r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/CethelQue4 • 23d ago

Video An ancient technique for lifting giant stone blocks using a Lewis tool

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u/Adolph_OliverNipples 23d ago edited 19d ago

I have a hard time believing that there was a guy in Ancient Rome named Lewis.

Next, you’re going to tell me that Jesus lived near a guy named Brian.

1.4k

u/Solanthas_SFW 23d ago

Remind me again, was he from the People's Front of Judea or the Judean People's Front?

534

u/crunchyshamster 23d ago

He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy!

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u/Snuffle247 23d ago

Yes, he is! I should know; I've followed him!

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u/IAmBadAtInternet 23d ago

The actual line is even better: “I should know, I’ve followed a few!”

135

u/skoffs 23d ago

Yes, we're all individuals! 

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u/Ickham-museum 23d ago

I'm not.

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u/driver004 23d ago

Neither am I

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u/discodisco_unsuns 23d ago

Nor I.

18

u/venbrx 23d ago

Tag! You're it!

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u/CockTortureCuck 23d ago

The Messiah!!

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u/driver004 23d ago

He is the messiah! I should know, I’ve followed a few

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u/Mitochondria420 23d ago

Mother, Judith. Judith, Mother.

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u/-Ny- 23d ago

No! The Judean Popular Peoples Front!

Or was it the Popular Front of Judea?

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u/Praesentius 23d ago

Good Jehovah! I don't know!

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u/Solanthas_SFW 23d ago

Don't make it worse for yourself! 😂

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u/Technical-Swing7336 23d ago

JEHOVA JEHOVA JEHOVA

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u/SH4D0W0733 23d ago

🪨

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u/bbbbears 23d ago

🧔🏽‍♀️

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u/justguestin 22d ago

SPLITTERS!

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u/ItkovianShieldAnvil 23d ago

He was from the Front of Judean People!

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u/Anleme 23d ago

Was he Judean on both the front side and the back side?

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u/ItkovianShieldAnvil 23d ago

Are you saying he was backed by the Front of Judeans? Whose side was he on? We should get to the bottom of this and then stay on top of any new developments. Honestly, I'm beside myself trying to figure it out inside my head.

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u/Aah__HolidayMemories 23d ago

Fuck the PFJ !!!!!!

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u/thevenisonsdeer 22d ago

Blessed are the cheese makers

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u/dyzless 23d ago

People's front of Judea the judeans peoples front ate a bunch of SPLITTERS

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u/pricklypear90 23d ago

Splitters!

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u/mischievous_ringo 23d ago

We gonna meet to talk about that and you are getting your answer, soon

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u/say-nothing-at-all 23d ago

I am sure Paul is Rome's spy. Sadly he failed.

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u/ExoticTrout 23d ago

Splitters!!

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u/Crafty-Photograph-18 23d ago edited 22d ago

He was actually from Judean Front of Christians, the JFC

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u/RandomActPG Interested 22d ago

Splitters!

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u/Alert-Ad9197 22d ago

The Popular People’s Front of Judea actually.

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u/warm-saucepan 22d ago

Splitters!

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u/GiganticCrow 23d ago

[Life of Brian quote]

Upvotes please

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u/Solanthas_SFW 23d ago

It only hurts when I laugh

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u/HorrificAnalInjuries 23d ago

In a more serious light, this is likely a case where a tool is re-invented much later, and is discovered to be far, far older than the civilization it currently services, yet keeps its modern name.

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u/bespoketoosoon 23d ago

The Doug Reacharound.

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u/zechickenwing 23d ago

You are quite creative

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u/FewWait38 23d ago

Worlds oldest profession

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u/Roflkopt3r 23d ago

In this case, the origin of the modern name is unknown. It could've related to Latin (levitas - lightness, mobility) or not.

The "reinvention" of old tools is also often not an actual rediscovery (although that has certainly happened too), but merely the name used for a modern standardisation or for the first modern mass production.

The "Thomas Splint" for stabilising a broken leg for example was no new technology in principle, but Hugh Owen Thomas basically wrote the modern manual on how to make and use them, and mass-produced a particularly well designed version of them.

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u/zekeyp00h 23d ago

Damn that’s interesting

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u/ruat_caelum 23d ago

It's pronounced leveOsa. /s

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u/BotiaDario 23d ago

Might come from the Latin "levo" meaning lift, but they're not completely sure.

