Pyramid builders could have used rolling blocks
New solution proposed to problem of transporting massive stone bricks
By Meghan Rosen
Egypt’s pyramid construction plans could have included a little rock ‘n’ roll.
Ancient Egyptians might have rolled giant bricklike stones to pyramid building sites by strapping wooden rods to each rock, researchers suggest in a paper posted August 14 at arXiv.org.
The method offers a new take on a herculean task that has long puzzled people. The rolling hypothesis could even dodge potential complications with the leading theory: that Egyptians slid blocks along slippery paths.