Ancient methods of dealing with Granite

Thought i might as well continue to ask the ATS community more questions about "our" ancient past...

One that was brought up in my previous thread... How did they manage to mold and shape granite... to my surprise flint can actually be used to cut granite...



This is amazing... and props to Harte for pointing that out.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I honestly had no idea... and this lady also made a granite pot which is incredible... took her 6 months but regardless that is amazing!!

Except theres still a problem... has anyone heard of the Aswan Quarry?

In this video you can have a look at our issue.... an unfinished Obelisk has been sitting there for who knows thousands of years which pretty much shows how they somehow carved out huge granite stones for their masonry...

Apparently the mainstream idea is.... grab a rock and start pounding...

But... what are those scoop marks all around the area?



Almost looks like said granite was very soft way back then... but IF thats the case how would these blocks stay together with all the "pounding"

And we're still faced with the problem of moving something that weighs some 1200 tons...

IF they ever managed to finish the "unfinished obelisk"

Lets see where this goes

NO way they did it that way the 2nd video is correct. For one how would they get the bottom cut away to pull it up with that technique? Then there is the fact that the method that looked to get the corner seemed would be a more than a week of working 8 hour days to get that 4' by 4" corner. That doesn't even get into how to lift most of them.

Moving the stones I have no idea. Granites are beautiful but back busting. The other part, about not being able to fit so much as a piece of paper between the joints?

I do know as some granites weather in place the outer edges "can" sort of meld together over time. The pressure is one factor but just as importantly weathering can cause some stone to granulate and almost seep together.
Hope I'm explaining this correctly?

Yard granite I got from New Hampshire has stayed crisp and from weathering only darkened. Red Granite from the Canadian Shield has had a bit of crumbling but no darkening. So I'm thinking that if the outer joints of some of these monuments were cleaned up we'd find the joints aren't quite as exact as we think they are.

I remembered reading about this stone softening plant in the Amazon.


ancientexplorermagazine.wordpress.com...

originally posted by: Caver78
Moving the stones I have no idea. Granites are beautiful but back busting. The other part, about not being able to fit so much as a piece of paper between the joints?

I do know as some granites weather in place the outer edges "can" sort of meld together over time. The pressure is one factor but just as importantly weathering can cause some stone to granulate and almost seep together.
Hope I'm explaining this correctly?

Yard granite I got from New Hampshire has stayed crisp and from weathering only darkened. Red Granite from the Canadian Shield has had a bit of crumbling but no darkening. So I'm thinking that if the outer joints of some of these monuments were cleaned up we'd find the joints aren't quite as exact as we think they are.

Take a look at my previous thread that i linked... in the OP you'll find a picture of how precise these cuts are

You can barely see where one block meets the other

a reply to: Akragon

Amazing!

Wow. I mean seeing that answers so much.

a reply to: Akragon

Why wouldn’t they use silicon carbide? That would be easier to cut granite with. Flint would be to brittle and wouldn’t last very long.

a reply to: Akragon

to my surprise flint can actually be used to cut granite...

Yes it can...barely. You need a huge supply of flint though, because it constantly slivers and crumbles. You can see it happening in the video. Notice they don't say how much flint she went through, or how long it took, just to shape that corner.

a reply to: mcsnacks77

The only way to make smooth cuts is with silicon carbide. That’s what you use when cutting tile. Flint would cause to much heat from it being a slower cut and thus damage the granite. Not to mention the extreme wear and tear on the cutting tool.
The Egyptians probably would have built a pulley and carriage stone cutting system to cut granite and limestone using carbide cutting wheels.

a reply to: Klassified

i agree... but i admit i was surprised that it worked at all

Though using that method for huge projects is highly unlikely... which i linked in my other thread



how many hundreds of years do you think it would take to carve that using flint and hammer... not to mention the fact that the inside is laser precision, even right into the corners... and smooth as glass

Might be a ancient solution to some things... but hardly for most

a reply to: Akragon

If you aren't familiar with the Kailasa temple, you are in for a treat. Carved from one single basalt rock face, allegedly from the top down. Check out the video. He explains it better than I can.

a reply to: Akragon

There’s an ancient solution to everything. Things NASA is just starting to figure out. Anything we can make now they could make then. The elements available haven’t changed.
Even scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the University of Rochester are taking a critical look at the scientific evidence that ours is the only advanced civilization ever to have existed on our planet.
If humans went extinct today, any future civilization that might arise on Earth thousands of years from now might find it hard to recognize traces of human civilization. By the same token, if some earlier civilization existed on Earth thousands of years ago, we might have trouble finding evidence of it.

a reply to: mcsnacks77

well clearly there must be a solution... its all there in front of us...

unfortunately we haven't the slightest clue what it is

a reply to: Akragon

The ancient Egyptians had working light bulbs achieved by what is called “Crookes tubes”. This has been proven but still people won’t accept it.

a reply to: Akragon

All i am going to say is that i know an artist who has his pieces all over the world, granite and marble statues and sculptures, they look like stone, they are stone, but is there cutting,chiseling and sanding involved?

Well yes, but only for the finishing touches.

They are cast.

Just like in ancient times.

I used a diamond pick axe.

But to get one, you need an iron pick axe first.

And to get that, a stone pick axe.

And firstly, a wooden pick axe.

Creative mode is easiest, those pesky ancients knew all the hacks...

I suppose the ancient Egyptians would be as amused at modern American tourists trying to pound granite as the same Americans would be of cargo cult members constructing "airplanes" out of sticks so that cargo might arrive.

The scoop marks look as casual as the marks left after scooping ice cream. I have seen them in photos of building stones in places other than Egypt.

BTW, any thread such as this should mention Christopher Dunn.

originally posted by: Justoneman
NO way they did it that way the 2nd video is correct. For one how would they get the bottom cut away to pull it up with that technique? Then there is the fact that the method that looked to get the corner seemed would be a more than a week of working 8 hour days to get that 4' by 4" corner. That doesn't even get into how to lift most of them.

They undercut it just like they did on Easter Island leaving a smaller spine of stone that is cracked by pressure using wooden levers



They would then bash out a gentle ramp to draw it out. In some cases unlike the Moai they would bring it onto a wooden sledge

You seemed to b obsessed with how long it would take and it would require hard labour.

Yep it would. How long did it take for Europeans to make the thousands of Cathedrals they built?

Centuries - some are STILL not finished

St Peter's took almost a century.

How long did it take Michelangelo to make David - and he had iron tools and helpers? Two and half YEARS

The ancient appear to have used large amounts of labour from people who grew up doing the task.

I've used pounders on Limestone, ballast and granite. Very hard labour but guess what - it works.

I think if we shed our thinking away from the limiting uniformitarian mindset we could find an easier rout to the answers.

Uniformitarianism: a geologic doctrine that processes acting in the same manner as at present and over long spans of time are sufficient to account for all current geological features and all past geological changes.

Catastrophism: a geologic doctrine that changes in the earth's crust have in the past been brought about suddenly by physical forces operating in ways that cannot be observed today.
Webster