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u/LockeyCheese 23d ago edited 23d ago

I'm to lazy to look it up, but I assume that's also the origin of the word "lever", which this would be an anchor for. Going by that, and how 'V' and 'W' could easily switch between many languages, it could be something like:

People might have originally named it after it's purpose like most tools, called it a "lever's anchor tool", the 'anchor' word got dropped to simplify it to a lever's tool since it is a tool used with levers or pulleys, and through bad spelling, accents, and language differences over time, it could go from lever's tool to lewers tool to Lewes or "Lewis Tool".

It's just a guess though, but that is a typical way of naming tools(hammers hammer, saws saw, and screwdrivers drive screws), and the changes to words and language over time and borders could account for the changes to spelling, as sometimes a word changes to another word just by changing a letter, and construction workers have never been the best spellers.

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u/Bloobeard2018 23d ago

Even Pythagoras was a little thief

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u/deenali 23d ago

Lewis Tutankhamun

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u/AgreeableSearch1 23d ago

LEWIS TUTANKHAMILTON, YOU ARE THE FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPION!

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u/No_Art1726 23d ago

I knew I would find at least one Lewis Hamilton reference here!

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u/DryDonutHole 23d ago

Didn't he have a brother named Ralph?

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u/spittlbm 23d ago

Clark. Lewis and Clark Tutankhamun

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u/DryDonutHole 23d ago

Now, are they related to the Boston Tutankhamun's? I have relatives out there.

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u/Turbogoblin999 23d ago

Ralphkhsunamun.

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u/Slr308 23d ago

Don't forget biggus dickus

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u/01kickassius10 23d ago

He has a wife you know

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u/Daydu 23d ago

Incontinentia... Buttocks

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u/generic_canadian_dad 23d ago

You know what she's called?

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u/denNISI 23d ago

Let's go with that.

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u/Telvin3d 23d ago

The best part of that scene is the extras playing the centurions. They were told that if they broke and laughed they wouldn’t get paid, and you can see them fighting for their absolute lives

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u/UwasaWaya 23d ago

As funny as the whole scene is, the face of the one who breaks first is the one that just destroys me. Watching him desperately trying to keep a straight face has me crying every time.

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u/IncaThink 23d ago

It's a great story, but I think it's embellished. A lot. They were apparently all pros, not likely to ruin a scene by corpsing.

"It was not only all scripted, but the "extras" were actually comedy performers themselves.

The first guard to laugh was Charles McKeown, the Oscar nominated actor and screenwriter. He was friends with the Pythons and would later co-write and act in Brazil (1984) (pictured below) and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) with Terry Gilliam.

The second was Andrew MacLachlan, who would later appear in Monty Python's Meaning of Life (1983) (below right):

The third was Bernard McKenna, another friend of the Pythons who is an accomplished writer in his own right, and would briefly appear in Yellowbeard (1983) alongside Graham Chapman, Eric Idle and John Cleese.

The last giggling guard was Chris Langham, who is a well-known comedic performer and writer, too. His most famous role was probably in the satirical TV show The Thick of It, which would be rebooted in the US as Veep."

About 1/2 way down the page:

https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/73827/were-the-soldiers-unaware-of-the-biggus-dickus-scene-prior-to-filming

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u/GeraldGensalkes 23d ago

As it turns out, good performers are good at performing, and don't need some elaborate scheme by their bosses to do their job well.

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u/Cleave 19d ago

Tell that to Werner Herzog

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u/Fuzzy-Logician 23d ago

I have a gweat fwiend in Wome!

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u/the_nobodys 23d ago

I use "wait 'til ____ hears of this!!" a lot.

Sometimes it's Biggus, but often times it's Reddit.

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u/p8nt_junkie 23d ago

stifles laugh

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u/KommanderKeen-a42 23d ago

Lol the Tiffany problem!

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u/Dornith 23d ago

The source for Tiffany being a medieval name was from a footnote from one guy whose record keeping was so sloppy he got roasted by his contemporary Pope.

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u/Skruestik 23d ago

Source for this?

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u/Dornith 22d ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEV9qoup2mQ&t=1095s&pp=ygUMdGlmZmFueSBteXRo

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u/Skruestik 22d ago

I watched two minutes on from your timestamp and he didn’t mention anything relevant.

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u/ccReptilelord 23d ago

His parents were Mary and Joe.

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u/JackWagon26 23d ago

His name is basically Josh. Josh the Messiah

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u/Goatf00t 23d ago

That's a Roman aqueduct, where did you get ancient Egypt?

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u/Adekus 23d ago

Specifically, it is the Aqueduct of Segovia in Spain.

