o tempora, o mores
Everything as usual. Numerous fans alternative history they run around as if bitten and shout at all corners about "civilizations of the gods", unknown technologies of "ancient civilizations" and about the construction of pyramids by aliens. They watch films of von Deniken and Andrei Sklyarov with bated breath, discussing how some Incas, who owned only copper tools, processed giant stones and joined them together with filigree accuracy. Meanwhile, everything is extremely simple and uncomplicated.
As many history buffs know, in many ancient buildings, the so-called megalithic ones, the builders managed to fit stones to each other in such a way that even a piece of paper could not be inserted between them. Pairing is perfect. And not only that, as if mocking modern builders, ancient people managed in this way to customize not standard factory-made blocks, but stones of the strongest rocks with curvilinear surfaces, including. They built structures in this way without any cement, standing without damage in earthquake-prone regions of the planet. Well, to top it all off, this was done with a copper tool, which is much softer than the stone they process. Yes, and tossing stones weighing under a hundred tons, they also managed to easily.
Meanwhile, official science has long known the methods of building such structures. Anyone can verify this by reading the relevant literature. For example, the publication of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the book by Yuri Evgenievich Berezkin "Incas. historical experience Empire", which was published back in 1991. I must say right away that the respected Yuri Evgenievich Berezkin is not some laboratory assistant of the history department who knows nothing about the Incas. He is a professional historian, archaeologist, ethnographer, specialist in comparative mythology, history and archeology of ancient Western and Central Asia, as well as the history and ethnography of the Indians (especially South America). Head of the Department of America of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Professor at the Faculty of Ethnology at the European University at St. Petersburg. Doctor historical sciences.
Here is a quote from the above book:
It must be said that although the cyclopean buildings of the Incas are mentioned episodically in the "new" myths characteristic of our time (unknown highly developed technology, space aliens, etc.), these plots are especially widespread in this case have not received. All too well known are the quarries where the Incas cut the blocks, and the paths by which the stones were transported to the construction sites. Only stable the legend about
as if a needle cannot be inserted between the plates - they fit so tightly. Although there are really no gaps between the blocks now
, the reason here lies not in careful fitting, but only in natural deformation of the stone, which filled all the cracks over time
. Inca masonry as such is quite primitive: the blocks of the lower row were adjusted to fit the upper ones, acting by trial and error.
I will allow myself to cite a number of photographs typed in Yandex under the tag "polygonal masonry" as an illustration of the opinion of a respected scientist
As they say: "May Vitzliputzli and Quetzalcoatl save us from the representatives of pseudoscience." Amen.
The material contains simple technology strong and tight articulation of huge stone blocks, in the construction of various structures (walls, pyramids, megalith connections in foundations, etc.), used thousands of years ago by ancient builders around the world (Asia, Africa, South America, Europe).
For hundreds, maybe thousands of years, the mystery of dense polygonal (polygonal stones) masonry has tormented the minds of many generations of researchers and scientists. - Well, tell me, how can you combine stone blocks so that there is no gap between them?
Before the creations of the ancient builders, modern scientific thought was powerless. In order to somehow maintain authority in the eyes of the public, in the publication "Science" of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1991, a book by Professor and Doctor of Historical Sciences from St. Petersburg Yu. Berezkin "Incas. The Historical Experience of the Empire. Here is what he writes Russian science: “It must be said that although the cyclopean buildings of the Incas are mentioned episodically in the “new” myths characteristic of our time (unknown highly developed technology, space aliens, etc.), in this case the plots did not receive special distribution. All too well known are the quarries where the Incas cut the blocks and the paths along which the stones were transported to the sites. Only the legend that a needle cannot be inserted between the plates is stable - they fit so tightly. Although there really are no gaps between the blocks now, the reason here lies not in careful fitting, but only in the natural deformation of the stone, which filled all the cracks over time. Inca masonry as such is quite primitive: the blocks of the lower row were adjusted to fit the upper ones, acting by trial and error.
