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Ball bearings used to build Stonehenge

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Sanctuary S
Sanctuary Nov 23, 2010 11:24:06
Replying to nigelswift

nigelswift wrote:
. Durrington suggests there may have been zillions available and that would cast doubt on an awful lot of the experimental archaeology on the subject up to now IMO. Who needs efficiency or cleverness if you've got a hundred rugby teams?
Just to highlight your last comment Nigel and looking again at the whole thing in perspective, it really must have been just a hard slog otherwise surely if there had been a really easy way of shifting weights (not just stone) then it wouldn't have just been forgotten about as generation after generation would have continued in the same way until actual machinery took over. Why change a method if it worked for you and there was nothing better on offer?

T tiompan
tiompan Nov 23, 2010 11:36:20
Replying to Sanctuary

Sanctuary wrote:
nigelswift wrote:
. Durrington suggests there may have been zillions available and that would cast doubt on an awful lot of the experimental archaeology on the subject up to now IMO. Who needs efficiency or cleverness if you've got a hundred rugby teams?
Just to highlight your last comment Nigel and looking again at the whole thing in perspective, it really must have been just a hard slog otherwise surely if there had been a really easy way of shifting weights (not just stone) then it wouldn't have just been forgotten about as generation after generation would have continued in the same way until actual machinery took over. Why change a method if it worked for you and there was nothing better on offer?
There is a possibility that the skills involved in moving the bigger megaliths may have been been forgotten long before the historic period as there was little need for them .The age of the big megalithic monuments was followed by the introduction of the bijou monuments i.e. family sized stone circles or at least those comprising of much smaller megaliths . This change may also reflect the economics and politics of the huge numbers required if brute force was the key .