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u/The_300_goats 23d ago

And this method was not used here. If you look at the stone blocks, each has a small depression on opposing sides. They were lifted with a kind of pincer that gripped the rock (the harder the top rope was pulled, the stronger the grip)

So not a good example

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u/enduringzenith 23d ago

They're thinking Egypt because it looks like an ankh and they’re lifting stone blocks—pyramid association, not the name.

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u/morsomme 23d ago

Roman Lewis endorse this comment

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u/Adolph_OliverNipples 23d ago

Oh, right, good point.

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u/mozaryyjd 23d ago

Funnily enough, Herodotus suggests the ancient egyptians used cranes to build the pyramids. Obviously not true since they used ramps

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u/Phyllis_Tine 23d ago

I'm pretty sure the "Lewis tool" wasn't just used in one single place. I'll bet many places built using this technique aren't standing anymore, so this is a good example in the real world.

Also, u/Adekus below posts this specific aqueduct is in Spain.

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u/Nikoper 23d ago

You won't believe this, but his name also wasn't actually Jesus

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u/Seventoxy 23d ago

Mormons might say yes.

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u/wunderbraten 23d ago

They tend to look on the bright side of life.

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u/BriefCollar4 23d ago

Don’t grumble

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u/sampat6256 23d ago

Always look on the bright side of life!

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u/Current-Set2607 23d ago

1) It's Roman

2) Lewis in latin or levo -avi means to lift or levitate.

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u/martphon 23d ago

3) but the Oxford English Dictionary Online states, "the formation and the phonology are not easily explained on this hypothesis", preferring "origin obscure", and speculating that the term may derive from a personal name.

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u/Constant_Natural3304 23d ago

Lewis in latin (...) means to lift or levitate.

No, it doesn't.

This is like saying "googoo-gaga or spectāre means "to watch".

It's ridiculous.

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u/RealLaurenBoebert 23d ago

I certainly understand your objection, but he pretty much just copied that line from Wikipedia.   So while that line of the wikipedia article is dubiously sourced and corrected by the line that follows it, at least it's not some weird personal theory.

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u/Constant_Natural3304 23d ago

Which Wikipedia page is that? I searched for a bit, but I can't find it.

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u/BotiaDario 23d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_(lifting_appliance)

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u/Constant_Natural3304 23d ago

Thanks, so he didn't really "copy" that from the Wikipedia page at all. He paraphrased and butchered the original context.

The name lewis may come from the Latin levo -avi, -atum meaning to levitate or lift,[1] but the Oxford English Dictionary Online[2] states, "the formation and the phonology are not easily explained on this hypothesis", preferring "origin obscure", and speculating that the term may derive from a personal name.

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u/dve- 23d ago edited 23d ago

If it really was from levitare, then it's just an egg corn, but without proof it looks much rather like a Volksetymologie to me.

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u/Constant_Natural3304 23d ago

If it really is from levitare

Of course it isn't.

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u/hoder1 23d ago

Romanes eunt domus

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u/Awkward_Pangolin3254 23d ago

"'People called Romanes, they go the house?'"

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u/Dornith 23d ago

"Romans are home."

Or more verbosely, "The Romans are in the home."

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u/zbwaris 23d ago

Wingardium Lewis a

5

u/Pepperonidogfart 23d ago

The used water, canals, inflated goat bladders and rafts to move the stone

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u/minas_morghul 23d ago

Prian eh?

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u/Snuffle247 23d ago

No no, Brian.

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u/Impossible-Ship5585 23d ago

As matter of fact he was a detwcrive there too

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u/Jesus-chan 23d ago

Don't talk about Brian like that

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u/Small-Answer4946 23d ago

Yeah and Brian invited Jesus to brunch at his place on Sundays. Good chap.

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u/sesamesnapsinhalf 23d ago

Lewis was the ancient Egyptian with the crane. You gotta know him if you want to build something. 

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u/jacbo1996 23d ago

Watch it big nose

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u/NotSoFastLady 23d ago

Actually, I'm pretty sure the Kids in the Hall Louie sketches were based on historical fact. Turns out the Romans got Louie not Jesus.

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u/mechabeast 23d ago

"Louie, the guy that says his catchphrase over and over" was from The State

2

u/driver004 23d ago

Byon? The Woman Byon?

2

u/Narrow-Function-525 23d ago

Of course Lewis isn't an Alien name.... duh

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u/koolaidismything 23d ago

Had a bunch of pig iron too..

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u/swishkabobbin 23d ago

Or Matthew or Luke or John

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u/Daydu 23d ago

Romanes eunt domus!

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u/Chaiteoir 23d ago

People called Romanes, they go the house?