If this long book "scientific" text of the Academy of Sciences is compressed to the "dry residue", then the "scientific thought" will be as follows: "the stone blocks themselves naturally clumped over time." Well, how can one not recall the words of an ancient Chinese sage in the 6th century BC. Lao Tzu: “Smart people are not learned; scientists are not smart."
If modern scientific thought is so insignificant, then the ancient masters who manually made stone axes and flint tips for spears and arrows made fire with a stick - so they were real academics. Ancient people having nothing but own hands and mind, they learned to process stones very well.
Before telling how it all happened, it should be noted that the life of our ancestors was much more difficult. In those days, there was not yet much knowledge accumulated. People strained their minds more than they relied on memory. AT daily affairs made use of readily available materials. And the modern one: “Pseudo-scientific nonsense of scientists in a mantle and a cap”, - in the words of the French comedian of the 17th century, Moliere - could not overshadow the natural mind and ingenuity of people.
But, enough jokes about modern "scientists" ...
Yet, how did people in ancient times achieve such perfection?
Let's remember ourselves in childhood.
Have you ever rolled large round lumps of wet snow, built a fortress out of them, or at least a snowman? What did you do about it? - you put down the most big clods, and smaller ones were placed on them, which were easier to lift. And so that the upper ones do not fall, you rub them a little against each other, moving back and forth.
Another example. Take and make two dense snowballs that children play by throwing at each other - and rub them together. You will get a connection between the lumps without a gap. The same simple technology was used by ancient people when they worked with stones.
If you take two stones in your hands and try to grind them like snowballs, then, of course, you will not succeed. Because the stone is much stronger than the applied effort from your hands.
But, if pressure of several tons (!) is applied to the stones, then the process of cutting and grinding will go faster. The material of stone blocks of polygonal masonry among the Incas is fine-crystalline limestone. (One cubic meter of stone weighs 2.5 - 2.9 tons).
Now let's take a closer look at the pictures of ancient stone buildings, notice them external features and let's see how it was done...
So, the first large block of stone is placed down, to which, successively, stone by stone, all other blocks were hewn in turn from bottom to top.
The stones were selected so that they fit a little (so as not to cut off a lot). The work of laying the stones had to be divided into three sequences.
The first is to prepare the stone for the chopping.
To do this, small durable stones-hammers (the size of Big apple) manually tapped a stone block from two opposite sides.
It was the hardest work. With each blow, only a small piece broke off from the block. It was necessary to make protrusions on the side faces, for which (as for mounting loops) a stone block could be hooked (with rope, and preferably with leather braided thick ropes) and hung either on one or two wooden consoles. To do this, it was necessary to make a large "wooden swing" over the wall under construction. Which, at the time of construction, moved along the wall (as today tower crane moves along the wall of a house under construction).
The second phase consisted in the most important thing - the process of cutting the stone.
The phrase “stone cutters” has survived to this day (and this profession still remains in some places).
A block of stone, fixed and suspended from the mounting ledges, was slowly lowered by swinging on the consoles - “swings”.
Time after time with each pass, a layer was removed by a millimeter (or less) from the rubbing (lower and upper contact) blocks.
All the protruding faces of the mating stones were grinded in turn.
Thus, the density of masonry stone blocks was achieved.
Neighboring blocks became lapped and almost "monolithic".
It took several hours or even days to tes one stone when swinging it on a swing.
In order for the process of tessa to go faster, stone weight plates (“weights”) could also be placed on top of the rocking stone.
This load at the same time pulled out the elastic leather slings, and slightly lowered the rocking stone down.
So that the lower stone would not “fidget” during the cut, it was propped up with spacer logs. When the block fitted with a hemp sat in its “nest”, then the third operation began - the finishing of the block.
The third phase consisted of a rough polishing of the exterior.
The procedure is quite laborious. Again, manually, with stones round like a ball, they removed the mounting ledges on which the block hung, and, tapping on the seams between the connection of the stones, they made a “groove” along the joints. After that, the stones acquired a convex nice shape.
