Stonehenge 181
Image by markeystone
Stonehenge

Stone shifting 5

Steve Gray S
Steve Gray Sep 17, 2003 08:46:34
Replying to nigelswift

I said difficult, not impossible. Given that the rowers have to move their levers fore and aft as well as up and down, the gap in the rowers needs to be quite large. We have a 32 foot stone being rowed by 40 people (20 each side). So for normal rowing each person will have 1.6 feet in which to operate. Leaving a sizeable gap may produce some congestion. I suppose we could always use only 10 levers per side and 2 people per lever to solve the congestion problem. Or alternatively set the fulcrum logs closer so that fewer people are needed, and accept a slower rate of progress for a short while.

N nigelswift
nigelswift Sep 17, 2003 09:16:07
Replying to Steve Gray

I'm glad this has come up.
We can do a specific demonstration of the point, and photograph it.
4 experiments for the price of one now!

I've been thinking of others, involving simply the way we present things, rather than much extra work, e.g.

1.) A small stone can represent a Bluestone recreation, not practice with a small sarsen.
2.) Practicing putting stones upright can be the recreation of the erection of a standing stone.
3.) Although we may not be able to do much where the big stones are, we can put smaller stones through their paces on different terrains that would have been encountered on the journey to Stonehenge e.g. smooth, rough, up, down, fords. It is often said that it would have taken 600 people to get the large sarsen up the big hill (forget the name) between Avebury and Stonehenge. If we can find it’s gradient and take a ten tonner up such a slope using a small team we’ll have proved our point.

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