Soldato
Fascinating new theory for Nazca Lines
- Thread starter ritcH
- Start date
Man of Honour
The old kingdom collapsed in the 22nd century BC. Rather less than two millenia after the period of pyramid-building.
Associate
Me or you will ever know if there was super-advanced civilisations or not.
Archeological and geological records are at best wonki
Associate
lol at best Archeological and geological records are like parliament 
Associate
If its written and is a policy, got to be true.
Associate
Because they say so.
Associate
Fetch me a shrubbery.
Killer rabbits go for the throat
Man of Honour
Up until the outbreak of this pandemic, there were some master masons doing work that fine on stone that hard. They're part of a team building a castle from scratch with no modern anything apart from the safety precautions of using metal reinforcing pieces on the joints of wooden scaffolding and sometimes hard hats. People have been working on it for a couple of decades now. Doing work that fine on stone that hard with only pre-modern hand tools is slow work but it's absolutely possible for someone with enough skill at the craft. They have produced many videos, some of which include some details about how the measuring and planning was done.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy9Kti8oDm_wmbU7-yLRfog/videos
The thing that's unique about that project is the scale and the variety of the work. Not the fineness of the work. You hugely underestimate how well a skilled artisan can work. Hugely, massively, enormously underestimate it. That's understandable given how little such work is required nowadays, but it is very wrong.
You don't even need metal tools to work granite, let alone CNC kit with diamond tools. You can do it with stone tools. People have, in modern times. It takes a lot more skill and a lot more time, but it can be done. Societies in the stone age had people who were specialists in working stone, even specialists in different aspects of working stone, because working stone was particularly important in the stone age.
This whole view is warped due to the arrogance of modern people. Fundamentally we are the same as we have been for millenia making use of the tools available. Knowledge was not as widely dispersed but minds were working significantly better than often implied.
Associate
Could i ask you your back ground, as in work and studies?
Associate
You don't even need metal tools to work granite, let alone CNC kit with diamond tools. You can do it with stone tools. People have, in modern times. It takes a lot more skill and a lot more time, but it can be done. Societies in the stone age had people who were specialists in working stone, even specialists in different aspects of working stone, because working stone was particularly important in the stone age.
For you to say that, well you be cutting these materials every day or have done in the past.
For you to say that, well you be cutting these materials every day or have done in the past.
Associate
I could be wrong and don't mean it a wrong way, but you sound office based.
Associate
Ah ok, nothing to do with you taking the info you feel is relevant thought out your life and forming the views you have now? i.e stuck in your ways.
Associate
If that was the case you would have not wrote what you did.
Associate
I've taken up the carpet in one of my rooms and intend to replace it with carpet tiles. The floor is solid concrete. There are a few small areas of shallow damage to the floor and I'd like to fill them in before laying the carpet tiles.
A couple are small indentations where it appears something has been scraped over the surface. These are ~6mm deep at the deepest part and about 5cm by 2cm.
There are two much larger very shallow pits that were quite sandy and gravelly. It's what I'd expect if those parts of the concrete didn't have enough cement in them, but I know very little about concrete so that's just a vague guess. Anyway, these pits are only ~2mm deep at the deepest parts, but they're each about 50cm by 25cm.
I'd like a more level surface to glue the carpet tiles to, so what's the easiest/best way to get it?
I am tempted to just use some general purpose polyfilla I have in a cupboard, but I suspect that's probably not ideal
I had a look for concrete floor repair guides online, but the ones I saw are for much more extensive damage.
I'd include some photos, but I'm a weirdo who doesn't have a camera.
Ocd floor probs and you put it out to the Uk public for help, but yet YOU can tell me how things was done thousands of years ago.....
They just made a crap job of your floor, do it once do it right.
A couple are small indentations where it appears something has been scraped over the surface. These are ~6mm deep at the deepest part and about 5cm by 2cm.
There are two much larger very shallow pits that were quite sandy and gravelly. It's what I'd expect if those parts of the concrete didn't have enough cement in them, but I know very little about concrete so that's just a vague guess. Anyway, these pits are only ~2mm deep at the deepest parts, but they're each about 50cm by 25cm.
I'd like a more level surface to glue the carpet tiles to, so what's the easiest/best way to get it?
I am tempted to just use some general purpose polyfilla I have in a cupboard, but I suspect that's probably not ideal
I had a look for concrete floor repair guides online, but the ones I saw are for much more extensive damage.