It can be seen that the strict outer surface of the stones is dotted with small potholes from many blows.
Sometimes the mounting tabs for the slings were not cut down. It is possible that these stones (wall) could be lifted and shifted to another place. Or cut down, but not all completely. For example, in the pictures of the polygonal masonry, it can be seen that on some blocks the mounting ledges were not completely cut down.
From the remains of the ledges, one can understand how the stone was hung.
Also, with flat stone slabs, they could, swinging them on a “swing”, hew the outer side of the wall, giving it the desired slope.
At the same time, the volume of manual labor handlers.
Huge blocks that were placed in the lower rows at the base of the walls, of course, no one was swinging on the "swing".
The faces of these huge megaliths were polished individually with narrow, flat stone slabs. Which, at the end of the tesa process, put each other between the blocks. (See the picture - three, four flat slabs stand on top of each other between huge blocks).
After grinding, the entire structure of hewn blocks and slabs was shifted together.
Similarly, large stone blocks suspended on "swings" were hewn and polished by huge megalith foundations in South America, Egypt, Greece, Baalbek, the Mediterranean countries and Asia.
“The new is the well-forgotten old.” (Jacques Pesche, 1758-1830). 
By the contour (radius) of processing, for example, by the depth of the arc of the articulation of stone blocks, it is possible to determine the length of the mounting slings on which the stone swayed during the cut.
If the articulation of the blocks is horizontal (when large megaliths were hewn at the base of the foundations), then the slings of the plates for the hex were assembled not on one “hook” (at one point), but on two different consoles. So that a heavy stone beam for a tesa does not work like a pendulum, but more like a big “planer”.
On a swing (a pendulum with a weight), they could also lift strong, special cutting configuration stones “cutters” - to give the hewn blocks any desired shape (in the vertical, and with lateral protrusions and in the horizontal plane).
The secret of dense masonry, which has troubled the minds of modern researchers for many years, I believe, is open.
But the skill of the ancient builders, who built the majestic labor-intensive structures with their mind and hands, will remain an object of admiration for all time.
Garmatyuk Volodymyr
Russia, Vologda
polygonal masonry
The mystery of ancient polygonal (polygonal) masonry has been discovered
The material describes a simple technology of strong and tight articulation of huge stone blocks in the construction of various structures (walls, pyramids, connections of megaliths in foundations, etc.), used thousands of years ago by ancient builders all over the world (South America, Asia, Africa, Europe) .
For hundreds, maybe thousands of years, the mystery of dense polygonal (polygonal stones) masonry has tormented the minds of many generations of researchers and scientists. - Well, tell me, how can boulders be laid so that there is no gap between them?
Before the creations of the ancient builders, modern scientific thought was powerless. In order to somehow maintain authority in the eyes of the public, in the publication "Science" of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1991, a book by Professor and Doctor of Historical Sciences from St. Petersburg Yu. Berezkin "Incas. The Historical Experience of the Empire. Here is what Russian science writes: “I must say that although the cyclopean buildings of the Incas are mentioned episodically in the “new” myths characteristic of our time (unknown highly developed technology, space aliens, etc.), the plots in this case did not receive special distribution. . All too well known are the quarries where the Incas cut the blocks and the paths along which the stones were transported to the sites. Only the legend that a needle cannot be inserted between the plates is stable - they fit so tightly. Although there really are no gaps between the blocks now, the reason here lies not in careful fitting, but only in the natural deformation of the stone, which filled all the cracks over time. Inca masonry as such is quite primitive: the blocks of the lower row were adjusted to fit the upper ones, acting by trial and error.
If this long book "scientific" text of the Academy of Sciences is compressed to the "dry residue", then the "scientific thought" will be as follows: "the stone blocks themselves were so compressed over time." Well, how can one not recall the words of an ancient Chinese sage in the 6th century BC. Lao Tzu: “Smart people are not learned; scientists are not smart."
If modern scientific thought is so insignificant, then the ancient masters who manually made stone axes and flint tips for spears and arrows made fire with a stick - so they were real academics. Ancient people, having nothing but their own hands and mind, learned to process stones very well.
