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Who mentioned ancient astronauts? Archeologists don't seem to be as blasé as you about this: > Nothing puzzles archaeologists so much as impracticality, and a
by brango 9y ago
Who mentioned ancient astronauts?
Archeologists don't seem to be as blasé as you about this:
> Nothing puzzles archaeologists so much as impracticality, and although the karst topography of Baalbek demands strong foundation stones, and although one big stone is easier to move than many smaller stones, the pillars holding up the temple’s podium, van Ess says, are bigger than they need to be. In fact, Baalbek is one of a series of ancient projects that are under rigorous study by the Germans for being unnecessarily large.
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/baalbek-myth-megalith https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/baalbek-myth-megalit...
- aleksei 9y agoThough it seems they're more puzzled by the "unnecessary" size of the structure rather than transportation of the slabs. Also, somewhat ironically, the posted link mentions ancient astronauts.
- jacobolus 9y agoArchaeologists also aren't structural engineers, usually. So they often have quite different ways of approaching problems. As an example of what happens when a structural engineer does some amateur archaeology, check out http://theoldexplorer.com/index.php/the-lost-secrets-of-maya-technology http://theoldexplorer.com/index.php/the-lost-secrets-of-maya...
- twelve40 9y agoI found this link to be pretty interesting read on the topic. Kind of takes the mystery out of it though : ) http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/03/history-of-human-powered-cranes.html http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/03/history-of-human-powe...
- Someone 9y agoMany gothic cathedrals still standing also are stronger than they have to be. Reason? Building was still guesswork at the time and the ones built too weak have long collapsed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauvais_Cathedral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauvais_Cathedral is an edge case. So, it may be lack of structural engineering knowledge. They also may have intended to build something bigger, but realised they ran out of time or money, or the “something bigger” collapsed, and this is a rebuild, reusing parts.