Primitive engineering

[lederhosen]

This is pretty cool: guy demonstrates how to lift and position massive stone blocks singlehandedly with very simple techniques. He claims that these techniques "must have" been how Stonehenge was built; I'm not convinced of that, but they'd certainly be enough to do it.

Comments

[usekh.livejournal.com]

Very impressive. I wonder though how he plans to get the crosspieces across the top.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

Move enough earth to make a ramp, then slide it on up. That, or use the same technique he used to get that block 3 ft in the air while horizontal, only more so, and slide it over when it gets high enough.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

There are a couple of different ways it might be done. My preference would be to elevate the crosspiece a couple of feet above its final height, position the uprights, and then lower the crosspiece again.

Getting the last few bits of wood out for the final inches might be tricky, but if all else fails, fire would do the trick.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Now I think of it, an easier way to deal with the last few inches: dig out the dirt under the wooden structure (or just wash it out, or soften with a bit of water) and that should shift the weight to the supports, making it easy to remove the rest of the wood.