Before telling how it all happened, it should be noted that the life of our ancestors was much more difficult. In those days, there was not yet much knowledge accumulated. People strained their minds more than they relied on memory. In everyday affairs, they used available simple materials. And modern, not uncommon: “Pseudo-scientific nonsense of scientists in a mantle and a cap,” - the 17th century, Molière - could not overshadow the natural mind and ingenuity of people. But, enough jokes about modern "scientists" ...
Yet, how did people in ancient times achieve such perfection?
Let's remember ourselves in childhood.
Have you ever rolled large round lumps of wet snow, built a fortress out of them, or at least a snowman? What did you do about it? - You put the biggest clods down, and put smaller ones on them, which were easier to lift. And so that the upper ones do not fall, you rub them a little against each other, moving back and forth.
Another example, take and make two dense snowballs that children play by throwing at each other - and rub them together. You will get a connection between the lumps without a gap. The same simple technology was used by ancient people when they worked with stones.
If you take two stones in your hands and try to grind them like snowballs, then, of course, you will not succeed. Because the stone is much stronger than the applied effort from your hands. But, if pressure of several tons (!) is applied to the stones, then the process of cutting and grinding will go faster. The material of the stone blocks of the Incas is fine-crystalline limestone. (One cubic meter of stone weighs 2.5 - 2.9 tons).
Now let's take a closer look at the pictures of ancient stone buildings, notice their external features and think about how all this was done ...
So, the first large block of stone is placed down, to which, successively, stone by stone, all other blocks were hewn in turn from bottom to top.
The stones were selected so that they fit a little (so as not to cut off a lot). The work of laying the stones had to be divided into three sequences.
The first is to prepare the stone for the chopping.
To do this, small solid stones-hammers (the size of a large apple) manually tapped a stone block from two opposite sides. It was the hardest work. With each blow, only a small piece broke off from the block. It was necessary to make protrusions on the side faces, for which (as for mounting loops) a stone block could be hooked (with rope, and preferably with leather braided thick ropes) and hung either on one or two wooden consoles. To do this, it was necessary to make a large "wooden swing" over the wall under construction. Which, according to the time of construction, moved along the wall (as today a tower crane moves along the wall of a house under construction).
The second phase consisted in the most important thing - the process of cutting the stone. The phrase “stone cutters” has survived to this day (and this profession still remains in some places).
A block of stone, fixed and suspended from the mounting ledges,
swinging on the consoles - "swing", slowly lowered.
Time after time with each pass, a layer was removed by a millimeter (or less) from the rubbing (lower and upper contact) blocks. All the protruding faces of the mating stones were grinded in turn.
Thus, the density of masonry stone blocks was achieved. Neighboring blocks became lapped and almost "monolithic". It took several hours or even days to cut one stone on a swing.
In order for the process of tessa to go faster, stone weight plates (“weights”) could also be placed on top of the rocking stone. This load at the same time pulled out the elastic leather slings, and slightly lowered the rocking stone down. So that the lower stone would not “fidget” during the cut, it was propped up with spacer logs. When the block fitted with a hemp sat in its “nest”, then the third operation began - the finishing of the block.
The third phase consisted of a rough polishing of the exterior.
The procedure is quite laborious. Again, manually, with stones round like a ball, they removed the mounting ledges on which the block hung, and, tapping on the seams between the connection of the stones, they made a “groove” along the joints. After that, the stones acquired a convex beautiful shape. It can be seen that the strict outer surface of the stones is dotted with small potholes from many blows.
Sometimes the mounting tabs for the slings were not cut down. It is possible that these stones (wall) could be lifted and shifted to another place. Or cut down, but not all completely. For example, in the pictures of polygonal masonry, it can be seen that on other blocks, the mounting ledges were not completely cut down.
From the remains of the ledges, one can understand how the stone was hung.
Also, with flat stone slabs, they could, swinging them on a “swing”, hew the outer side of the wall, giving it the desired slope, while significantly reducing the amount of manual labor of processors.
