Ancient ruins in South America, dated back to 12000 BC.

[Chaosblade02]

I found a picture of an Egyptian vase made out of solid diorite. Now they would have had to know methods that aren't known today about working stone to be able to make this. These stone crafting techniques have been lost.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Diorite_Vase_Neqada_II_Predynastic_Ancient_Egypt_Field_Museum.jpg

[Marie46]

I always find this sort of stuff intriguing and yes we are missing a lot of history i am sure. There were really intelligent folks back then, but also stupid.

 

One rumor i heard was and this is lost science aswell: The amphoras(?) egg shape is inefficient for transport, but why did they still use this shape? Because it keeps things alive for longer.

 

Anyway. To whoever want to check that out google Viktor Schauberger.

He had some really interesting insights pertaining to that.

 

Youtube: Comprehend and copy nature.

 

That was around ~1930 and similar to Tesla only now it is being slowly rediscovered what was being ment in the first place.

[Ghogiel]

I found a picture of an Egyptian vase made out of solid diorite. Now they would have had to know methods that aren't known today about working stone to be able to make this. These stone crafting techniques have been lost.

I think you under estimate what a master craftsman can accomplish. Those Egyptians were no slouches.

 

People have been sculpting hard stone for hundreds of thousands of years.

 

apparently they just hit it with a stone hammer ... a lot. then used drills and abrasives to rasp it. technique wise, handcrafted stone sculptures are pretty much done like that today. Only the tools have changed, diamond tipped drills, steel chisels, heh, a dremel.

[Chaosblade02]

I found a picture of an Egyptian vase made out of solid diorite. Now they would have had to know methods that aren't known today about working stone to be able to make this. These stone crafting techniques have been lost.

I think you under estimate what a master craftsman can accomplish. Those Egyptians were no slouches.

 

People have been sculpting hard stone for hundreds of thousands of years.

 

apparently they just hit it with a stone hammer ... a lot. then used drills and abrasives to rasp it. technique wise, handcrafted stone sculptures are pretty much done like that today. Only the tools have changed, diamond tipped drills, steel chisels, heh, a dremel.

 

The vase could have possibly been created over a long period of time, probably years to make it. But those blocks at Puma Punku, are too accurate to have been made by hand tools. We are talking within thousandths of an inch, and clean inside corners with no tool markings, and being able to repeat this tolerance, they would have also had to have a standard of measuring, and tools that could measure such a small margin, can't do this with a tape measure or ruler, certainly not a rope with notches on it marking cubits. On the vase, I can tell the hole to the left is slightly larger than the one to the right, that is just by eye, meaning this was not precision crafted, but those blocks are. Whoever made Puma Punku was more advanced than ancient Egypt, by a considerable margin.

[Ghogiel]

The vase could have possibly been created over a long period of time, probably years to make it.

with lots of elbow grease, It's probably much less than years. I think you still under estimate the skill of a master craftman. They could probably carve a bowl or cup from hard stone in a maybe, what a couple days? "Years" is a very long time frame. Breaking the stone 100 times trying to accomplish that 1 piece might make take the project into the years. He probably wouldn't be able to talk the pharaoh into keeping him paid throughput that time, if it took that long to get a vase out of him.

 

But those blocks at Puma Punku, are too accurate to have been made by hand tools. We are talking within thousandths of an inch, and clean inside corners with no tool markings, and being able to repeat this tolerance, they would have also had to have a standard of measuring, and tools that could measure such a small margin, can't do this with a tape measure or ruler, certainly not a rope with notches on it marking cubits.

No doubt the indians who built those structure were amazing architects. But saying that they couldn't do so with hand tools is a large assumption. In all probability they did use hand tools. sandstone shapes well, which is why they used it. And you must take into account that the quality of build does not appear to be entirely consistent- ie not ALL of the stones laid there fit so accurtely precise. this suggests to me that they were hand made and laid.

 

more advanced than egypt is a very bold statement. one I think many will not share. the monumental ability of egypt is matched by few civilizations. and considering egypt predates these guys by thousands of years, doesn't help that statements credibility.

[Ares1]

I've heard about this ruin before the stonework is extremely accurate carving with hand tools would have been difficult or impossible, and the material it is carved in could have only been carved with diamond tipped tools, it is a mystery of how they were able to do this at all...

