
The “greased sled” theory of Stonehenge - wormold
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-was-stonehenge-built-pig-fat
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kitd
About 2/3 down of this page suggests grease has been tried before and was not
effective:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_about_Stonehenge#Cons...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_about_Stonehenge#Construction_techniques_and_design)

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dsfyu404ed
As someone who's moved a lot of machinery the hard way (i.e. not paying
someone else to do it with a fork lift) I like the stone rollers and wood
track the best. One dude with a pry bar can roll a >3-ton (per the
manufacturer, not just a guess) mill sitting on rollers sitting on 2x4s
sitting on rough ground (protip: vary the thickness of the lumber depending on
how much you want it to conform to the ground). A 100+ people should have no
problem rolling a 40-ton stone if said stone is sitting on a wood and roller
sandwich. If you have a 10yr project deadline you could build a few miles of
track a year, get the whole village together, roll the stone a few miles over
the course of a week then throw a party to celebrate how far you've moved the
stone then leave it to sit for 6mo and do it again.

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kitd
And presumably, with a large enough team, the "track" could be lifted once the
stone has gone over it, and relaid at the front JIT.

I also think that the people of the time were very adept at working with large
tree trunks. Many late stone-age structures used them extensively, eg large
round houses, platforms on lakes, etc. Fashioning smooth round rollers would
have been relatively straight-forward for them IMO.

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theguppydream
Bill Bryson on Stonehenge:

"Can you imagine trying to talk six hundred people into helping you drag a
fifty-ton stone eighteen miles across the countryside and muscle it into an
upright position, and then saying, 'Right, lads! Another twenty like
that...and then we can party!'"

(Yes, I only know that quote from Civ 6)

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iamnotacrook
If you consider how much time and effort goes into making a lot of movies and
music which to all intents and purposes are identical as far as I can tell
(but which I'm assuming makes someone a lot of money) then it's not clear why
people find it puzzling that a bunch of smart (if missing some modern
implements) people moved a few stones around a bit for a laugh.

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gilrain
"which to all intents and purposes are identical as far as I can tell"

What naked disdain for the creative labor of others.

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asfarley
I didn't read that comment as disdain at all; just drawing an equivalence
between prehistoric, not-necessary-for-survival activites and modern not-
necessary-for-survival activities.

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benj111
I did some reading around to see how chariot axles were done at the time. This
predates the chariot, the wheel and possibly domestication itself.

So even my visions of a nice iron age pig farm is as likely to be a reality of
hunting wild boar in the forest, on foot.

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throwaway23057
Stonehenge is around 3-2000 BC, the iron age in, say, France started at about
700 BC, pig domestication started from beyond 10000 BC according to Wikipedia,
so an iron age farm is conceivable. Partly domesticated pigs could also simply
stay close to human settlements, without any tech necessary.

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carapace
Solved by W. Wallington over a decade ago. The stones "walked", just like the
old tales say. _One_ man could have built Stonehenge.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Wallington](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Wallington)

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xt00
140 miles to haul a bunch of 1-2 ton stones on perfectly flat ground with
grease is one thing, if there are any minor hills or a good set of them, that
would require massive amounts of energy.. any chance they used animals at all?

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abainbridge
If you want some archaeological engineering theories that aren't obviously
wrong, I highly recommend this youtube series about how the Antikythera
mechanism could have been made.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML4tw_UzqZE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML4tw_UzqZE)

It's the complete antithesis of this pig fat hogwash.

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supermatt
This is probably a less effective approach than the "fed a gaul some magic
potion and got him to throw it 140 miles" theory.

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mnw21cam
Who said fat? (I'm just well-built, that's all.)

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maxheadroom
I suspect that if we could figure out how Edward Leedskalnin did it[0], we
could probably piece-together if Stonehenge was done the same way.

[0] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Castle#History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Castle#History)