Huge blocks that were placed in the lower rows at the base of the walls, of course, no one was swinging on the "swing".
The faces of these huge megaliths were polished individually with narrow, flat stone slabs. Some of them, at the end of the tesa process, put each other on top of each other (see picture) - three, four flat slabs stand on top of each other between huge blocks. After grinding, the entire structure of hewn blocks and slabs was shifted together.
Similarly, large stone blocks suspended on "swings" were hewn and polished by huge megalith foundations in South America, Egypt, Greece, Baalbek, the Mediterranean countries and Asia.
“The new is the well-forgotten old.” (Jacques Pesche, 1758-1830).
By the contour (radius) of processing, for example, by the depth of the arc of the articulation of stone blocks, it is possible to determine the length of the mounting slings on which the stone swayed during the cut.
If the articulation of the blocks is horizontal (when large megaliths were hewn at the base), it means that the slings of the plates for the hex were assembled not on one “hook” (at one point), but on two different consoles. So that a heavy stone beam for a tesa does not work like a pendulum, but more like a big “planer”.
On a swing (a pendulum with a weight), they could also lift strong, special cutting configuration stones “cutters” - to give the hewn blocks any desired shape (in the vertical, and with lateral protrusions and in the horizontal plane).
The secret of dense masonry, which has troubled the minds of modern researchers for many years, I believe, is open. But the skill of the ancient builders, who built majestic structures with their mind and hands, will remain an object of admiration for all time.
The material describes a simple technology of strong and tight articulation of huge stone blocks in the construction of various structures (walls, pyramids, connections of megaliths in foundations, etc.), used thousands of years ago by ancient builders all over the world (South America, Asia, Africa, Europe) .
For hundreds, maybe thousands of years, the mystery of dense polygonal (polygonal stones) masonry has tormented the minds of many generations of researchers and scientists. - Well, tell me, how can boulders be laid so that there is no gap between them?
Before the creations of the ancient builders, modern scientific thought was powerless. In order to somehow maintain authority in the eyes of the public, in the publication "Science" of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1991, a book by Professor and Doctor of Historical Sciences from St. Petersburg Yu. Berezkin "Incas. The Historical Experience of the Empire. Here is what Russian science writes: “I must say that although the cyclopean buildings of the Incas are mentioned episodically in the “new” myths characteristic of our time (unknown highly developed technology, space aliens, etc.), the plots in this case did not receive special distribution. . All too well known are the quarries where the Incas cut the blocks and the paths along which the stones were transported to the sites. Only the legend that a needle cannot be inserted between the plates is stable - they fit so tightly. Although there really are no gaps between the blocks now, the reason here lies not in careful fitting, but only in the natural deformation of the stone, which filled all the cracks over time. Inca masonry as such is quite primitive: the blocks of the lower row were adjusted to fit the upper ones, acting by trial and error.
If this long book "scientific" text of the Academy of Sciences is compressed to the "dry residue", then the "scientific thought" will be as follows: "the stone blocks themselves were so compressed over time." Well, how can one not recall the words of an ancient Chinese sage in the 6th century BC. Lao Tzu: “Smart people are not learned; scientists are not smart."
If modern scientific thought is so insignificant, then the ancient masters who manually made stone axes and flint tips for spears and arrows made fire with a stick - so they were real academics. Ancient people, having nothing but their own hands and mind, learned to process stones very well.
Before telling how it all happened, it should be noted that the life of our ancestors was much more difficult. In those days, there was not yet much knowledge accumulated. People strained their minds more than they relied on memory. In everyday affairs, they used available simple materials. And modern, not uncommon: “Pseudo-scientific nonsense of scientists in a mantle and a cap,” - the 17th century, Molière - could not overshadow the natural mind and ingenuity of people. But, enough jokes about modern "scientists" ...
Yet, how did people in ancient times achieve such perfection?
Let's remember ourselves in childhood.