 

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YKPd1gUPBrw/S1Jkn9Z0cpI/AAAAAAAAD1Y/f_tTl41qHhc/s400/fd_lamp.jpg

 

also look at this image I've seen this before on the history channel... it is a light bulb in an ancient Egyptian temple

to further this if the Egyptians used torches in their temples and tombs wouldn't there be burn marks on the ceiling

[Ghogiel]

and the material it is carved in could have only been carved with diamond tipped tools, it is a mystery of how they were able to do this at all...

sandstone does not require diamond tip tool to carve. Even the hardest stones, which sand stone isn't, can be shaped without diamond tipped tools.

 

also look at this image I've seen this before on the history channel... it is a light bulb in an ancient Egyptian temple

to further this if the Egyptians used torches in their temples and tombs wouldn't there be burn marks on the ceiling

considering that they were thousands of yers old, and were usually originally painted, stucco, or some sort of grand interior decoration, which is no longer present, I would assume they simply degraded over time, or were desecrated by thieves.

[Vindekarr]

You're missing the point: that aint sand stone.

 

Ghogiel, reread some of page #2. This is granite, and diorite. It's some of the hardest stone on earth. Sandstone chips easily. this is not sandstone. Chipping it would be incredibly dificult if not impossible even with modern diamond tipped powertools, and completely impossible with stone tools.

 

And they werent Indians either...

 

What you fail to grasp is the simple fact that we arent talking about some mere sandstone or limestone that you can break apart by hand. I used my uni friends network to get my mits on some Diorite, and that stuff broke a powerdrill, a circular saw, and a high end pickaxe, with an ex football quaterback swingin em.

 

Eventualy we took a jackhammer to it, and the tip was damaged before the stone was. Simple fact of the matter is that to machine diorite like this you'd need either diamond tipped tools powertools, lasers, hyper pressurised watersaws, or something more advanced, like a stone eating caustic or acid. Because this isnt a stone that could be chipped at all by anything less.

[Chaosblade02]

You're missing the point: that aint sand stone.

 

Ghogiel, reread some of page #2. This is granite, and diorite. It's some of the hardest stone on earth. Sandstone chips easily. this is not sandstone. Chipping it would be incredibly dificult if not impossible even with modern diamond tipped powertools, and completely impossible with stone tools.

 

And they werent Indians either...

 

What you fail to grasp is the simple fact that we arent talking about some mere sandstone or limestone that you can break apart by hand. I used my uni friends network to get my mits on some Diorite, and that stuff broke a powerdrill, a circular saw, and a high end pickaxe, with an ex football quaterback swingin em.

 

Eventualy we took a jackhammer to it, and the tip was damaged before the stone was. Simple fact of the matter is that to machine diorite like this you'd need either diamond tipped tools powertools, lasers, hyper pressurised watersaws, or something more advanced, like a stone eating caustic or acid. Because this isnt a stone that could be chipped at all by anything less.

 

It is possible to use diorite, to chip diorite. The native American Indians used flint to chip away pieces of flint into arrowheads. And to do holes they would have to get a piece of diorite, and the size of the hole they wanted, shaped like a dowel, and put some sand in the hole and grind, grind, grind, for days/weeks to make a hole. But these methods are crude and not accurate, that vase could have possibly been made using such methods, but no way in hell did they make those blocks by doing that. Round diorite stones were found near places the Egyptians quarried granite from, it was believe that they slammed the diorite stones on the ground to crack the granite, this was a very long process with 100s of workers doing this for 3-4 years before they chip out a large block in the shape of an obelisk. They found some unfinished obelisks at the quarry site also, this is how they know. I saw some other techniques where they would chip out slots around in the solid granite, then slip wood down in the slots and pour water, which would make the wood absorb water, expand and then crack the granite into rough shaped blocks. But these methods are still too crude to have produced blocks with such precision.

 

There is one power tool that I know for a fact can cut through diorite like its butter.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_jet_cutter

 

I used to work in my uncles machine shop, and they had one of these, its a beast of a machine, cut anything you lay up on the table. The only thing it can't do is cut inside corners, but it is a precision machine and can cut stuff within a couple thousandths of an inch, even diorite, it can do lines, and archs, and could write your name in a piece of diorite with a clean cut.

[ub3rman123]

So why did they use diorite if it's so hard to work? I would imagine they were building these as a place to live, they would likely want their pottery some time during their life span. Why not just make it out of clay like everyone else?