Science
Related: About this forumGiant Underground Stone Boxes Near The Pyramids In Egypt.
Giant Underground Stone Boxes Near The Pyramids In Egypt? Mysterious giant boxes below the Egyptian sands. More than 20 boxes were discovered. This is interesting and you can see everything very clearly. Watch :
Extensive video. I can only conclude that the Egyptians used methods which were then lost.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)And lots of elbow grease.
Actually, there are no reasonable scientifically plausible explanations for how many of these things were created.
Lost technologies are unarguably at play.
It wasn't that long ago that humankind didn't have the recipe for hydraulic cement, lost to the ancients and rediscovered, now used universally.
We may never know how the ancient wonders of the world were created.
have not been watching Ancient Aliens.
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)compared to many of us, they worked their frickin heads off
Here's a nice overview of ancient Egyptian stone working: http://www.oocities.org/unforbidden_geology/ancient_egyptian_stone_vase_making.html
Apparently a copper or stone tool, with sand as an added abrasive and a bow-powered drill-shaft, can reproduce the ancient basalt vases found in Egypt in about two modern work-weeks, not counting polishing time. An experienced craftsman, working ten or twelve hour days, might have knocked them off at the rate of one every three to five days
Polishing the bulls' sarcophagi might have taken a team of experienced polishers months, but it wasn't an impossibility
PeoViejo
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struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)though I don't know whether they actually did so
A flat piece of copper worked over a layer of quartz sand could work. Quartz is the hardest mineral in granite, so regularly replenished sand can polish granite. The copper is ductile, so any applied pressure will tend to embed quartz grains into a copper pad, producing a primitive sand-paper. And copper is much softer than quartz, so it can't scratch the granite itself. Such copper pads could be remelted and re-used: quartz is much less dense than copper, so should float to the top of a melt and be skimmed off
silverweb
(16,402 posts)[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I'm sure we'll be hearing more about these as time goes on and I'm looking forward to it.
wandy
(3,539 posts)loosing some knowledge and technology each time, only to relearn or reinvent it the next time around.
Or.
Is the reason we have not as yet found the "Stargate" is only because we have not found the "Stargate". Yet!
starroute
(12,977 posts)They'd been working with it for tens of thousands of years and they were experts. Once we got into metallurgy, we started acquiring knowledge of metals but lost some of what we'd known before.
So yes, there are lost technologies -- but they're not the same as our present-day technology. They're whatever people were doing at the time and then lost interest in. Heck, there are even certain early computer languages that hardly anybody but a few old men still know how to work with -- which is getting to be a real problem for legacy systems written in them.
TexasProgresive
(12,157 posts)starroute
(12,977 posts)My impression was that except for Admiral Hopper, programming was kind of an old boy's club until the 1960s. But I'm probably just going by my own experience.
TexasProgresive
(12,157 posts)My mother (RIP) was a scientific programer in COBAL, FORTRAN and I don't know what else. She carried Top Secret and Q level clearances. My co-worker's mother has the same background in those same computer languages and came out of retirement to work correcting the Y2K problems. She and other old timers working behind the scenes fixed all the problems with Y2K so well that most people think it was much ado about nothing.
starroute
(12,977 posts)And I'd like to see them get more of the credit that they're due.
progressoid
(49,991 posts)starroute
(12,977 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Thanks - looks to be interesting reading.
struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)in the region, it was evidently robbed in antiquity, but at least one intact bull-burial has been found there. In the mid-twentieth century, similar catacombs were located in the region containing baboon, falcon, and ibis mummies
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)tclambert
(11,087 posts)Or something within 10% of a supposedly magic ratio. 1.618 comes to mind.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)In ancient Egypt the Golden Ratio was regarded as being sacred.