CHAPTER 1 – Giant Blocks
The stone platform beneath the ancient sacred site had long been regarded as the foundation of the structures rising above it. When studies examined the temples and additions made in later periods, the large stones below were considered part of those structures as well. In the new measurements, however, the platform’s width and the load it could bear were calculated alongside the weight of the structures above. The resulting values did not match the accepted explanation. The weight of the temples and later additions did not require such a broad and strong foundation.
The researchers compared the calculations across different sections of the platform. When the load of the structures above was taken into account, the dimensions of the giant blocks in the lower layers became difficult to explain. The size of the stones used as a foundation was known, but the measurements now also showed how closely that size related to the structure’s needs. The team’s attention turned to the blocks beneath the sacred site.
The initial examinations focused on the stones’ weights. Some blocks were extraordinarily heavy to transport and position using known ancient construction techniques. As the researchers discussed how they might have been brought there, they also began comparing their placement. Examining each stone separately was not enough. When a block’s dimensions and position were studied together with those of the neighboring blocks, the platform’s arrangement became clearer.
The discussions about transportation and placement methods had not yet reached a conclusion. Even so, the team saw that it could not continue the research through these two problems alone. Even if the transportation of the stones could be explained, why they had been chosen at that size would remain uncertain. The comparison with the weight of the structures above directly affected this part of the examination. The presence of a load-bearing capacity unnecessary for the temples in a platform regarded as their foundation had to be explained.
When data from different sections of the platform were brought together, it became clear that the structures above had not all been built in a single period either. The sacred site had changed over time. Communities of later periods had used the existing platform and placed their own structures on it. The whole visible with the later additions was not a single structure built at the same time.
The team compared the dates of the structures above with the underlying platform. The platform appeared to have been prepared long before the communities that used it. In that case, the construction of the temples did not explain the origin of the engineering arrangement below. The presence of later structures here was not enough to conclude that the platform had been built for them.
This distinction changed the direction of the research. When the structures above were excluded from consideration, what remained was an ancient platform that needed to be examined through its dimensions, block arrangement, and load-bearing capacity. The researchers no longer tried to explain the underlying structure through the needs of the sacred site built later. How the temples had used the platform and the purpose for which the platform had originally been prepared began to be examined separately.
The engineering team calculated the dimensions and load-bearing capacities of the blocks one by one. These calculations also examined the stones’ relationship with the ground. The aim was to understand how the large blocks making up the platform had been assembled to carry a specific load. Determining the weight of one stone did not explain the load the entire structure could bear. Each block’s results were therefore evaluated together with data from the platform’s other sections.
As the examination progressed, the size of the stones became less central than it had been at the start of the research. The transportation and placement of the giant blocks still needed to be explained, but the need that had brought them together also had to be identified. The team had a base broader and stronger than the temples later built on it required.
Belar Platform was now being examined as a technical structure designed to carry a specific load. The researchers’ next calculations would seek to understand what this arrangement had been prepared to support as well as how the blocks had been placed.