Have you ever rolled large round lumps of wet snow, built a fortress out of them, or at least a snowman? What did you do about it? - You put the biggest clods down, and put smaller ones on them, which were easier to lift. And so that the upper ones do not fall, you rub them a little against each other, moving back and forth.
Another example, take and make two dense snowballs that children play by throwing at each other - and rub them together. You will get a connection between the lumps without a gap. The same simple technology was used by ancient people when they worked with stones.
If you take two stones in your hands and try to grind them like snowballs, then, of course, you will not succeed. Because the stone is much stronger than the applied effort from your hands. But, if pressure of several tons (!) is applied to the stones, then the process of cutting and grinding will go faster. The material of the stone blocks of the Incas is fine-crystalline limestone. (One cubic meter of stone weighs 2.5 - 2.9 tons).
Now let's take a closer look at the pictures of ancient stone buildings, notice their external features and think about how all this was done ...
So, the first large block of stone is placed down, to which, successively, stone by stone, all other blocks were hewn in turn from bottom to top.
The stones were selected so that they fit a little (so as not to cut off a lot). The work of laying the stones had to be divided into three sequences.
The first is to prepare the stone for the chopping.
To do this, small solid stones-hammers (the size of a large apple) manually tapped a stone block from two opposite sides. It was the hardest work. With each blow, only a small piece broke off from the block. It was necessary to make protrusions on the side faces, for which (as for mounting loops) a stone block could be hooked (with rope, and preferably with leather braided thick ropes) and hung either on one or two wooden consoles. To do this, it was necessary to make a large "wooden swing" over the wall under construction. Which, according to the time of construction, moved along the wall (as today a tower crane moves along the wall of a house under construction).
The second phase consisted in the most important thing - the process of cutting the stone. The phrase “stone cutters” has survived to this day (and this profession still remains in some places).
A block of stone, fixed and suspended from the mounting ledges, was slowly lowered by swinging on the consoles - “swings”.
Time after time with each pass, a layer was removed by a millimeter (or less) from the rubbing (lower and upper contact) blocks. All the protruding faces of the mating stones were grinded in turn.
Thus, the density of masonry stone blocks was achieved. Neighboring blocks became lapped and almost "monolithic". It took several hours or even days to cut one stone on a swing.
In order for the process of tessa to go faster, stone weight plates (“weights”) could also be placed on top of the rocking stone. This load at the same time pulled out the elastic leather slings, and slightly lowered the rocking stone down. So that the lower stone would not “fidget” during the cut, it was propped up with spacer logs. When the block fitted with a hemp sat in its “nest”, then the third operation began - the finishing of the block.
The third phase consisted of a rough polishing of the exterior.
The procedure is quite laborious. Again, manually, with stones round like a ball, they removed the mounting ledges on which the block hung, and, tapping on the seams between the connection of the stones, they made a “groove” along the joints. After that, the stones acquired a convex beautiful shape. It can be seen that the strict outer surface of the stones is dotted with small potholes from many blows.
Sometimes the mounting tabs for the slings were not cut down. It is possible that these stones (wall) could be lifted and shifted to another place. Or cut down, but not all completely. For example, in the pictures of polygonal masonry, it can be seen that on other blocks, the mounting ledges were not completely cut down.
From the remains of the ledges, one can understand how the stone was hung.
Also, with flat stone slabs, they could, swinging them on a “swing”, hew the outer side of the wall, giving it the desired slope, while significantly reducing the amount of manual labor of processors.
Huge blocks that were placed in the lower rows at the base of the walls, of course, no one was swinging on the "swing".
The faces of these huge megaliths were polished individually with narrow, flat stone slabs. Some of them, at the end of the tesa process, put each other on top of each other (see picture) - three, four flat slabs stand on top of each other between huge blocks. After grinding, the entire structure of hewn blocks and slabs was shifted together.
Similarly, large stone blocks suspended on "swings" were hewn and polished by huge megalith foundations in South America, Egypt, Greece, Baalbek, the Mediterranean countries and Asia.
“The new is the well-forgotten old.” (Jacques Pesche, 1758-1830).
