Moving Rocks: Stonehenge reloaded?

[Kristl Walek]

The most amazing example of brain over brawn.....

http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/moving_big_rocks

[Maggi Young]

Simply amazing...... simple and amazing.... amazingly simple..... this guy is a genious!

[maggiepie]

He makes it look so simple, I can easily believe that a similar method was used for stonehenge.

[angie]

Not bad, enjoyed the video, so no excuses from husband saying too big to move.
Angie

[Maggi Young]

Not bad, enjoyed the video, so no excuses from husband saying too big to move.
Angie

 Well, you may say that, Angie.... but I showed it to Ian, who is now thinking that with those techniques, he can rest easy while I do the moving of the rocks.

[Rodger Whitlock]

Thor Heyerdahl persuaded the Easter Islanders to show him how their ancestors had raised the huge statues that dot the island. They demonstrated by re-setting a statue that had toppled. Turned out to be dead easy! Lift just a little and keep sticking pebbles underneath, and slowly the statue went up until its butt toppled into the hole prepared for it.. Very similar to what's demonstrated in the video.

Just remember folks, ancient man was just as smart as we are, and the smartest of them were as smart as the smartest men today. No need to invoke space aliens to explain how the pyramids were built!

Relevance to rock gardening: how to move those big rocks you bought.

Operative motto: Little by little gets the job done. (A variant on "softly, softly, catchee monkey!")

[Hjalmar]

If I remember Heyerdahl correctly the islanders also showed how the statues were moved large distances across the island. The traditional explanation is that they were rolled on logs; this does not work since the logs are quickly crushed under the weight, and there would not be enough trees to move all those statues. The islanders claimed that the statues walked from the quarry to their positions. Sounds like a myth but Heyerdahl asked them to show it. Tying ropes around a statue, some men could easily move it in upright position, by wiggling it slightly from side to side, just as if it was walking on its own. This may also be relevant to rock gardening.

[Lesley Cox]

I have frequently "walked" rocks or troughs into place. It just needs a hard surface to move over. Doesn't work on soft soil but if a wide board is laid down on the soil, with the target area just at the end of the board, it is easily done.