Roman stone lifting technique

Jul 15, 2026 4:47 PM

DOcelot1

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28907

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994

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7

And now they can't even design a working wiring loom for a car..🤦😂

2 weeks ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 6

The Romans couldn't do that either, though

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

2 weeks ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 1

GOOGLEDEBUNKERS!

2 weeks ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Aliens!

2 weeks ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Had to be some pretty horrific outcomes when those failed at one point or another.

2 weeks ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

2 weeks ago | Likes 16 Dislikes 0

Basically a foxtail joint. Clever.

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

Can I still use this technique if I'm Canadian?

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Let's not get all cultural appropriating-ism-ist-ish... anyway. If you can prove you have some Roman blood in you. Or maybe you have a best friend who is Roman. Maybe a brother-in-law. Or maybe if you pressed olives at some point, that'd probably be okay too. At a dead minimum you need to have reclined on a funny sofa and fed yourself grapes. You gotta give us something.

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I've visited Italy in two consecutive millenia. Is that enough?

2 weeks ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I think that's a clear pass going forward. The senate has convened and also grants you two public toga-wearing approvals as well. Use them wisely.

2 weeks ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

This is basically how a PC Kensington security lock works

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Amazing. Meanwhile, yesterday I couldn't unplug a charger from a surge protector because it was really in there.

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Sure... but what have the Romans ever done for us?

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The shims don't need to have the lifting pin go through them. They don't help transmit lifting force. They just need to be clear of the pin and keep the wedges spread apart

2 weeks ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 4

But if one of the shims is too trapezoidal it could get squeezed out and drop the whole brick in the shock loads. They probably would pin all of them just to be sure, especially since they didn't know how to model the forces here - it's not like they're expendable.

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Depending on what the shims and wedges are made of, the wedges can crush the shims

2 weeks ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

Saves losing them in the hole or in your toolkit.

2 weeks ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Right but without the pin nothing keeps the shims in place except the flatness of pressure on either side and the flatness of the combined faces. Debris, uneven hole, uneven wedge face, or rotational torque will pop those shims out unless they're retained somehow. The pin doesn't go through the shims to lift, it goes through to keep them there.

2 weeks ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

That and the pin provides a convenient attachment point for the handle.

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

That's fucking incredible ingenuity. Imagine the person who came up with that.

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

And then after getting the stone ready to lift they used a crane. Smart.

2 weeks ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 1

But the entire integrity and strength of your grip is based all on that single bolt. That becomes your point of failsure, and if that bolt isn't thick enough to hold up the weight of the stone, it will fail

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Learn what size fails for what rock and make bigger ones.

2 weeks ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

That’s way more clever than I would’ve come up with. Any time I have to lift something heavy I just spend the time wishing I could use the force

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Silly design. You can clearly just slide the whole thing out towards the camera. /s

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

How much does the average man think about the roman empire.... results may shock yoy

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

What's that crane look like?

2 weeks ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

If you click the link it takes you to the corresponding reddit page with additional information.

2 weeks ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 1

short version: same way a modern crane winch works, but it's powered by a human in a giant hamster wheel.

2 weeks ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Give me a stone and a stick long enough and i can move the earth. Lever, fulcrum , the oldest ideas are still the best

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I'm pretty sure that's not lifting. That's just a handle. You still have to lift it. That's the hard part when it weighs 1,000 to 2,000 pounds.

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Okay but that's how they tied into the Rock but how did they LIFT it?

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

With their back, using a jerking, twisting motion.

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Okay, but dafuq is that rope attached to? A Catligula?

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

A crane, powered by a human in a giant hamster wheel. Basically the solution used until any kind of engine turned up, and at least as old as the romans - probably older than the pyramid egyptians.

2 weeks ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

other techniques for moving stone

2 weeks ago | Likes 449 Dislikes 6

impressive but i don’t think it accounts for any of the magalithic wonders of the world.

2 weeks ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 15

Simple Machines ftw

2 weeks ago | Likes 95 Dislikes 0

It certainly has its advantages

2 weeks ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

Mechanical Advantages specifically.

2 weeks ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

Joe Rogan “clearly this was done by aliens, I’m gonna spread pseudoscience about it.”

2 weeks ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I just rewatched all those videos last month. Good informative stuff.

2 weeks ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

This motherfucker built Stonhenge in his back yard to prove it could be done. But he did it by himself.

2 weeks ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

do not unmute

2 weeks ago | Likes 69 Dislikes 3

Seriously.. holy garbage

2 weeks ago | Likes 28 Dislikes 1

2 weeks ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

2 weeks ago | Likes 21 Dislikes 0

When it was ancient white people building big things, people always talk about how intelligent and ingenious they were coming up with such clever ways of doing things. When brown people built big things, all of a sudden it's a great mystery, we have no idea how they could have managed, it must have been aliens!

2 weeks ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 3

Who says that?

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 3

That name, though

2 weeks ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Wally Wallington from Wallawalla, Washington..?