I'd include some photos, but I'm a weirdo who doesn't have a camera.
Ocd floor probs and you put it out to the Uk public for help, but yet YOU can tell me how things was done thousands of years ago.....
They just made a crap job of your floor, do it once do it right.
Man of Honour
I'll reply to those last 5 posts regarding me in one:
You don't have to have done something to know that it's possible. For example, I know that it's possible to run 100m in under 10 seconds. I have never run 100m in under 10s and never will. That doesn't mean it's impossible. I've never performed a hip replacement operation. That doesn't mean nobody can.
My studies are almost 50 years of reading and watching a lot, particularly about ancient history, and not assuming that things I haven't done are impossible to do or that skilled artisans can't produce very fine work. I've seen skilled artisans doing very fine work with simple hand tools. Seen it in person. I've seen someone measure working distances by eye alone and be within an eighth of an inch. I've seen that person using the original rule of thumb, i.e. using their thumb to measure distances. But people in the past had a variety of measuring tools. From my interest in history, I know how to construct and use very simple tools that would allow me to level material, shape precise angles and even do surveying. I know how those tools are made and how they work. They're made out of wood, string and lead. Very simple. Very accurate with experience. If you're really skilled with them you can, for example, plan a road so straight that it deviates from a dead straight line by less than a foot over 20 miles.
People in the past were people, same as us. Since they lacked modern technology, they had to learn to do things without it. They trained for years for a craft. Knowledge was passed down from generation to generation and built on. Since they had the same range of intelligence and ability as modern humans, some of them became extremely good at a specialised field. Certainly at least as far back as the beginning of farming, which reduced the proportion of the population who had to work directly to acquire food. Probably before that, with barter and social co-operation. For example, if someone in a tribe was particularly skilled at flint knapping it would make sense to have them make the tools and weapons for the tribe and not do an equal share of hunting and gathering.
Here, for example, is a video from that castle-building project I mentioned earlier. They did a few videos on stone-working. This one is about one of the specialities of stone-working, the quarryman. They're using steel tools in this example because they're building as if it was late 13th century France, but the principle is the same with any tool material. You could use stone chisels and wooden wedges. You'd need to replace them far more often and it would take far longer to make the holes, but it would work in the same way. That black stone they're working is harder than some forms of granite.
I'm not saying that it wasn't all done by aliens or magic or time-travellers bringing future technology to the neolithic or the early bronze age, but it's much more likely that it was done by skilled artisans who'd spent at least a decade learning a craft that had been built on for millenia by generation after generation of such people.
And no, I'm not office based. I've never worked in an office. I've worked on a farm. I've worked in a club. I've taught in a college. I even briefly worked in a freezer(*). But never in an office.
* Frozen food manufacturing place, with most of the work being inside the biggest freezer I've ever seen. It was a huge room. Limited time inside in any one go, since it was about -20C and that's not too safe for long.
You don't have to have done something to know that it's possible. For example, I know that it's possible to run 100m in under 10 seconds. I have never run 100m in under 10s and never will. That doesn't mean it's impossible. I've never performed a hip replacement operation. That doesn't mean nobody can.
My studies are almost 50 years of reading and watching a lot, particularly about ancient history, and not assuming that things I haven't done are impossible to do or that skilled artisans can't produce very fine work. I've seen skilled artisans doing very fine work with simple hand tools. Seen it in person. I've seen someone measure working distances by eye alone and be within an eighth of an inch. I've seen that person using the original rule of thumb, i.e. using their thumb to measure distances. But people in the past had a variety of measuring tools. From my interest in history, I know how to construct and use very simple tools that would allow me to level material, shape precise angles and even do surveying. I know how those tools are made and how they work. They're made out of wood, string and lead. Very simple. Very accurate with experience. If you're really skilled with them you can, for example, plan a road so straight that it deviates from a dead straight line by less than a foot over 20 miles.
People in the past were people, same as us. Since they lacked modern technology, they had to learn to do things without it. They trained for years for a craft. Knowledge was passed down from generation to generation and built on. Since they had the same range of intelligence and ability as modern humans, some of them became extremely good at a specialised field. Certainly at least as far back as the beginning of farming, which reduced the proportion of the population who had to work directly to acquire food. Probably before that, with barter and social co-operation. For example, if someone in a tribe was particularly skilled at flint knapping it would make sense to have them make the tools and weapons for the tribe and not do an equal share of hunting and gathering.
