•  forrgott   ( @forrgott@lemm.ee ) 
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        54 months ago

        I have a hard time seeing a raft as having the necessary water displacement capability to handle that kind of weight, thought. And they left a written record regarding much smaller craft; so one obvious question, where’s the record of any more advanced ship building?

        I guess it’s just the fact that it’s actually really not easy at all to get such enormous chunks of stone to float. But, I also cannot offer any other explanation, so take that as you will…

        • I thought about these two factors too, and they bug me.

          Clearly there is a way to build a boat that can carry the equivalent of one of those massive blocks. It would have a massive amount of wood and some clever engineering. Whether they knew how or even if the waterways were deep enough for them to go through…

          Could it be this was the technological leap that allowed the the big pyramids to be built, and why they stand so much taller than the others? Could it be the knowledge didn’t last long and whatever written record got lost to time? It’s a lot of conjecture.

          •  forrgott   ( @forrgott@lemm.ee ) 
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            24 months ago

            Oh, I totally agree with your views here, I think. I guess it just bothers me whenever I see some “obvious” solution on some article or headline. The ones who built these monuments achieved something truly incredible, and we still can’t explain how they did so.

      •  Umbrias   ( @Umbrias@beehaw.org ) 
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        14 months ago

        Yeah that’s only a 2.3 m^3 displacement. That’s only 35 people roughly. From even a cursory Google I see more people than that painted rowing boats, and that’s a pretty pitiful tonnage for transporting goods, like say, two cows.

        Methinks the even on record ships we have of the era would do just fine. Almost like the culture with huge variety and skill in watercraft because they live wholly reliant on a river had ways to transport things on that river.