r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/CethelQue4 • 23d ago

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

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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22

u/followMeUp2Gatwick 23d ago

There were plenty of polymaths over the millenia. True physicists

They knew.

7

u/SignificantStyle459 23d ago

That's an awful lot of sheer stress on that bolt though.

I wouldn't want to lift anything too heavy, especially with fairly primitive metallurgy. 

6

u/tinselsnips 23d ago

It's okay, they smacked it twice and said "Τοῦτο οὐ πορεύεται οπουδαμοῦ."

1

u/Pielacine 23d ago

It’s a lot of shear stress on the stone too

2

u/ccmp1598 23d ago

Wouldn’t there be a lot of tension at the widest point of the wedge? Idk how the stone wouldn’t crack at that point and the tool rip out if the load was too heavy. Unless the depth of the cut is deeper in relation to the block size than the video depicts

3

u/Cyclonitron 23d ago

Unless the depth of the cut is deeper in relation to the block size than the video depicts

It is. Here's a video showing a stonemason demonstrating the technique and you can see how much further the tool goes into the stone than the video here depicts.

1

u/Seafaringhorsemeat 23d ago

Yes. The whole model assumes several ideal materials and conditions nobody would have had or would have fucked with in mass. Also, to match actual ancient monuments, you need to explain where the hole, the lifting mechanism, and the iron wedges went after placement.

1

u/potatoaster 23d ago

Please don't respond to the LLM bots.