Twelve-year-old can lift blocks previously thought impossible
August 07, 2009 BY Jennifer McIntosh
Scholars have speculated for years about how the Egyptians could have moved the large blocks of stone necessary to build the pyramids. The man who may have solved the mystery has never even been to Egypt and lives in Nepean. People have pondered over alien guidance or divine help. Still others have calculated the use of hundreds or thousands of slaves.
“I just wanted to solve the problem and not get contaminated by too much knowledge,” 75-year-old Dominic Raina said. “They always say there is no record of how they moved the stones. But I think there is if you know what to look for.”
Raina grew up on a farm where he lifted heavy things all the time. Throughout his life he watched documentaries on Egypt and puzzled over how the ancient peoples would have transported their building materials.
It wasn’t until he watching a nature show that it suddenly came to him.
“I was watching a show on dung beetles and then it hit me,” he said. “The scarab beetle was one of their most sacred symbols. It is essentially a dung beetle.”
The reason that is significant is that the dung beetle moves its load by rolling it along and uses the weight of the object as its own leverage.
“It was significant that the sacred animal wasn’t a lion or a tiger,” he said. “Because that was how they did their work.”
It was then that Raina thought maybe the building of the pyramids didn’t require thousands of slaves.
“I used the stone to move itself,” he said. “I think with my theory, a mom and pop operation could have easily transported the stones.”
Raina said modern man has been stymied thus far because we get blindsided by our own technology.
“Once you establish that the Egyptians didn’t have the wheel people get hung up on that, but they didn’t need it,” he said.
Raina’s system uses 33, 37-pound patio stones on an angle with planks of wood tied on the outside. The wood acts as a stepping tool to allow the rocks’ weight to move themselves. His 10-year-old grandson can move 12 times his body weight using this technique.
Throughout the month of July, Raina led a series of day camps and information sessions on the topic at the Museum of Civilization. He built mini-pyramids for an audience three times per day using his method and additional planks of wood as speed bumps to keep the rocks going in the shape needed.
Despite his lack of scholarly prowess, Raina’s technique has been featured in Italian archeological journals.
“No one can say for sure that I am right, but it makes a lot of sense,” he said.
posted
if you look at pictures of hieroglyphs you would no that the Egyptians had help with the moving of the stones just look at the writings on the walls ask an egyptologist they should no what I'm talking about
Posts: 5 | From: earth | Registered: Aug 2009
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how enlightening!! Posts: 12143 | From: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable | Registered: Jun 2007
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quote:Originally posted by enlightenone: if you look at pictures of hieroglyphs you would no that the Egyptians had help with the moving of the stones just look at the writings on the walls ask an egyptologist they should no what I'm talking about
Posts: 12143 | From: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable | Registered: Jun 2007
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