As always, I’m missing something.
“’Using a sled which carried a stone block and was attached with ropes to these wooden posts, ancient Egyptians were able to pull up the alabaster blocks out of the quarry on very steep slopes of 20 percent or more.’
“The ropes attached to the sled acted as a “force multiplier,” making it easier to pull the sled up the ramp, said Roland Enmarch, the other co-director of the Hatnub mission.”
I clicked on the article, and there is no more information.
So:
The block is on a sled which has ropes.
The sled is on a ramp.
The ropes are tied to posts upslope.
Egyptians pull on the ropes.
In what way are the ropes “force multipliers”?
They didn’t say whether
(a) the posts were used as crude pulleys, or
(b) just as a way to keep the sled from backsliding in between pulls by the Egyptians.
Slope is lined with two staircases and wooden poles where ropes would be tied
Researchers say this would lightened the load for workers dragging huge blocks
Archaeologists may finally be a step closer to understanding how Egypt’s Great Pyramid was built thousands of years ago.
The remains of a 4,500-year-old ramp system have been unearthed in an ancient quarry in the Eastern Desert, according to Live Science.
Its design suggests the ramp was used to drag massive alabaster stones up a slope, using sleds and rope.
The ancient ramp was discovered at the site of Hatnub by researchers from the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo and the University of Liverpool in England, Live Science reports.
Along its sides are two staircases lined with postholes, to which ropes were likely tied thousands of years ago to drag the huge stone blocks.
Such a design would have alleviated some of the burden for the workers who had to pull these huge loads.
‘This system is composed of a central ramp flanked by two staircases with numerous post holes,’ Yannis Gourdon, co-director of the joint mission at Hatnub, told Live Science.
‘Using a sled which carried a stone block and was attached with ropes to these wooden posts, ancient Egyptians were able to pull up the alabaster blocks out of the quarry on very steep slopes of 20 percent or more,’ the researcher said.
The researchers say the discovery is the first of its kind, according to Live Science, and shows clear indication that it dates ‘at least to Khufu’s reign’ – for whom the 481-foot Great Pyramid was built.
The find is just the latest in a growing body of research attempting to finally get to the bottom of the Great Pyramid’s many mysteries. ...”
I’m missing something too. Doing it without wheels is my stumbling point.
Yeah, I’m guessing basically they were like pulleys. Rope goes up the ramp to the nearest post above it, then the rope goes down the side of the ramp and around another post on the bottom. Then a team on the bottom of the ramp can just pull the rope along straight ground instead of trying to drag it up an incline.