By the contour (radius) of processing, for example, by the depth of the arc of the articulation of stone blocks, it is possible to determine the length of the mounting slings on which the stone swayed during the cut.
If the articulation of the blocks is horizontal (when large megaliths were hewn at the base), it means that the slings of the plates for the hex were assembled not on one “hook” (at one point), but on two different consoles. So that a heavy stone beam for a tesa does not work like a pendulum, but more like a big “planer”.
On a swing (a pendulum with a weight), they could also lift strong, special cutting configuration stones “cutters” - to give the hewn blocks any desired shape (in the vertical, and with lateral protrusions and in the horizontal plane).
The secret of dense masonry, which has troubled the minds of modern researchers for many years, I believe, is open. But the skill of the ancient builders, who built majestic structures with their mind and hands, will remain an object of admiration for all time.
The material describes a simple technology of strong and tight articulation of huge stone blocks in the construction of various structures (walls, pyramids, connections of megaliths in foundations, etc.), used thousands of years ago by ancient builders all over the world (South America, Asia, Africa, Europe) .
For hundreds, maybe thousands of years, the mystery of dense polygonal (polygonal stones) masonry has tormented the minds of many generations of researchers and scientists. Well, tell me, how can you lay stone blocks so that there is no gap between them?
Before the creations of the ancient builders, modern scientific thought was powerless. In order to somehow maintain authority in the eyes of the public, in the publication "Science" of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1991, a book by Professor and Doctor of Historical Sciences from St. Petersburg Yu. Berezkin "Incas. The Historical Experience of the Empire. Here is what Russian science writes: “I must say that although the cyclopean buildings of the Incas are mentioned episodically in the “new” myths characteristic of our time (unknown highly developed technology, space aliens, etc.), in this case the plots did not receive special distribution. All too well known are the quarries where the Incas cut the blocks and the paths along which the stones were transported to the sites. Only the legend that a needle cannot be inserted between the plates is stable - they fit so tightly. Although there are really no gaps between the blocks now, the reason here lies not in careful fitting, but simply in the natural deformation of the stone, which filled all the cracks over time. Inca masonry as such is quite primitive: the blocks of the lower row were adjusted to fit the upper ones, acting by trial and error.
If this long book "scientific" text of the Academy of Sciences is compressed to the "dry residue", then the "scientific thought" will be as follows: "the stone blocks themselves were so compressed over time." Well, how can one not recall the words of an ancient Chinese sage in the 6th century BC. Lao Tzu: “Smart people are not learned; scientists are not smart."
If modern scientific thought is so insignificant, then the ancient masters who manually made stone axes and flint tips for spears and arrows made fire with a stick - so they were real academics. Ancient people, having nothing but their own hands and mind, learned to process stones very well.
Before telling how it all happened, it should be noted that the life of our ancestors was much more difficult. In those days, there was not yet much knowledge accumulated. People strained their minds more than they relied on memory. In everyday affairs, they used available simple materials. And modern, not rare: "Pseudo-scientific nonsense of scientists in a robe and cap" - XVII century, Molière- could not overshadow the natural mind and ingenuity of people. But enough jokes about modern "scientists" ...
Yet, how did people in ancient times achieve such perfection?
Let's remember ourselves in childhood.
Have you ever rolled large round lumps of wet snow, built a fortress out of them, or at least a snowman? What did you do about it?
You put the biggest clods down and put the smaller ones on top of them, which were easier to lift. And so that the upper ones do not fall, you rub them a little against each other, moving back and forth.
Another example, take and make two dense snowballs that children play by throwing at each other - and rub them together. You will get a connection between the lumps without a gap. The same simple technology was used by ancient people when they worked with stones.
If you take two stones in your hands and try to grind them like snowballs, then, of course, you will not succeed. Because the stone is much stronger than the applied effort from your hands. But, if pressure of several tons (!) is applied to the stones, then the process of cutting and grinding will go faster. The material of the stone blocks of the Incas is fine-crystalline limestone. (One cubic meter of stone weighs 2.5-2.9 tons).
