Carbon-based organic matter does not exist in a volcanic rock formed at high temperatures because it is vaporized. It is impossible to find it in andesite rock. And because we found organic matter inside the volcanic andesitic stone, the scientists will have the opportunity to carry out a Carbon dating analysis and provide the exact age of the monuments.
This organic element is a geopolymer based on carboxylic acids which was therefore added by human intervention into andesite sand to form a kind of cement. The giant blocks of red sandstone raise another problem.
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed of quartz grains and a clay binder. There are several possible geological sources but none correspond to the stones of the archaeological monuments. No known quarry is able to provide massive blocks of 10 meters long. In addition, the local stone is friable and small in size. The scientists have discovered under the electron microscope that the red sandstone of Pumapunku cannot come from the region because it contains elements, such as sodium carbonate, not found in the local geology.
Therefore, where does the stone come from? From hundreds to thousands of kilometers? With what means have they been transported? In fact, electron microscopic analysis proves that the composition of the sandstone could be artificial a ferro-sialate geopolymer and manufactured to form cement. What is this technology mastered by the Tiwanakans? Artificial stones were formed as cement. But, it is not a modern cement, it is a natural geological cement obtained by geosynthesis.
For this, they took naturally friable and eroded rock like red sandstone from the nearby mountain, on the one hand, and on the other hand, unconsolidated volcanic tuff from the nearby Cerro Kapia volcano in Peru to form andesite. They created cement either from clay the same red clay that Tiwuanakans used for pottery and sodium carbonate salts from Laguna Cachi in the Altiplano Desert to the south, to form red sandstone.
For gray andesite, they invented an organo-mineral binder based on natural organic acids extracted from local plants and other natural reagents. This cement was then poured into molds and hardened for a few months. Without a thorough knowledge of geopolymer chemistry, which studies the formation of these rocks by geosynthesis, it is difficult to recognize the artificial nature of the stones.
This chemistry is not a difficult science to master. It is an extension of the knowledge of Tiwanakans in ceramics, mineral binders, pigments and above all an excellent knowledge of their environment.
Without the selection of good raw materials, these extraordinary monuments could not have been created years ago. The evidence provided by the team of scientists from France and Peru shows that the oral tradition was right: they made soft stones that could harden!
The hypothesis of the lost ancient super civilization or alien intervention is false. Tiwanakuans were intelligent human beings. They knew their environment perfectly and knew how to exploit the resources brought by nature.
In addition to the Carbon dating analysis, further studies will soon be carried out to determine whether certain monuments in the Cuzco region of Peru have been built with the same scientific knowledge. Some of their methods of construction have long been a matter of interest and speculation involving super-civilizations or alien intervention.
Conventional theories suggest that the constituent stone blocks were cut from quarries sometimes remotely located, accurately dressed and lifted into position. There is currently little research being done by material scientists on these controversial topics. However, from a construction and building material point of view, the knowledge that can be acquired through this type of archaeological study is manifold.
In particular, it generates examples that are useful for the determination of the long-term properties of geopolymer concretes. It helps understanding of the chemical transformation which a geopolymer matrix can undergo over a long time range hundreds if not thousands of years , and provides data on the crystallization mechanism and mineralogical evolution. For the Egyptian pyramids, in the s Joseph Davidovits, who is known for his development of geopolymer science and geopolymer concrete [3], proposed an alternative, but still controversial theory [4, 5].
He suggested that the blocks were a type of early concrete consisting of disaggregated limestone from the Giza plateau, Egypt, cemented by a sodium or potassium polysilico-oxo-aluminate, poly sialate geopolymer binder, and cast into blocks in situ. Despite the strong opposition of the Egyptian government [6], several scientists published studies which confirm the presence of archaeological geopolymer concrete in the pyramids [7, 8, 9, 10].
Civil engineers generally understand the implications resulting from this new paradigm of archaeological megalithic monument construction. We present here our preliminary research results on monuments in the South American Andes, on the Altiplano Fig. It is located south-east of the Lake Titicaca at m above sea level.
It comprises an earthen pyramid and the famous monolithic Gate of the Sun , made out of volcanic stone, andesite. They were built years ago ca. Our research focuses on the less known adjacent site of Pumapunku. In the Bolivian government started an ambitious project aimed at promoting this strange and little-known site. Its official report , C. Huge [red sandstone] blocks, the largest in the monumental area of Tiwanaku, lie scattered as if a large earthquake had devastated the area. The large blocks of red sandstone, mixed with fragmented doors in andesite, covered with carved decorations, is all that can be distinguished today.
The sandstone temple itself is very small. The platform on top of the 4-step pyramid of Pumapunku consists of 4 megalithic red sandstone slabs marked in red Nr 1, Nr 2, Nr 3, Nr 4, weighing between and tonnes each Fig. In recent years, several reports and videos have been flourishing on the Internet. Some civil engineers state that the monuments are made of a type of concrete.
Others claim that they were built by super-civilizations with unknown technologies. Our study suggests that the slabs are a type of sandstone geopolymer concrete cast on the spot.
There are no quarries in the vicinity whence the megalithic blocks used in the monument could have been brought in. But what I noted most particularly, when I wandered about over these ruins writing down what I saw, was that from these great doorways there came out other still larger stones upon which the doorways were formed, some of them thirty feet broad, fifteen or more long, and six in thickness.
The whole of this, with the doorway and its jambs and lintel, was all one single stone. The work is one of grandeur and magnificence when well considered. For myself I fail to understand with what instruments or tools it can have been done; for it is very certain that before these great stones could be brought to perfection and left as we see them, the tools must have been much better than those now used by the Indians ….
