Posted on 05/05/2018 8:26:52 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Nicholas Blackwell and his father went to a hardware store about three years ago seeking parts for a mystery device from the past. They carefully selected wood and other materials to assemble a stonecutting pendulum that, if Blackwell is right, resembles contraptions once used to build majestic Bronze Age palaces.
With no ancient drawings or blueprints of the tool for guidance, the two men relied on their combined knowledge of archaeology and construction.
Blackwell, an archaeologist at Indiana University Bloomington, had the necessary Bronze Age background. His father, George, brought construction cred to the project...
No one alive today has seen an actual Bronze Age pendulum saw. No frameworks or blades have been excavated. Yet archaeologists have suspected for nearly 30 years that a contraption capable of swinging a sharp piece of metal back and forth with human guidance must have created curved incisions on large pieces of stonework from Greece's Mycenaean civilization. These distinctive cuts appeared during a century of palace construction, from nearly 3,300 years ago until the ancient Greek society collapsed along with a handful of other Bronze Age civilizations...
In Blackwell's view, only one tool -- a pendulum saw -- could have harnessed enough speed and power to slice through the especially tough type of rock that Mycenaeans used for pillars, gateways and thresholds in palaces and some large tombs.
Kings at the time valued this especially hard rock, known as conglomerate, for the look of its mineral and rock fragments, which form colorful circular and angled shapes.
In the early 20th century, archaeologists excavating a Mycenaean hill fort called Tiryns first noticed curved cut marks on the sides of pillar bases and other parts of a royal palace.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
HEAVE HO | Archaeologist Nicholas Blackwell, left, and his brother-in-law Brandon Synan demonstrate how to use a rope to operate a pendulum saw. They tested the rock-cutting device on a piece of limestone in the Virginia backyard of Blackwell's father, who was instrumental in designing and building the contraption. | N. Blackwell/Antiquity 2018 | Watch a pendulum saw in action | Science News | YouTube
Cool! Thanks for posting.
Ping.
Here’s a really GREAT article about how the huge stones for the pyramids were transported to the building sites. (And no, it wasn’t aliens)
https://claudemariottini.com/2017/09/25/how-the-pyramid-of-giza-was-built/
Better have plenty of time on your hands.
The Egyptians said screw it. We’ll just use softer rock.
Good Ole Boys!
Could the Incas also designed such a thing to make their precise cuts in stone?
Or plenty of cheap labor
Very interesting!
Thanks for the ping. Very interesting design. Looks like it would work.
“That’s OK,” said the slave, “I didn’t have plans for tonight, anyway.”
Maybe they didnt transport the large blocks of stone but instead built the pyramid down there then moved it to its spot. This would make building it easier and only invest moving the stones a single time.
The Egyptians worked granite and diorite like it was Play-Doh.
Mycenaean civilization have always interested me. Both fascinating and mysterious.
Another thing is all those islands, hundreds of miles from anywhere which were settled before there were supposed to be ocean going vessels.
What type of metal blade. Bronze is too weak to do the job.
Limestone is nothing to cut or chisel away.
Whoa! How awesome is that?
:o]
From the look of the blade, they removed as much bronze as they did limestone.
American indians drilled holes through everything from slate to tough conglomerate with river cane, which contains silica. Once you get started, the debris in the grooves acts as grit to improve the sped of the cutting. It’s how they prepared atlatl weights for hafting on atlatls, etc.
To saw conglomerate rather than drill it, one may just need grit to pour into the path of the swinging blade, which would not need to be any harder than bamboo.
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