Ball bearing key to Stonehenge conundrum

28. Nov, 2010            SHANDONG OBETTER BEARING CO., LTD

It appears that ball bearings may have been employed in the construction of Stonehenge by Neolithic engineers. A new theory reveals that a technique similar to that which allows today’s vehicles and machinery to run smoothly was probably used to move the massive standing stones over 4,000 years ago.

Using balls inserted in grooved wooden tracks, scientists showed how simple it could be to move stones weighing many tons. It has yet to be sufficiently explained how slabs where moved from their quarries to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire to build Stonehenge. Many of the stones weighed four tons and had to be transported 150 miles from Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Previous attempts at re-enacting the feat have been unconvincing. Marks would have been left on the landscape by the trenches, hard surfaces and necessary rollers. Mysterious stone balls retrieved near Stonehenge-like monuments in Aberdeenshire, Scotland gave experts the new theory.

The stone balls are roughly the size of cricket balls and precisely formed to be within a millimetre of the same size, suggesting they were meant to be used as a unit.  Researchers from the University of Exeter built a model in which wooden balls were inserted into grooves carved from timber planks. Placing heavy concrete slabs on a platform above the balls, and holding them in place by more grooved tracks allowed easy movement.

Seating on the slabs for added weight, an archaeologist was pushed by a colleague using only an index finger. This proved without a doubt that the contraption could move heavy objects.

A life size experiment was funded by an American TV documentary maker. Researchers used soft green wood, hand-shaped granite spheres and wooden balls.

Professor Bruce Bradley of the University of Exeter said that big stones could have been moved using this ball bearing system with roughly 10 oxen. The movement is likely to have progressed at 10 miles per day. Lasting impact on the landscape would have been unlikely as the balls leapfrogged each other with the tracks moving up the line.

Prof Bradley pointed out that Neolithic people likely stripped long timber planks and used them as walkways across bogs.

by Adam Richards

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