Another remarkable thing is that in all this district there are no quarries whence the numerous stones can have been brought, the carrying of which must have required many people. I asked the natives whether these edifices were built in the time of the Incas, and they laughed at the question, affirming that they were made before the Incas ever reigned, but that they could not say who made them…. The most controversial aspect of the Pumapunku site is, however, found in puzzling smaller items, 1 meter high, made of andesitic volcanic stone Fig.
Historian architects are wondering how such perfect stonework could have been achieved with simple stone tools [13]. Our study demonstrates that these architectural components were fashioned with a wet-sand geopolymer molding technique.
Figure 5: The 4 megalithic red sandstone slabs of the Pumapunku platform, drawing, dimensions and estimated weight of the 4 monoliths, after [1]. Figure 5 displays the four big slabs, number 1 , number 2 , number 3 , number 4.
Number 1 is weighing tons. Number 2 , tons; this is a monster. They are 7 to 8 meters wide in dimensions. Slab number 3 is broken and parts are vanished. Slab number 4 is broken and it has been weighing tons. It is assumed that the blocks were broken very soon after construction, perhaps by an earthquake. They were repaired with cramp sockets filled with a metal copper.
Travelers mostly agreed that the sandstone was mainly from the Kimsachata mountain range south of Tiwanaku. Yet, it remained unclear how these megaliths were quarried and transported downwards with primitive sledges on steep and narrow llama tracks as shown in Fig.
The first scientific studies conducted and published in the early s by Bolivian archaeologists [14], set out to determine the source of the sandstone employed to construct the Pumapunku complex.
They conducted geological studies in 6 drainage valleys, isolating several potential sandstone quarries, totalizing 47 samples. With comparative investigations including X-ray diffraction, XRF, geochemical analysis, and lithic petrography, they concluded that Pumapunku sandstone came from the Quebrada de Kausani geological site 1 in Fig. However, our detailed study of their published chemical analysis contradicts this.
In , we took this study to start our investigation and selected three sites Fig. Because there exist several archaeological records in the village of Kallamarka, which show that the village was in activity at the time of Pumapunku construction.
It is therefore clear that this village could have been associated with the sandstone material extraction. The visit to the site number 1 Quebrada de Kausani starts from the Altiplano plateau at meters and climbs up to a place called Kaliri at meters above sea level.
Official archaeology is claiming that they used the steep llama track Fig. Stone block with a set of blind holes of complex shape. The numerous H-shaped blocks all match each other with extreme precision and fit into each other like Lego blocks. How Puma punku might have looked. They were initially pounded by stone hammers—which can still be found in numbers on local andesite quarries—, creating depressions, and then slowly ground and polished with flat stones and sand The stones are of mammoth proportion.
Photo credit Based on circumstantial evidences, it can be argued that Puma punku was never built by the Tiwanaku, but by a civilization that was more advanced. Photo credit More drill holes in what was once a lintel, with extraordinary detail that is just still visible. Photo credit Stone block with a set of blind holes of complex shape. Photo credit Photo credit The numerous H-shaped blocks all match each other with extreme precision and fit into each other like Lego blocks.
Photo credit Photo credit How Puma punku might have looked. Photo credit Satellite picture of Puma punku. Bolivia Landmarks Prehistoric. It is unnecessary to invoke aliens to explain the structures. Curiously, if you do an Internet search for Puma Punku, you'll find it almost universally, and quite casually, referred to as a "port".
At least, this is what it's called on the paranormal web pages, which make up the overwhelming bulk of Puma Punku information on the Internet. In fact, it's not a port, and it never was a port.
To anyone doing even the most basic research or visiting the area, it's a fairly bizarre assertion, considering that Puma Punku was in the middle of a vast farming nation of , people. Nor are Tiwanaku's structures in locations where they could serve as a port. Puma Punku is just one of several stepped platform constructions that have been excavated at Tiwanaku. If you look at them from above, they're simply squarish enclosures scattered about the area.
If you imagine water filling the region — let's pretend just high enough to cover the ground but not the enclosures themselves — then each of these "ports" would be an island unto itself, amid a sea of knee-deep water too shallow to be navigable.
That is, except for the Semi-Subterranean Temple, which being recessed into the ground, would have been underwater. But even that imaginary scenario presumes that the lake could ever reach Tiwanaku. It can't. Has this always been the case? At least since the last ice age, yes. Because the sediment at the lake's bottom has been accumulating for some 25, years, it's one of the best places to get data about Earth's climate history, and so it's been extensively studied.
The paleohydrology of Lake Titicaca is thoroughly known. Currently, the water is at its overflow level. This level has fluctuated about 5 meters in the past century.
During the past 4, years, it has dropped as much as 20 meters during drought periods. The maximum it's ever been is about 7 meters above overflow level, which would still locate the shore many kilometers away from Tiwanaku's suburbs and farms.
Most of these same paranormal sources that refer to Puma Punku as a port also state that the ancient shoreline is still visible along the surrounding hills, albeit tilted at a strange angle. Ancient lake levels are often visible in such a way — they're quite prominent throughout Death Valley where I often visit, for example. But it makes no sense for Lake Titicaca. The lake would spill off the edge of the plain before it could get as high as Tiwanaku; and there's certainly been no tectonic activity in that time that could have tilted the hills, or mysteriously tilted the hills yet left the Tiwanaku structures level.
Finally, one other feature at Puma Punku is said to have the archaeologists baffled: Carved figures, said to represent an elephant relative called a Cuvieronius, and a hoofed mammal called a toxodon. These both went extinct in the region around 15, years ago, and so some paranormalists have dated Puma Punku to 15, years, apparently based on this alone. When you hear that an elephant is carved there, it certainly does give you pause, because an elephant is hard to mistake. Located in the Peruvian coastal desert at the Casma-Sechin Oasis stands the incredible monumental complex of Chankillo.
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