Its funny you say that - because they have found a lot of inscriptions on the stones that seem to suggest there was a strong competitive nature to hauling these stones.

Each village would send a team, and if they pulled a stone faster than a rival village, they sure made sure everyone knew about it.

It is funny when you think of it that way. Heaven forbid someone find a way to do something that we have yet to figure out or explain....

Ok, im no expert in any of this, I have no background in researching anything having to do with Pyramids or anything like that. Im just asking....is it possible or feasible that in the 21st century with all our advancements in technology, all our accompishments in the fields of medicine and even space travel...we cant figure out how some ancient cultures stacked a few rocks? Is that remotely possible??
Again, I dont know what the answers are but it seems like someone should be able to figure it out.

This is my first time on here and im glad to be here.

Welcome aboard! Read the rules and stay awhile!

While it's true that there is still scholarly debate about how they stacked the higher rocks, yeah, we do pretty much know how the Pyramids were built.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

They didn't???


The drving force behind my will to live has just been destroyed.


Thanks.

This gets my nomination for Best Question of the Year.

(Not because there's no good answer, but because it cuts to the chase quite nicely.)

Yes, welcome to BAUT imjustasking.

And no, its not possible we can't figure out how some ancient culture stacked a few (or a lot of) rocks.

Here is a website from Creighton University, with a lot of information, including photos from a PBS episode of NOVA where they reproduced a lot of the techniques (I recall watching that program).

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

What, are you one of those guys who's all obsessed with MacDonald's?

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

They left a description
http://www.geopolymer.org/archaeolog...s-construction

There was a "B.C." comic strip wherein the caveman chisles several big rocks on the beach into giant heads. Then he climbs up a mountain and does the same thing to a similar big rock up there. He climbs down and tells his pal "In a million years they'll all wonder how I moved the big dude 'way up there."

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Later . . .

Well, it worked out pretty well for quite a few Star Trek episodes.

TOS
Voyager
Enterprise

History channel went down the tubes a long time ago. The only show worth watching is the Universe series, and I have a feeling that will be short lived. They should just change the name to the Woo-stery channel.

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"The universe is driven by the complex interaction between three ingredients: matter, energy, and enlightened self-interest." - G'Kar

How the Earth Was Made is very good, even if it's on the wrong channel. Though their coverage of Challenger Deep did go into a lot of the history of our awareness of it and so forth, so I guess there's that.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I love The Universe as well but (and I won't fully judge till I see the episode) I heard a commercial last night, as I was falling asleep. It was advertising the next episode titled, Countdown to the End of the World. I had already turned over so I didn't see any clips of what would be in the episode but I vow, if it has anything to do with the Mayan Calendar, I am quitting that show completely!

If the universe is infinite and the chances of another world much like ours is a 1 in 100billion chances there should be more worlds much like ours that maybe evolved faster than our culture and was able to use space travel before us, So what i am trying to say is aliens could have influenced us and come to different cultures around our world to show us way to better use our stone techniques. I also watched that show and when it came to the question why did all these cultures build that same type of pyramids when there was never trade between the Mayan's and the Egyptians and also how did they get a light source in the pyramids when scientist have disproved the copper plate light and the fire theory?

I claim to be no expert, But theories are theories till the are proven so please show me where i am wrong and i may have a change of mind

There is no evidence that aliens exist let alone any "influencing".

Respectfully, you've got it backwards. The idea that alien influence is behind the building of the pyramids, etc. is an extrordinary claim, therefore it is up to those proposing that claim to prove themselves right. Posters here are under no obligation to prove you wrong. It's just the way in which science "works".


...and welcome to the board.

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"The facts gentlemen, and nothing but the facts, for careful eyes are narrowly watching." Isaac Asimov

For the same reason a toddler learns to stack blocks.

How many buildings did they try and fail with before they built a successful pyramid? We will never know because they failed.

Have they proven when and how often they needed to be inside the pyramid? How much of the inside was done during construction when the inside was still exposed?

I'm not either, but that makes me question why these claims are not in scientific circles instead of commercial circles.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

You know, the Maya and the Egyptians didn't build the same type of pyramids. They both built pyramids, but they looked different and had different functions.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

For one thing, the Egyptian ones didn't have a flat area at the top with gutters for the blood

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‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

For another, I'm pretty sure the Mayan ones were far shorter.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Well, the Egyptian pyramids were built by aliens, and the Mayan ones influenced by alien-trained Atlantian refugees. Duh.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

Exactly. This was the summation for one of Bob Brier's documentaries- "Why are all pyramids so similar? They're not."

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

I have thought alot about this theory.

I think there are some things that are just crazy. How could the mayans and egyptians and other ancients have figured out some of the things they did and built some of the things they did when we can't do the same with our vast amount of technology?

Ancient aliens are really far fetched, but i personally believe anything is possible until proven otherwise and quite frankly we will never know if our ancestors met aliens or even if we descended from aliens.

