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Inca Stone Masonry

earthasweknowit.com

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Re: Inca Stone Masonry

#11

Post by gus_massa »

metalman wrote: post #8

Exceptionaly well documented and written article detailing the well known techniques used to build the iconic stone work in south america. I read an earlier account of a researcher who started investigating pre spanish south american quaries, and how there sudden realisation, while sitting down for lunch, that the round stone to there right, was the hammer used to shape the larger stone to there left and the rows of…

> Having worked a bit of stone myself,

Just curious. Do you have some photos?

Re: Inca Stone Masonry

#12

Post by griffzhowl »

jstanley wrote: post #2

[flagged]

> We know that the Inca didn't build Sacsayhuaman because they said that they didn't.

Where are you getting this from? The Spanish chroniclers report Inca tradition that the 15th century leader Pachacuti initiated the building. The wiki article has a few long excerpts from Pedro Cieza de Leon's Cronicas del Peru, including details of how many labourers were involved and some of the methods for quarrying, transporting stone, and construction:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n

Re: Inca Stone Masonry

#13

Post by bregma »

afandian wrote: post #4
jstanley wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Is there a counter-theory?

Well, there's obviously the alien contact theory. If you've ever been to Nazca where the landing strips are only a few hundred miles from the Inca empire you'd be a believer. If you want to believe, that is.

Re: Inca Stone Masonry

#16

Post by regularfry »

metalman wrote: post #8

Exceptionaly well documented and written article detailing the well known techniques used to build the iconic stone work in south america. I read an earlier account of a researcher who started investigating pre spanish south american quaries, and how there sudden realisation, while sitting down for lunch, that the round stone to there right, was the hammer used to shape the larger stone to there left and the rows of…

I've often come across a concept in magic performance that what the performer is aiming at is for the only available explanation for what you see would take an amount of effort that you immediately discount because clearly nobody would put that much effort into making a ping pong ball disappear. There are two ways to make the ping pong ball disappear: either the performer is cheating somehow, or they did actually do it the obvious way and yes, they did put all that effort in.

This seems the same: the idea the people shaped these stones by hand seems so outrageously profligate with human exertion that you look for how they cheated. But the answer is that it's actually slightly less exertion than you think, multiplied across far more humans than you think, but yes, they did go the long way round.

Re: Inca Stone Masonry

#18

Post by bdhcuidbebe »

jstanley wrote: post #5
afandian wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a counter-theory?

The theory is that there was an older and more advanced civilisation that built them using more advanced techniques which are now lost. And the Inca inherited pre-existing structures. The Inca did do stonework of their own, but not close to the standard exhibited in this article.

Thats not a theory. Its the plot of a netflix entertainment show by famous sharlatan journalist (not a scientist, not an archeolog) Graham Hancock.

Re: Inca Stone Masonry

#19

Post by skulk »

jstanley wrote: post #5
afandian wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a counter-theory?

The theory is that there was an older and more advanced civilisation that built them using more advanced techniques which are now lost. And the Inca inherited pre-existing structures. The Inca did do stonework of their own, but not close to the standard exhibited in this article.

This doesn't pass the sniff test. How could a civilization supposedly far more advanced than the Inca vanish without leaving the Inca a single shred of evidence of their existence? No tools, no records, no memory at all? Oh, except the giant intricate stone structures they built. A coordinated conspiracy to claim their superior civilizational achievements as their own might be the only explanation of that and that's veering into comedy.
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