American Scientist

The problem of moving and removing large rocks and boulders is millennia old. In its more sophisticated form, the problem has been one of moving large pieces of stone to assemble pyramids, erect obelisks and build cathedrals. In most of these cases, there was little but the power of men, animals and ingenuity to assist in the task. What machines were eventually devised were themselves typically human or animal powered. Most heavy lifting was likely done by direct muscle power involving as large a number of men as necessary, in which case the design of a procedure to determine who lifted when and who pushed and pulled when was critical to the success of the project. Building great monuments, in which there was an enormous amount of repetitive moving of similar pieces of stone, no doubt entailed set operations—and improvements on them as the project progressed. These procedures had to be designed, however, and they most likely evolved by trial and error from ad hoc solutions devised, watched and executed by master builders, engineers and the workers themselves.