES AND LINKS:
------------------------------------------
01. Image gallery & article about Aswan quarry
02. More information about Ernst Chladni
03. Interference patterns (Wikipedia)
04. Earlier ATS thread about Aswan Quarry
05. Chladni Figures (YouTube)
06. Theory of patterns formed on Chladni plates
07. Blog entry about "sound dunes"
08. Further images of unfinished obelisk and Aswan quarry

This is a very interesting correlation.

Hope you've got your big girl britches on. You're about ready to be pounded with "science fact".

a reply to: jeep3r

I thought it was already decided here on ATS that the Pyramids were built using acoustics........?

a reply to: lostbook

We, as a body on an internet forum, make such decisions?


That notion is just plain silly. Especially when those who oppose worthwhile thought club you with "the truth".

originally posted by: FHomerK
That notion is just plain silly. Especially when those who oppose worthwhile thought club you with "the truth".

Yes isn't it awful that you the credulous are reduced to slagging them off because you consistently
1, haven't studied the culture at a single academic source, just Hancock, Childress and Sitchin
2, Don't have any credible evidence to support your fantasies
3, Don't understand that you are the fundamentalists here believing in things with no support, we actually fact check
4, don't understand the basic principles of Archeology
5, Require the greatest global conspiracy of all time to have been successfully pulled off to explain why there's no evidence.


This

originally posted by: lostbook
This is not to say that it is a fact as decided in a public internet forum but just a understood belief among conspiracy theorists.

and yes I know, Time travel right ?

originally posted by: FHomerK
a reply to: lostbook

We, as a body on an internet forum, make such decisions?


That notion is just plain silly. Especially when those who oppose worthwhile thought club you with "the truth".

I know this is a public forum but I remember past threads on this same subject where the consensus was that acoustics were used. This is not to say that it is a fact as decided in a public internet forum but just a understood belief among conspiracy theorists.

a reply to: jeep3r

Levitation By Sound



Soundwaves That Can Shatter Walls | Ancient Aliens: Walls Of Jericho

originally posted by: FHomerK
This is a very interesting correlation.

Hope you've got your big girl britches on. You're about ready to be pounded with "science fact".

There will be an onslaught as usual and I'll probably get some smacks in the face, but oh well. I felt that I needed to get it out there because the stone pounding theory just doesnt "resonate" with me (pun intended).

The pyramids were built by Neanderthals, possibly with the use of mammoths.

a reply to: lostbook

Fair enough.

But, there are new folks here. And this is a good way for those new folk to learn.

originally posted by: Marduk

originally posted by: FHomerK
That notion is just plain silly. Especially when those who oppose worthwhile thought club you with "the truth".

Yes isn't it awful that you the credulous are reduced to slagging them off because you consistently
1, haven't studied the culture at a single academic source, just Hancock, Childress and Sitchin
2, Don't have any credible evidence to support your fantasies
3, Don't understand that you are the fundamentalists here believing in things with no support, we actually fact check
4, don't understand the basic principles of Archeology
5, Require the greatest global conspiracy of all time to have been successfully pulled off to explain why there's no evidence.

This

originally posted by: lostbook
This is not to say that it is a fact as decided in a public internet forum but just a understood belief among conspiracy theorists.

and yes I know, Time travel right ?

Pal, I didn't say I believed it. I said it was an interesting correlation.

And then I questioned those who club you over the head with "facts" that were fed to you every time Pavlov rang the bell for you.

That's it. That's all I said

a reply to: jeep3r

It matches your vibrational patterns much less than it matches a checkerboard.
So they must have used checkers to quarry granite.

Harte

a reply to: Harte

Which is a pretty good analogy as well, for 2 dimensions. To get the nice bevel effect in 3 dimensions (based on this highly speculative conjecture) one of course needs oscillation/vibration ...

originally posted by: rounda
The pyramids were built by Neanderthals, possibly with the use of mammoths.

You should stop leaking Top Secret information, only the agency can keep real history. It's for the good of the people.

The Pyramids were never built by anyone, imagine sandbox virtual reality game with the environment already set out before the stupid humanoids spawned into it. Same as Dinosaur bones and every other anomaly science can't explain The Earth could of been flat back in V0.1b but now its not and the Master Coder is none too happy with us right now.

originally posted by: jeep3r
I felt that I needed to get it out there because the stone pounding theory just doesnt "resonate" with me (pun intended).

what was it about the phrase

a profusion of hand sized dolerite balls that littered the quarry floor

That made you immediately jump to the conclusion that they were just there for decorative purposes, or something

and more to the point, why did the Ancient Egyptians draw pictures of themselves using them in tombs

Representation of teams of sculptors at work on a sphinx and a large stone altar. Some appear to be doing heavy work with round pounders/mauls, others are using polishing stones with an abrasive, from the tomb chapel of the vizier Rekhmire' at Thebes, 18th Dynasty (after Ruffle 1977, Clark & Engelbach 1930).

18TH dynasty is the same dynasty responsible for the unfinished Obelisk this thread is based on...




So the Egyptians were in on the global archaeology conspiracy as well ?
or there's a much more obvious reason for dolerite pounders littering the quarry floor around the obelisk which has rounded dents all over it

a reply to: Marduk

I'm not disputing that AE's were using stone balls to shape some of their artwork, but did they create those particular patterns in Aswan with diorite balls? I'm not so sure and one would think they'd have pounded away those edges, for sure.

Creating those squar'ish patterns via pounding alone would require doing it in the same spot by each worker. But that doesn't really make sense IMO if you can get rid of the bevelled edges in the same process without much extra effort. That would probably also make it easier to do the finer work and polishing of the surface afterwards.

originally posted by: jeep3r
Creating those squar'ish patterns via pounding alone would require doing it in the same spot by each worker. .

aaaaaaand humans are not known to work well together in teams, obviously that's why all the quarry workers were in teams then throughout Egyptian history, because it was much more inefficient that way...

But hey, do you have any evidence that they were carved acoustically, apart from your brilliant as demonstrated in this thread "intuition", you know any real evidence that doesn't require anyone with any common sense to ignore whats staring them in the face. Like why were the dolerite pounders "littering" the floor around the obelisk, can you at least explain that ?


lol I would say this thread is so bizarre that you couldn't make it up, but Jeep3r, you have apparently made it up, you should get a job with Disney...

a reply to: jeep3r
Interesting enough, though one would imagine it taking an awfully large device consuming an awfully large amount of power to generate such huge designs... and would they not be the same size as in the Chladni experiment waves?

Another explanation for the markings on the adjacent plateau could be that the obelisk was to be carved there, but some issue caused them to have to move over, negating many months of work. Who knows? But Marduk is correct, there is proof that dolerite pounders in use. Nevertheless, I do believe there was a legend that Khufu required help from the priesthood (read: scientists) to construct the pyramids....