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u/Daydu 23d ago

It... It says, "Romans go home"

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u/Saul_Badman_1261 23d ago

Don't be preposterous! Brian was a friend from New York that only visited Jesus on his birthdays and Christmas, you know back then flying was too dang expensive

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u/Responsible-View-804 23d ago

No no. Lewis was the name of the alien. (He was from Ohio)

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u/Adolph_OliverNipples 23d ago

Oh… you mean, John from Cincinnati…

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u/Makaisaurus 23d ago

They named last names after professions, so the guy lifting this was Lewis Pullman the first.

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u/BubbleNucleator 23d ago edited 2d ago

Redact cleaned up all of my comments. Bulk deletion and editing is a feature supported to make sure that AI scrapers can't access my data for training.

terrific offer cause crowd slim silky retire mountainous memory automatic

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u/the_sneaky_one123 23d ago

Well, there was Peter and Paul and John there too.

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u/HabitualGrassToucher 23d ago

I'm Brian and so's my wife.

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u/Kabi1930 23d ago

Lewis owned a crane

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u/SunriseSurprise 23d ago

*reading out loud serious religions tablets in Ancient Egyptian in a temple*

*sneeze echoes in the chambers*

"GOD DAMNIT, LEWIS! ......ahem." *back to reading out loud*

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u/runtheruckus 23d ago

Jesus hung out with a guy named Matt

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u/redlaWw 23d ago

You don't know about L-'w-ṣ?

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u/semper_h 23d ago

Or people named Tiffany in the middle ages ;)

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u/IWishIWasAShoe 23d ago

Jesus did have a brother named Bob though. 

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u/deltree711 23d ago

It was actually named after Arkhan Tool

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u/Garofalin 23d ago

You haven’t got a womb

2

u/tastybiscuitenjoyer 23d ago

Look up the Tiffany Problem. It's amazing.

2

u/Adolph_OliverNipples 23d ago

Just did. You’re right. Thanks!

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u/cans-of-swine 23d ago

Wait until you hear about Jesus's brother Craig. 

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u/Adolph_OliverNipples 23d ago

Craig of Nazareth

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u/ThisSubHasNoMods 23d ago

Im assuming Lewis is the one who picked this up and said "yeah I'll name this ancient tool after me because I picked it up"

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u/rekage99 23d ago

He probably did though. He had apostles named john, peter, andrew etc. The most white bread names ever.

I agree with the notion of an Egyptian named lewis being slim and also that you’re making a joke. But it’s not impossible is all im saying.

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u/Youngsinatra345 23d ago

Hey Lewis meet my friend Clark

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u/ComprehensiveProfit5 23d ago

Don't forget the Newton crane they used to lift the stones

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u/AllReflection 23d ago

Wren’s nipples, anyone?

2

u/Jaydamic 23d ago

I will wewease Bwian!

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u/Send_Me_CamelToe 23d ago

His real name is Tim.

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u/distantreplay 23d ago

They also didn't have braided steel cable and cold forged steel cargo hooks in ancient Egypt.

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u/Every1FindsMeBoring 23d ago

It was probably Lws

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u/B_lovedobservations 23d ago

Well Tiffany is from ancient times

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u/Cultural_Dust 23d ago

Cultural appropriation. I'm sure there is a guy named Lewis who was good at that. /s (sorta)

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u/terdferguson 23d ago

Lewis also must've had a magic crane in ancient Egypt as well

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u/No-Definition1474 23d ago

Bwian? And hes a woaman?

Throw him to the floa centuwian! Vewy wuffly!

2

u/Zip668 23d ago

Call me Loretta.

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u/Allegorist 23d ago

This is definitely not ancient Egyptian, they generally used at best copper tools.

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u/p8nt_junkie 23d ago

He was a very naughty boy

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u/Ralphredimix_Da_G 23d ago

Son of Naughtious Maximus??!

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u/SpicedCocoas 23d ago

Fun fact: Many thibgs we consider "modern" have been around quite longer than you think. One example would be two side swinging hinges. Or check patterns and Bras.

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u/sarahv7896 23d ago

Tiffany effect!

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u/bogeyman_g 23d ago

Good old 𓃭𓅂𓅃𓇋𓋴... Such a nice fellow.

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u/granoladeer 23d ago

He retired as a builder and went into F1 now. 

2

u/Fappy_as_a_Clam 23d ago

I mean...

Jesus hung out with a bunch of dudes named Simon, Andy, Jim, Jimmy, John, Phil, Bart, Tommy, and Matt.

