Very interesting, though I'll note he doesn't address how to get the blocks on top, which to me is the most impressive part. I guess he could just use the same technique he used to get that block 3 feet high... it's just a lot more time-consuming and dangerous ;)
Wow. That could work. Just a few guys could put it together with those techniques. The hardest part would then be getting the quarried stone there. Now everything I read in National Geographic as a kid seems suspect...
Or, perhaps he could pile up dirt around two of the standing blocks until they're almost buried, and then the problem becomes getting the third block up the hill.
Or perhaps he could lay out the top block on the ground next to the two standing blocks, use his lifting technique with the boards, pause from time to time to fill in supporting dirt underneath so that he himself can climb the hill until the top block can just be slid sideways to rest on the tops of the standing blocks.
Or he could have started by building a hill and then digging really deep pits to drop the standing blocks into.
In all cases, he'd then have to cart away the dirt after it had acted as a temporary scaffold.
Even if he didn't get all the details exactly right, it's a pretty clear demonstration that it's entirely within the realm of plausibility for the ancient Celts to have been able to move the stones and set them up with the resources that would have been available to them.
(It's been a long time since I studied the literature, but I recall that in some of the early Arthurian chronicles, the moving of the stones is credited to Merlin, and one of the stories (Wace or Layamon, I think) describes it clearly as a large engineering project, not magic.)
The Coral Castle in Florida is another massive stone structure built "mysteriously" by one man using levers and pulleys. Quite a beautiful piece of work, and a terribly sad life story.
Coooooooooooool!! :-)
Stonehenge is passe. You can always visit Carhenge in Nebraska. There's also Strawhenge, Woodhenge, and Seahenge if you're feeling really adventurous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carhenge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge_replicas_and_derivatives#cite_n…
Very interesting, though I'll note he doesn't address how to get the blocks on top, which to me is the most impressive part. I guess he could just use the same technique he used to get that block 3 feet high... it's just a lot more time-consuming and dangerous ;)
Wow. That could work. Just a few guys could put it together with those techniques. The hardest part would then be getting the quarried stone there. Now everything I read in National Geographic as a kid seems suspect...
Wow and cool--I love the ingenuity and the fact that he has taken this on as an investigative project, come up with these solutions and tested them.
Colin M,
Or, perhaps he could pile up dirt around two of the standing blocks until they're almost buried, and then the problem becomes getting the third block up the hill.
Or perhaps he could lay out the top block on the ground next to the two standing blocks, use his lifting technique with the boards, pause from time to time to fill in supporting dirt underneath so that he himself can climb the hill until the top block can just be slid sideways to rest on the tops of the standing blocks.
Or he could have started by building a hill and then digging really deep pits to drop the standing blocks into.
In all cases, he'd then have to cart away the dirt after it had acted as a temporary scaffold.
That's an amazingly simple solution... so, what were the aliens doing if they weren't needed to levitate the blocks?
:)
Even if he didn't get all the details exactly right, it's a pretty clear demonstration that it's entirely within the realm of plausibility for the ancient Celts to have been able to move the stones and set them up with the resources that would have been available to them.
(It's been a long time since I studied the literature, but I recall that in some of the early Arthurian chronicles, the moving of the stones is credited to Merlin, and one of the stories (Wace or Layamon, I think) describes it clearly as a large engineering project, not magic.)
That's a fairly old video--any update?
The Coral Castle in Florida is another massive stone structure built "mysteriously" by one man using levers and pulleys. Quite a beautiful piece of work, and a terribly sad life story.
"There's also Strawhenge, Woodhenge, and Seahenge ..."
I'm thinking of starting on hinge henge. Has anyone done that yet...?
That's cool Pyre. I'll have to stop in the next time I go to the Keys