OgreMkV
Posts: 3668
Joined: Oct. 2009
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| Quote (afarensis @ Mar. 09 2012,11:35) | Okay I can't resist this.
An archaeological team from the University of Pennsylvania used the above boat, made of reeds, to move a 9 ton block of rock to Tiwanaku. You can read more about that here, but here is a longish bit:
| Quote | We sailed toward the town of Copacabana, an important pilgrimage site both today and during the pre-Columbian period. Previous geological analyses had indicated that the green andesite stones of Tiwanaku came from this volcanic peninsula that nearly divides Titicaca into two lakes. Around this peninsula one can also find piedras cansadas (“tired stones”) that had been abandoned in the past after having been roughly shaped and dragged to the shore. While our boat was under construction, we located an ideal stone on the outskirts of Copacabana,weighing more than 9 tons and measuring roughly 3 m by 1.3 m by 1 m—about the size of the celebrated Ponce monolith at Tiwanaku. This stone was perched on a steep incline about 20 m above a rocky shoreline. Over several days, 20 Aymara from the Isla del Sol filled the crevasses and troughs of the boulder field below the stone, creating a ramp leading to open water.
Using eucalyptus poles as levers to push and pry the stone and one very thick rope wrapped around it, a group ranging from 25 to 40 people moved the stone to the edge of the water in three days. We now moved the boat into place and anxiously wondered if, with one more push, our experiment would end ingloriously. Would the 9-ton stone tip our boat over, sink it, or even break through the boat? With the help of Bolivia’s navy, we rolled the stone off the ramp and into the boat. Everyone stood quietly for a moment, and then broke into a cheer when the boat held. |
After some sailing they reach their destination:
| Quote | | Our destination was the hamlet of Santa Rosa on the Taraco peninsula, the shore closest to Tiwanaku where archaeological evidence indicates the stones were offloaded. A 13 m wide canal dating from the Colonial period (if not earlier) allowed us to sail directly into the shelter of its banks. Soon after we arrived, the town’s leaders came to greet us. They were enthusiastic and hospitable. They placed a bridge of eucalyptus between the boat and the bank of the canal, drew ropes around the stone, positioned levers, and lubricated the bridge with water. With about 50 people—men,women, and children—they rolled the stone off the boat and moved it 60 m up the bank in less than an hour with no organization from our team. |
Examing the results of this experiment the researchers conclude:
| Quote | | The most surprising aspect about this project was how feasible it had been. The raw material, the totora, grows in huge and sustainable quantities along the lake’s edge. There were stretches of hard work, but it was accomplished for the most part in a rather tranquil manner by a single Aymara extended family. Large groups of people were needed only for short and rather festive efforts. During the voyage, we were frustrated at times by the currents and winds, and sometimes even afraid. But now that we had the method down and understood more about the lake, we could probably transport hundreds of tons of stone in a season before the boat gave out. All that would be required is the ability to organize and motivate different groups of people. That aspect, organizing diverse communities across 90 km of shoreline and open water, was our biggest challenge.We initially found this to be very frustrating and an obstacle to our pursuit of science and truth, but this is where the greatest insight from this project lays. |
* Legal Disclaimer: No space aliens, real or otherwise, were harmed during the course of this experiment.
Edit to fix some formatting issues in the quotes. |
Well that's how it COULD have happened, but where you there!11!!?!?!?/11?1/?1/1
(actually, very interesting, I see some interesting work in this)
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Ignored by those who can't provide evidence for their claims.
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