User:Hypnôs/sandbox/Ancient heavy transport

Ancient heavy transport refers to the transportation of heavy loads in antiquity.

To cover long distances, ships were often used.

Famous examples of heavy objects that were moved by the ancients include the granite beams in the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Colossus of Nero, the trilithon at Baalbek and numerous obelisks.

Overland

Manpower

Ancient Egyptian transport sled, c. 1950 BC

Before the invention of machines which provided mechanical leverage, heavy loads were dragged overland by large groups of people, often with the help of wooden sledges. To reduce friction a track of planks was laid, or the sand along the path wetted.

For short distances, about 15 men per tonne were needed when pulling efforts were coordinated (e.g. "one, two, three and a surge"). For continuous hauling at least 40 men per tonne were required.

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  The colossal statue of Djehutihotep being dragged by 172 workers, from a relief of his tomb, c. 1900 BC
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  Assyrians dragging a Lamassu, from a relief of Nineveh.

Rollers

Replica of a Stonehenge Menhir, weighing c. 28 tonnes (62,000 lb)

Handling

Bosses for levering at the bottom of stones at Ollantaytambo, Peru

To facilitate maneuvering by ropes or levers, masons often left protrusions, called lifting bosses, on the outer faces of stone blocks. Cutouts for levers were made near the base of stones, or cut into the bedrock.

Raising

Before the development of lifting technology, ramps were used to raise heavy loads.

Draught animals

In classical Greece, primarily oxen were used to drag carts.

The Colossus of Nero was moved by the architect Decriannus with the use of 24 elephants.

Machines

Greek and Roman authors attribute the invention of the windlass to Archimedes in the 3rd century BC.

A variety of different machines were invented and used over time, including, but not limited to, capstans, cranes, hoists and winches.

• 
  Relief depicting Romans using capstans to move the Obelisk of Theodosius (4th century AD).
• 
  Closeup of one of the capstans

On water

Large boats were used in antiquity to cross bodies of water and to cover long distances, as they were more efficient than any form of overland transport.

Ancient Egypt

See also: Obelisk ship

Egyptians used barges to transport large stone blocks on the river Nile as early as the 3rd millennium BC. An early literary account of this is a logbook from the time of Khufu, the Diary of Merer, that documents limestone blocks being loaded at Tura and shipped to the Great Pyramid of Giza. Blocks weighing up to 80 tonnes (180,000 lb) were also shipped from the distant Aswan granite quarries at this time. Reliefs depicting such transports survived from the causeway of Unas, they show multiple barges loaded with granite columns and cornice blocks, accompanied by an inscription that reads:

Coming (i. e. the ships) from Elephantine loaded with red granite columns for the pyramid The-places-of-the-Son-of-Re-Unas-are-beautiful.

Multiple texts about expeditions to quarries to bring back stones on barges are preserved from the reign of Merenre (c. 2300 BC), one states:

His majesty sent [me]' to dig five canals in the South and to make 3 cargo-boats and 4 tow-boats of acacia wood of Wawat ... They were launched and laden with very large granite blocks for the pyramid Mernere-Shines-and-is-Beautiful.

A thousand years later, in the New Kingdom, the mass of the heaviest shipments had increased further, from obelisks weighing over 300 t (660,000 lb) to the 1,000 t (2,200,000 lb) Ozymandias Colossus of the Ramesseum. Inscriptions from this era regarding heavy transport also exist, for instance one at Karnak reads:

... built the august boat of 120 cubits [64 m (210 ft)] in its length, 40 cubits [21 m (69 ft)] in its width, in order to transport these obelisks. (They) came in peace, safety and prosperity, and landed at Karnak ... of the city. Its track was laid with every pleasant wood.

Barge of Hatshepsut carrying two obelisks, from a relief of her mortuary temple

Ancient Rome

In classical antiquity, Romans managed to move multiple Egyptian obelisks across the Mediterranean sea. Pliny the Elder and Ammianus Marcellinus documented these accomplishments.

That ancient vessels were in fact carrying hundreds of tonnes at a time is confirmed by the preserved cargoes of shipwrecks. For example, the "Punta Scifo D" went under near Crotone with 350 tonnes (770,000 lb) of Prokonnesian marble blocks, the "Capo Granitola A" sunk with a similar load off the coast of Sicily, and the Mahdia left 250 tonnes (550,000 lb) of Pentelic columns, bases, capitals, basins and statues on the bottom of the sea east of Tunisia.

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  Over 150 tonnes (330,000 lb) of marble blocks lying on the sea floor, from a shipwreck near Methoni, Greece
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  Diagram of the Mahdia, which carried 250 t (550,000 lb) of sculptures

Sources

• Beltrame, Carlo (2016). "The Roman Ship 'punta Scifo d' and its Marble Cargo (Crotone, Italy)". Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 35 (3): 295–326. doi:10.1111/ojoa.12091.
• Bernard, Seth G. (2013). "The Transport of Heavy Loads in Antiquity:Lifting, Moving, and Building in Ancient Rome". Perspektiven der Spolienforschung 1. De Gruyter. pp. 99–122. doi:10.1515/9783110291056.
• Burford, A. (1960). "Heavy Transport in Classical Antiquity". The Economic History Review. 13 (1): 1–18. doi:10.2307/2591403 – via JSTOR.
• Davison, C. St. C. (1961). "Transporting Sixty-Ton Statues in Early Assyria and Egypt". Technology and Culture. 2 (1): 11–16. doi:10.2307/3101295.
• Harris, Barney (2018). "Roll Me a Great Stone: A Brief Historiography of Megalithic Construction and the Genesis of the Roller Hypothesis". Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 37 (3): 267–281. doi:10.1111/ojoa.12142.
• Heizer, Robert F. (1966). "Ancient Heavy Transport, Methods and Achievements". Science. 153 (3738): 821–830 – via JSTOR.
• Russell, Ben (2011). "Lapis transmarinus: stone-carrying ships and the maritime distribution of stone in the Roman empire". Maritime Archaeology and Ancient Trade in the Mediterranean. pp. 139–155. ISBN 9781905905171.
• Russell, Ben (2018). "Shipments Great and Small: Moving Building Materials by Sea". Building BIG – Constructing Economies: from Design to Long-Term Impact of Large-Scale. pp. 95–108. doi:10.11588/propylaeum.850.c10939.
• Velson, Joseph S.; Clark, Thomas C. (1975). "Transport of Stone Monuments to La Venta and San Lorenzo" (PDF). Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility. 24: 1–39.