Archaeologica.org

Someone knew how to carve and place 10 to 20 ton stone blocks

Cognito wrote:Although I tend not to follow Graham Hancock, his viewpoint on Gobekli Tepe has merit. We are hard pressed to believe the site was suddenly created from out of nowhere by a group of hunter gatherers.

Someone knew how to carve and place 10 to 20 ton stone blocks with one being up to 50 tons. That fact alone doesn't prove that there was an ancient, sophisticated civilisation, but it would be nice to know where the builders originated and where their precursor sites were located.

Being that this is a New World thread, I'll stick to cometary fragments at 12,800bp wiping out much of North America, but the debris field did stretch all the way to Turkey, correct? Good place to set up a monument to the heavens.

uniface wrote:

Someone knew how to carve and place 10 to 20 ton stone blocks

Or cast them.

Much more probable IMO, and supported by a growing body of pretty widely ignored evidence as the technology involved gets seriously investigated.

Cognito wrote:Although I tend not to follow Graham Hancock, his viewpoint on Gobekli Tepe has merit. We are hard pressed to believe the site was suddenly created from out of nowhere by a group of hunter gatherers.

Someone knew how to carve and place 10 to 20 ton stone blocks with one being up to 50 tons. That fact alone doesn't prove that there was an ancient, sophisticated civilisation, but it would be nice to know where the builders originated and where their precursor sites were located.

Being that this is a New World thread, I'll stick to cometary fragments at 12,800bp wiping out much of North America, but the debris field did stretch all the way to Turkey, correct? Good place to set up a monument to the heavens.

shawomet wrote:

Cognito wrote:Although I tend not to follow Graham Hancock, his viewpoint on Gobekli Tepe has merit. We are hard pressed to believe the site was suddenly created from out of nowhere by a group of hunter gatherers.

Someone knew how to carve and place 10 to 20 ton stone blocks with one being up to 50 tons. That fact alone doesn't prove that there was an ancient, sophisticated civilisation, but it would be nice to know where the builders originated and where their precursor sites were located.

Being that this is a New World thread, I'll stick to cometary fragments at 12,800bp wiping out much of North America, but the debris field did stretch all the way to Turkey, correct? Good place to set up a monument to the heavens.

I've read quite a bit and seen a few clips, but have not seen this documentary on Gobekli Tepe before. British National Geographic, just under 45 minutes. My apologies if not appropriate in the New World, but since the subject came up, I thought some might find this interesting. Have not watched it myself as yet.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1229752

Watched it, way too much speculative interpretation IMO. They did examine a monolith left at the quarry site, think they were quarried, not cast.

Geopolymer concrete was, to the Egyptians, a secret of great military importance . . . Using it, they were able to quickly and efficiently raise defensive fortresses with walls of any height and thickness. It was a building material of the majority of the grandiose structures of Egypt . . .

Joseph Davidovits has studied . . . this construction material . . . It turned out that the mud from the Nile River contains alumina, which is an important constituent component . . . Another component is sodium carbonate, which exists in large quantities in the Egyptian deserts and salt lakes. The rest of the components necessary for geopolymerization are in abundance.

Joseph Davidovits' proposals find convincing support. On the blocks that are located on the upper tiers of the pyramids are found the impressions of mats on their surfaces. This means that the builders made forms using mats and filled them with concrete. Simple and effective. No building technology is needed which is capable of locating large-tonnage blocks. One can make a block, for example of 500 tonnes, since it is only necessary to pour the concrete quickly, without interruption.

While studying examples of blocks, Joseph Davidovits discovered hairs in one of them. Three laboratories where he turned with a request to determine what it is answered ambiguously: "A small filament from three organic fibers, most likely hairs." The presence of hairs in natural limestone has been ruled out. Limestone was formed nearly 50 million years ago on the bottom of the ocean . . .

The reaction of the Egyptologists to Joseph Davidovits' discoveries was a curious one. In 1982, the well-known Egyptologist, Phillippe Lauer presented the chemist two examples of stones from the pyramids of Cheops and Teti and demanded evidence that they are artificial. As a result of chemical analysis in two different laboratories it was discovered unambiguously that the examples are made from artificial stone and are not fragments of natural rock. They contain chemicals which are not encountered in rock . . .

Geopolymer concrete allows unraveling also the numerous mysteries of the Egyptian stone articles which also are considered ancient. For example, stone amphora. They were made supposedly of diorite, one of the hardest of stones. Modern sculptors do not even try to use it. The Egyptian craftsmen, not having according to traditional views, anything besides copper chisels, nevertheless used it constantly. And achieved incredible results with it !

. . . There is direct evidence that many Egyptian statues were made from geopolymer concrete. The "unfinished head of the Queen Nefertiti," which has become a standard for feminine beauty for all time, is well known to everyone. It is considered that the sculpture was made from natural stone . . . But what do we see ? A seam goes along the line of symmetry of Nefertiti's head, along the middle of the forehead, through the tip of the nose and along the middle of the chin. Such a seam could have arisen only if the sculpture had been cast in a form made beforehand, It is done the same way today when mass-producing anything molded. That is, the form is created from two or more sectional parts, a liquid mass is poured inside, and when the mass hardens, the parts which comprise the mold are separated. Seams remain along the joints which are then ground down. The basic technology involved has not changed in many centuries.

. . . One more fact that is mysterious for the traditionalists. It is a question of the so-called Egyptian stone engraving. The engraving possesses truly unbelievable properties. While studying it, Joseph Davidivits discovered that the instrument with the aid of which the inscriptions were made supposedly went into the stone so assuredly that it left no chips and no burrs. The bottom of the inscriptions is completely even and smooth, without traces of the cutting edge of the instruments. And the grains of the granite were not destroyed ! But this result cannot be duplicated today even if one cuts the inscriptions with an extra-hard cutting tool.

In fact, there are no mysteries here. The inscriptions were not carved, but embossed in the still soft geopolymer concrete. Therefore, hard specks that were encountered simply were pressed into the soft mass without any damage.