Posted on 05/31/2016 4:33:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The Preseli stones from Stonehenge are approximately double the weight as the experimental block, but it is possible that one huge stone could have been brought by a group of just 20 people. The community living in the area during the Neolithic would have numbered several thousand so the absence of just a few dozen people was unlikely to cause any hardship.
Doctoral student Barney Harris, who conducted the trial in Gordon Square, London, a stone's throw from UCL's Institute of Archaeology, said he was surprised that so few people had been required to move the block.
"We were expecting to need at least 15 people to move the stone so to find we could do it with 10 was quite interesting," said Mr Harris.
"It's true that we did the experiment on flat ground, and there would have been steep slopes to navigate when going through the Preseli Mountains, but actually this kind of system works well on rough terrain.
"We know that pre-industrialised societies like the Maram Naga in India still use this kind of sledge to construct huge stone monuments. And similar y-shaped sleighs have been found dating back to 2000BC in Japan which we know were used to move megaliths.
"The Chinese also used sleighs to build the Forbidden City and some of those blocks are 123 tonnes. So in comparison, these are blocks are quite small.
"Some people think they may have been pulled by oxen, but actually oxen are quite belligerent and difficult to control. This experiment shows that humans could have carried out the task fairly easily..."
Stonehenge was built during the Neolithic period, between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Ha!
Exactly. ‘Professor! We have done the math and an 18” megalith can be moved with mearly 10 people.”
On a scle of 1 to 11 that’s some pretty good scienting.
“Pile up the Dirt”
Very good suggestion.
The only slight snag is there is almost no dirt on that plateau, the grass only just holds on to life.
:)
You build earthen ramps
I don’t know of many archeologists who specialize in doing the heavy lifting themselves, so it’s easy for them to say.
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