all I am doing is attempting to get to the bottom of all this while playing devil's advocate
Playing devils advocate, which can be a useful tool in some circumstances, is not usually a good way to achieve harmony as it is normally perceived a confrontational.
I am going to continue to look at every link posted and try and look for ways in which something doesn't make sense until either everything makes sense or I am forced to remit and look at alternative explanations
It is always good to push back the frontiers of ignorance.
However, a good understanding of physical possesses and existing knowledges is necessary for a proper evaluation, especially, of supposition advanced as fact, IMO.
If one is interested in ancient stone artifacts one might find advantage in learning about current and past methods used to move heavy weights, work stone and similar substances. Then follow up on loose ends to round out the knowledge.
I am a fan of basic logic, and have found a few approaches to problem solving to work a large proportion of the time;
The most likely solution is normally the least unlikely solution, and normally the most correct (although rarely the most entertaining) and often not completely correct.
Assumptions/Suppositions/Beliefs must always be modified when confronted by demonstrable fact.
Belief proves nothing.
You can't prove a negative, and the lack of factual evidence proves nothing.
When making assumptions it is best to ground them on reproducible fact at the appropriate technology level.
A large proportion of "information" on the internet is bogus, incomplete or distorted.
When encountering a pot hole of personal ignorance, research is necessary to achieve understanding so that progress may be resumed.
Re; Puma Punko;
Large relatively finely worked stones exist therefore someone worked them.
To do so they, probably had a plan (even if verbally transmitted, apprenticeship is a traditional way of transmitting knowledge and techniques in non literate societies).
We do not know if they had writing or knew mathematics. Which proves nothing and indicates nothing, other than the fact that we do not know.
We do not know exactly how they may have moved large weights. Although, if the large weights were moved it is obvious that some one, or something (earthquake gravity, large flood, etc.) moved them, most likely the indigenous people. The same with the finished stone work, we do not know exact methods.
To establish how they
may have worked stone we need to get some of the same or similar stone and do some experiments. (Actually work through trial and error as the indigenous peoples would have had to. Since we may safely assume that the now lost information was hard won; we may reasonably expect this research to take years). If we can achieve similar results we can then propose a possible method that they may have used (but we still won't know for certain).
Enjoy!