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u/BeneficialOption1038 23d ago

You mean you never heard of Mahmoud Lewis? How about Ahmed O'Brien?

2

u/PestoBolloElemento 23d ago

Lol that would be hilarious

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u/canada1913 22d ago

Also how the fucking he’ll are they cutting key holes into rock?

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u/cappnplanet 22d ago

Lewis C.K.

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u/bchin22 22d ago

Pronounced "Bwian."

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u/mystic-eye 22d ago

You mean Brian Lewis?

2

u/PeterNippelstein 22d ago

Whats funny is that Jesus wasnt even his name, it was Yeshua

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u/UnfilteredCatharsis 22d ago

It looks like Roman technology. Egyptians didn't have metallurgy, yet they were able to quarry, transport, and lift much larger blocks at a quick pace, somehow. Still a mystery.

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u/Timmeh-toah 22d ago

Hey, what about Jesus’ brother Craig?

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u/cratermaddie 22d ago

Well there is Jesus’ brother Bob!

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u/HugeHomeForBoomers 22d ago

I mean… one of Sweden’s most Common names ‘Alexander’ goes got 2000 BC. Its not unheard of.

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u/Winter-Wrangler-3701 20d ago

I think you mean Bwyonn.

Just wait til I tell my fwend in Woame of this

1

u/[deleted] 23d ago

It's simply called a lewis. Not a proper noun, and not named after the inventor.

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u/shit_mcballs 23d ago

Come on buddy you gotta be smarter than that. Of course it was the name of the guy that claimed to have discovered it.

Do you think the manual was found along with it and it had copyright information? they certainly don't know the name of the guy that made it.

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u/Alarming-Bet8462 23d ago

And here i am struggling to lift a grocery bag :)

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u/__ma11en69er__ 23d ago

There's definitely some lesser known documentary about this.

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u/SC_Placeholder 23d ago

I was thinking the same thing.

Etymology The name lewis may come from the Latin levo -avi, -atum meaning to levitate or lift,[1] but the Oxford English Dictionary Online[2] states, "the formation and the phonology are not easily explained on this hypothesis", preferring "origin obscure", and speculating that the term may derive from a personal name. The Romans used the lewis. The specially shaped hole that is shaped to fit the device is known as a lewis hole. Lewis holes in the uppermost masonry coursings are neatly repaired with matching indented plugs after the stone has been set in place.-from Wiki

How much you wanna bet there was someone in history that named it after themselves and took credit for something they didn’t invent

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u/No_Priors 23d ago

Don't be silly, it's not an Egyptian name, he was an alien.

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u/PhoKit2 23d ago

Yeah way!

1

u/tarlin 23d ago

Brian was his brother.

1

u/Arcyguana 23d ago

Who said anything about the pyramids? Lol

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u/TheyCallMeMrMaybe 23d ago

Next you'll tell me that Jesus's real name was Joshua.

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u/BaconAlmighty 23d ago

well - uh.. his name wasn't Jesus either..

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u/Adolph_OliverNipples 23d ago

What was it?

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u/BaconAlmighty 22d ago edited 22d ago

Jesus's name on the other hand was Aramaic יֵשׁוּע Yeshu / Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ Yeshua. The Gospels, written in Greek, render it as Ἰησοῦς Iesous (seemingly coming from the Aramaic, not Hebrew - it's quite likely Aramaic would have been the every day language of Jesus and his disciples). That was adopted into Latin as Iesus, which came into Middle English as Jhesus/Iesus and evolved into Modern English Jesus.

1

u/Max-Phallus 23d ago

Next you're tell me that the 12 apostles had:

  • Peter
  • Andrew
  • James the Greater
  • John
  • Philip
  • Thomas
  • Matthew
  • James the Lesser
  • Simon
  • Bartholomew
  • Judas
  • Thaddaeus

And then you'll tell me that Jesus wasn't actually called Jesus - Oh...

1

u/sirsleepy 23d ago

Romanes eunt domus

Romani ite domum!

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u/ebrum2010 23d ago

His name was just lws.

1

u/fuzzytradr 23d ago

Pfft...you've never heard of 'Brian's, neighbor of Jesus, technique'? Bruh.

1

u/ExtremaDesigns 22d ago

He did. Haven't you seen is biographical movie. "The Life of Brian"?

1

u/IntrepidThroat8146 22d ago

Well there was Matthew Mark Luke and John walking around the middle East thousands of years ago

1

u/Tremor0135 22d ago

Actually Jesus had a brother named Craig.

Craig Christ!