Unfortunately, that's the exact opposite of how we must approach discovery. Nothing occurs until proven it does.

As for the "We can't build them today", that's also an incorrect statement. Transversely, neither the Egyptians nor the Mayans could build a 90+ story skyscraper.

Look at it this way; the local manager of McDonald's gets his meat by ordering it from a warehouse. You could give him a bow or spear, and set him loose on the plains to hunt Bison, and chances are he couldn't do it. That doesn't mean it's impossible to kill a Bison with a spear. It just means we don't personally have that skill, because we don't need to have that skill.

We don't need to build large block structures with primative tools, because we have better materials and better tools, and better techniques.

Lastly, don't short-sell our ancestors. They didn't have the knowledge and technology we have, but they were just as able and just as intelligent.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

First off you must have misunderstood. I believe our ancestors were INCREDIBLY intelligent for the reasons i named. they were able to do things that we still cannot replicate with technology. Ancient humans were remarkably smart and i have the utmost respect for them.

Secondly, it appears we simply disagree. Obviously things happen that are beyond humans comprehension, so we cannot say that "nothing happens until proven it does"

And yes i see your point. And it is a very good one. They (ancients) had skills we don't just like we have skills they didn't. But shouldn't we at least be able to figure out how they did these things, even if we can't replicate them? Maybe i'm just giving modern humans to much credit.

Well, my attempt at sounding smart may have ended up sounding too literal. But what I mean is this; ancient man observes that flowers bloom in the spring. He doesn't know why. He could say that the increased sunlight provides energy, and the increased warmth fosters growth. OR he could say that fairies come out of hybernation and sprinkle magic dust on them.

Even without knowing why, he can scientifically say that those flowers bloom in spring. But that's it. Scientifically speaking.

There's a big difference between conjecture and knowledge.

See, there's the assumption that we don't know how they did these things. There was a time that we were very much baffled by it. But as people continue to study these things, the more we learn about them. They're not as mystical as most television programs or books would make it seem.

And true, AFAIK (I'm no Egyptologist or . . . Mayatologist? ), we might not know their exact process yet because it wasn't recorded, they have devised very feasible ways these structures could have been erected.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

Hmm, I see. At least i think so. I am however, a little lost by all this.


Yes this is all true. But it's just a little hard to grasp that these people were hauling 20 ton blocks up steep wooden ramps, building them in accordance with astronomy, using complex mathematical equations to figure out the best sizes and slopes, etc etc etc.

Truth be told i really have no opinion on the subject. Maybe they did all these things on their own, maybe they had help from aliens or even from a god (i personally don't believe). I don't know, and I assume i never will. I will continue to be fascinated by things i don't understand, which is a beautiful thing imo.

Except you're wrong in your fourth sentence. We could quite easily build pyramids, be they Egyptian or Mayan, with modern technology, if that's what you mean. If you mean we can't with theirs, well, Fazor's right! (I know, but stranger things have happened, right, Fazor?) I can only in the vaguest theory shape a stone point. Ditto use a bow. (Ask the archery instructor where I went to camp.) I assuredly cannot spin, though I've tried--but I've never had to. I know where to go to buy all that. But if I had to, I'd have to work it out. No one has to rebuild the pyramids.

You're still looking at things from the wrong end of the stick. "Prove me wrong" is simply not how science works. You must, through effort and evidence, show yourself to be right. Excitingly, this is one of the reasons we don't have an Official Explanation of How the Egyptian Pyramids Were Built. We have several possible explanations, but we don't have enough evidence to know which one was used. I will also point out that I have watched footage of people attempting, and succeeding, to do all sorts of things where we "don't know how it was done." NOVA is a wonderful show.

No, you're assuming that we haven't figured it out. As opposed to the aforementioned uncertainty as to which version is correct. Further, honestly, how much does it matter exactly which method was used? It is a matter of historical interest, and certainly Egyptologists care quite a bit more than the rest of us--archaeologists in general, really, though they are a specialized lot. I've a friend who's an archaeologist, but she doesn't do Egyptology and therefore doesn't reliably know any more about it than you or I. Or care.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I realize we could build this things with our modern technology, my thought was how could ancients have done it with such accuracy and precision with the limited tools availible to them?

Yes I know you must prove yourself right. But i also believe that nothing is impossible until proven otherwise. It may sound contradicting, but in my mind it isn't. It is hard to explain exactly what i mean though.

We have ideas at how they did it, yes. But we will never know for certain unless someone is able to travel back in time to watch them build the structures. And it doesn't "matter" per say, but it is interesting to study and to think about.

Yes, and this is the point. Of course we could build the pyramids if we had to, and if we had the slav(ish) labour and no trade unions. Of course you could spin, if you had to. I can, but stopped after 30 minutes through boredom and lack of necessity (and a wool allergy).

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