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Guy's definitely stoned

2 weeks ago | Likes 18 Dislikes 0

“Give to me a fulcrum on which to plant my lever, and I will move the world.” -Archie of the Medes

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

2 weeks ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 1

Nice

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

something something a long enough lever and a fulcrum to place it

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Racists really be like "non white people didn't have the technology to stack blocks, had to be aliens"

2 weeks ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 2

What is that infernal sound

2 weeks ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 1

Yeah, but the Egyptians definitely had Giants/Aliens/Nephilim with psychic sound wave powers

2 weeks ago | Likes 28 Dislikes 0

The Nephilim, for example?

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

2 weeks ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

As it's been pointed out on It's Probably (Not) Aliens, we do currently have devices that move loads with nothing but sound waves; they're called explosives.

2 weeks ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Well, sure the Egyptians had them. The Romans were too poor to hire extraterrestrial contractors and had to make do with only human labour.

The problem was time. The pyramids of Giza were built in 2600 BC while the ancient Roman empire reach its peak around 100 CE - so, 2700 years of inflation meant the Romans couldn't afford the the alien construction crew.

The contractors "Big Zuc'tarven Kerb'lyssan Erg'zzormitar Co." couldn't afford to keep Mars due to the job shortage. They moved to Earth.

2 weeks ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

Descendents of the founder of the company are still around. But go by a shorter name: Zuckerberg.

2 weeks ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

You mean stacking rocks in the most efficient form for stacking is beyond the capabilities of human minds? Maybe it is for those that believe in that nonsense.

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I could never find it again! Thanks a ton.

2 weeks ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

Who better to know how to build a wall but he?

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Wally is the man!!!

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

While these are cool, most of them aren't how massive ancient stone structures were built. Most of them did it through just having a massive labor force.

2 weeks ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 11

Some of these though... Let's move a HUGE slab of stone over there so we can use it to move a small stone block (still makes sense if you have to move many stones, but it doesn't fit in the 'oh my god how did we even manage to move them' category)

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 5

Nah, must be the aliens.

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Steve Brule

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

No rafts and rivers?

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

But how did they make the hole?

2 weeks ago | Likes 56 Dislikes 2

Lasers

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

That’s just the way they grow the rocks

2 weeks ago | Likes 91 Dislikes 1

Aliens drilled it out for them.

2 weeks ago | Likes 48 Dislikes 1

That would be the funniest shit ever if it actually was true, can you imagine.

2 weeks ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

Very carefully.

2 weeks ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

Dremel

2 weeks ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

They're so damn handy

2 weeks ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Ok but who filmed this? #timetravelingaliens

2 weeks ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Aliens.

2 weeks ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 2

Literally anything operating like a hammer, and literally anything operating like a chisel.

2 weeks ago | Likes 34 Dislikes 0

Whay about a hammer and a chisel?

2 weeks ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 0

Dear God. Someone get this man a medal

2 weeks ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

Sure but sure seems like it might take longer to drill the hole than moving the stone in some other way

2 weeks ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 2

What other way?
Manually hammer drilling the hole would absolutely depend on the specific type of rock, but even if it were granite it would take mere hours.

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

What other way to move rock? Roll it on logs has been used for a very long time. Water barge if the trip is too far for logs. Egyptians used sand pits to raise and lower them when building the pyramids.

2 weeks ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Easier to lift a rock up high with a hole

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

And how do you get them up onto the logs? Or the barge?
And when it arrives at the work site where it might well need to be hoisted 100+ feet in the air?
The point of the roman empire was essentially an exercise in logistics and they got really REALLY good at it. They basically ran the loop of build an army to conquer arable land to feed the army while building a transport network so they could rapidly put down rebellions.

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

"It had to be aliens!"

2 weeks ago | Likes 132 Dislikes 1

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

"We're not being racist, but how else could brown people do it?!?"

2 weeks ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

2 weeks ago | Likes 18 Dislikes 1

Milo might be my favorite person on youtube.

2 weeks ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 1

For me it's him and Max Miller and his history food channel.

2 weeks ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Absolutely agree, tasting history is so fascinating because food is one of those things that's just a sub note when you read up about history. It's really nice how he not only goes into detail, but makes the dish right there and gives it a little food review

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

"They took our jobs!"

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Nah, they never say that about the Romans, because they were white (which I wish was a joke, but the whole "ancient aliens" thing evolved from earlier super racist conspiracies that all the megalithic structures in non-European areas were actually built by now lost to history white populations).

2 weeks ago | Likes 25 Dislikes 0

The concept that people couldn't have made precise stone cuts and moved large stones in the Egyptian period has been debunked over and over. But we only recently discovered how the Romans made concrete that lasts for centuries, yet no one has claimed that the mysterious super concrete was something we got from Aliens. Like you said, the Romans were considered white, so western people accepted they were just really smart. Because racism. And people have soft hands.

2 weeks ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 0

Pretty weird because Italians haven't been considered white in the US very long...

2 weeks ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

Germany claimed heritage of the HRE until somewhere around the 1800s. Lots of factors that might muddy it.

2 weeks ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

You are correct, but that just goes back to racist just not understanding history. Racism and prejudice against immigrants are just two sides the same coin. At some point being of Italian descent was no longer considered an immigrant. Just like the Irish retreated like dirt when they were considered immigrants.

2 weeks ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0