Now let's take a closer look at the pictures of ancient stone buildings, notice their external features and think about how all this was done ...
So, the first large block of stone is placed down, to which, successively, stone by stone, all other blocks were hewn in turn from bottom to top.
The stones were selected so that they fit a little (so as not to cut off a lot). The work of laying the stones had to be divided into three sequences.
The first is to prepare the stone for the chopping.
To do this, small solid stones-hammers (the size of a large apple) manually tapped a stone block from two opposite sides. It was the hardest work. With each blow, only a small piece broke off from the block. Should have done protrusions on the side edges, for which (as for mounting loops) it would be possible to hook a stone block (rope, and preferably leather braided thick ropes) and hang it either on one or two wooden consoles. To do this, it was necessary to make a large "wooden swing" over the wall under construction. Which, according to the time of construction, moved along the wall (as today a tower crane moves along the wall of a house under construction).
The second phase consisted in the most important thing - the process of hewing a stone. The phrase “stone cutters” has survived to this day (and this profession still remains in some places).
A block of stone, fixed and suspended from the mounting ledges,
swinging on the consoles - "swings", slowly lowered.
Time after time with each pass, a layer was removed by a millimeter (or less) from the rubbing (lower and upper contact) blocks. All the protruding faces of the mating stones were grinded in turn.
Thus, the density of masonry stone blocks was achieved. Neighboring blocks became lapped and almost "monolithic". It took several hours or even days to cut one stone on a swing.
In order for the process of tessa to go faster, stone weight plates (“weights”) could also be placed on top of the rocking stone. This load at the same time pulled out the elastic leather slings, and slightly lowered the rocking stone down. So that the lower stone would not “fidget” during the cut, it was propped up with spacer logs. When the block fitted with a hemp sat in its “nest”, then the third operation began - the finishing of the block.
The third phase consisted of a rough polishing of the exterior.
The procedure is quite laborious. Again, manually, with stones round like a ball, they removed the mounting ledges on which the block hung, and, tapping on the seams between the connection of the stones, they made a “groove” along the joints. After that, the stones acquired a convex beautiful shape. It can be seen that the strict outer surface of the stones is dotted with small potholes from many blows.
Sometimes the mounting tabs for the slings were not cut down. It is possible that these stones (wall) could be lifted and shifted to another place. Or cut down, but not all completely. For example, in the pictures of polygonal masonry, it can be seen that on other blocks, the mounting ledges were not completely cut down.
From the remains of the ledges, one can understand how the stone was hung.
Also, with flat stone slabs, they could, swinging them on a “swing”, hew the outer side of the wall, giving it the desired slope, while significantly reducing the amount of manual labor of processors.
Huge blocks that were placed in the lower rows at the base of the walls, of course, no one was swinging on the "swing".
The faces of these huge megaliths were polished individually with narrow, flat stone slabs. Some of them, at the end of the tesa process, put each other on top of each other - three, four flat slabs stand on top of each other between huge blocks. After grinding, the entire structure of hewn blocks and slabs was shifted together.
Similarly, large stone blocks suspended on "swings" were hewn and polished by huge megalith foundations in South America, Egypt, Greece, Baalbek, the Mediterranean countries and Asia. "The new is the well-forgotten old." (Jacques Pesche, 1758-1830).
By the contour (radius) of processing, for example, by the depth of the arc of the articulation of stone blocks, it is possible to determine the length of the mounting slings on which the stone swayed during the cut.
If the articulation of the blocks is horizontal (when large megaliths were hewn at the base), it means that the slings of the plates for the hex were assembled not on one “hook” (at one point), but on two different consoles. So that a heavy stone beam for a tesa does not work like a pendulum, but more like a big “planer”.
On a swing (a pendulum with a load) they could also lift strong stones of a special cutting configuration “cutters” - to give the hewn blocks any desired shape (in the vertical, and with lateral protrusions and in the horizontal plane).
Garmatyuk Vladimir, Vologda
