The stones were cut with enormous precision, at least relative to what we know about the available cutting tools. You cannot still stick a knife between a lot of these stones. Maybe we will learn more about that.

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vitally3643 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm pretty sure we've conclusively answered these questions. Hand tools, skill, and absolutely unreasonable amounts of time and patience.

Any master stoneworker from any era should be able to carve stone to that level of precision given enough time and reason. The problem, as always, is that there is usually very little reason to put in that amount of time and effort when you can get 90% as good for 50% the effort.

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inglor_cz 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Can experimental archaeology actually replicate this? If not, I don't find the speculation, even though logical, to be conclusive.

	▲	vitally3643 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yes, experimental archaeology has reproduced the process from quarrying to transport. But also there are accurately hewn stones all over the world from many eras of history. It is not unique or special in any way. The pyramid stones also aren't generally that accurate in an absolute sense. They just fit really well together. The vast majority aren't particularly flat or square, but have been worked to mate with their neighbors, which is a very different and far more mundane type of work. Some stones, particularly exposed interiors and the outer face of the casing stones were cut pretty accurately, but only the parts you can see. Inside they're usually pretty rough. Ancient Egyptian stoneworking was impressive, even at the time, but not spectacular or exceptional. Other civilizations throughout history have built to equal skill, if not scale. People in the West just get so caught up in the mystery of the ancient Egypt myth that they think it's magical ancient lost technology. It was just regular human labor and skill, but a whole hell of a lot more of it applied in one spot than anything we can imagine today.
	▲	dgellow 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yes

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sfink 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

(I know nothing about this subject, feel free to ignore me.)

My dentist is pretty good at doing this too, by putting marking paper between my teeth and having me bite down. I wonder if a similar technique could be used:

Have the blocks close together, constrained to only move on a single axis by rails or whatever. Drape a thin sheet of material over one of the blocks, the non-moving one (perhaps it's an already-placed one?) Maybe it's something that visibly shows when it's crushed, or maybe it's coated with the blood of the powerless. Smash the other block into it. Pull them apart and look where they made contact. If it's mostly everywhere, done. If not, grind down or chip out the parts that touched. Repeat until you run out of innocents.

To do the very last block, you'd have to meld two sides, remove a block, fix up the other side, and then put it back in. Which might make this testable.

But I'm just pulling stuff out of my nether orifice.

	▲	floxy 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		If you only care about the two surfaces matching each other, you don't even have to worry about your indicator. Just grind them against each other, or use some lapping compound to speed up the process. If you want to get the surfaces truly flat, then you use three surfaces that you successively grind against each other. https://www.ericweinhoffer.com/blog/the-whitworth-three-plat...

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yyx 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So they were polished? We already know how to do it.

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sevenzero 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Would be neat, loss of knowledge/skill is really a bummer in regards to ancient technology.