Here, for example, is a video from that castle-building project I mentioned earlier. They did a few videos on stone-working. This one is about one of the specialities of stone-working, the quarryman. They're using steel tools in this example because they're building as if it was late 13th century France, but the principle is the same with any tool material. You could use stone chisels and wooden wedges. You'd need to replace them far more often and it would take far longer to make the holes, but it would work in the same way. That black stone they're working is harder than some forms of granite.
I'm not saying that it wasn't all done by aliens or magic or time-travellers bringing future technology to the neolithic or the early bronze age, but it's much more likely that it was done by skilled artisans who'd spent at least a decade learning a craft that had been built on for millenia by generation after generation of such people.
And no, I'm not office based. I've never worked in an office. I've worked on a farm. I've worked in a club. I've taught in a college. I even briefly worked in a freezer(*). But never in an office.
* Frozen food manufacturing place, with most of the work being inside the biggest freezer I've ever seen. It was a huge room. Limited time inside in any one go, since it was about -20C and that's not too safe for long.
Man of Honour
I've taken up the carpet in one of my rooms and intend to replace it with carpet tiles. The floor is solid concrete. There are a few small areas of shallow damage to the floor and I'd like to fill them in before laying the carpet tiles.
A couple are small indentations where it appears something has been scraped over the surface. These are ~6mm deep at the deepest part and about 5cm by 2cm.
There are two much larger very shallow pits that were quite sandy and gravelly. It's what I'd expect if those parts of the concrete didn't have enough cement in them, but I know very little about concrete so that's just a vague guess. Anyway, these pits are only ~2mm deep at the deepest parts, but they're each about 50cm by 25cm.
I'd like a more level surface to glue the carpet tiles to, so what's the easiest/best way to get it?
I am tempted to just use some general purpose polyfilla I have in a cupboard, but I suspect that's probably not ideal
I had a look for concrete floor repair guides online, but the ones I saw are for much more extensive damage.
By coincidence, I was in exactly the same position recently. The most common advice was to use self levelling compound to resurface the whole floor. That would probably have been the best way to do a long lasting proper job, but I went with an easier patch job because I didn't trust my level of skill at the work.
I also suspected that general purpose polyfilla wouldn't be ideal, but the company make a variety of products. I used deep gap polyfilla.
https://www.polycell.co.uk/product/polycell-deep-gap-polyfilla/
It's extremely easy to work with, doesn't crack on those very shallow pits and sticks very well to the surface. It sets as hard as concrete, so take some care to get the surface as smooth as possible while it's still workable. You can sand it after it's set, but it's hard going because it's hard
Since you're putting carpet tiles over it, it won't have to be perfectly smooth and flat. If the pits are very large, getting a smooth surface will be more difficult but it's easy enough to get it smooth enough.I brushed and vacuumed first to get rid of the worst of the sand and small gravel, but I wouldn't recommend that with an ordinary domestic vacuum cleaner. It might be fine, but it might not.
As for the carpet tiles themselves, I bought some tackifier to tack them down. You pour it on, leave it to partially set and then lay the tiles. That way, it's tacky but not a permanent glue (which it is if you lay the tiles on it before it partially sets). However, I then asked for advice from someone who knows a lot more about the subject than I do and they said that for an ordinary sized room in a house on a concrete floor you don't really need any adhesive at all. Just lay them down. Once you've got them all down, each tile will be butted against other tiles or skirting board so they won't move. They were right. As long as you get them tightly butted up against each other, they'll stay put. Although it might depend on the tiles, depending on how thin they are and how much friction there is between the tiles and the floor. But it should be fine and if it isn't you can always glue them down later with glue or tape.
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Man of Honour
Which is why you need the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. Consult the book of armaments! Three shalt thou count.
What a gloriously silly film that was.
Could you explain please? I'm struggling to relate this reply to my post
they are more advanced than we ever give them credit for.
They weren't stupid little ape beings struggling to survive or banging rocks together and making stupid noises.
they might not be as technologically advanced as US but they sure seem pretty close to being as evolved as us.
wheres all our master masonry people and fantastic artists that can create such amazing peices of work without modern measuring devices, tools, templates and computers.
lets face it construction workers in the ancient world would probably make ours look like zombies.
I bet if you could travel back in time and watch Egyptians and Romans constructing projects I'm sure there would be more than a few "wow what a clever idea, there's no way we would have thought of that" would end up happening multiple times.
people aren't smart or savvy people are more dumbed down then ever and all taught to think the same way