Inca Quarrying and Stonecutting

Abstract

Inca construction techniques have long been the subject of wild speculation. Investigations of ancient quarry sites and of numerous cut-stone walls reveal that the amazing Inca constructions were built with very simple means. Stones were selected out of rock falls or just broken out of a rock face with pry-bars. If the blocks needed to be parted, big hammerstones were used to split them. To dress the stones smaller hammerstones were used to pound them until they had the desired shape. The fitting of one stone to another was done by cutting the already laid stones to receive the next ones in a trial-and-error fashion. Experiments show that with this process stones can be mined, cut, dressed, and fit with little effort and in a short time.

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