Pavel Pavel
Encyclopedia
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
and experimental archaeologist
Experimental archaeology
Experimental archaeology employs a number of different methods, techniques, analyses, and approaches in order to generate and test hypotheses, based upon archaeological source material, like ancient structures or artifacts. It should not be confused with primitive technology which is not concerned...
investigating how the ancient civilizations did transport heavy weights.
Pavel Pavel studied electrical engineering at the university in Plzeň
University of West Bohemia
The University of West Bohemia is a university in Pilsen, Czech Republic. It was founded in 1991 and consists of seven faculties.-Organization:The faculties are the basic units of the university. The units implement their own academic programs...
and later worked as a design engineer in Agrostav Strakonice. Solving how the ancient people could move megalithic statues and stone blocks became his hobby for which he became known.
After the Velvet revolution
Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...
(1989), as a member of the Civic Democratic Party, Pavel became involved in local politics. In two elections into the Czech Senate
Senate of the Czech Republic
The Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic , usually referred to as Senát, is the upper chamber of the Parliament of the Czech Republic...
(in 2002 and again in 2003) he ended as the second. Since the 1990 Pavel works in the field of heavy transportation, his company PAVEL PAVEL s.r.o. was founded in 2000.
Experimental archaeology
Inspired by Thor HeyerdahlThor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a background in zoology and geography. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands...
's Kon-Tiki
Kon-Tiki
Kon-Tiki was the raft used by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his 1947 expedition across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands. It was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name...
, Pavel Pavel set out to demonstrate how the monolithic Moai
Moai
Moai , or mo‘ai, are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Chilean Polynesian island of Easter Island between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the...
of Easter Island
Easter Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
might have been moved into place by a small number of people using only rudimentary technologies. He conducted a practice experiment in 1982 in south Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
using a concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
model (4.5 m, 12 tonnes). In 1986 he was invited by Heyerdahl to Easter Island to test his experiment in its actual setting, where he successfully replicated the experiment. Only 16 people with one leader were needed for relatively fast statue transportation.
He then performed some further experiments. He and five assistants using only wooden sledges erected and moved a 30-ton rocking stone
Rocking stone
Rocking stones are large stones that are so finely balanced that the application of just a small force causes them to rock. They are found throughout the world. Some are man-made megaliths, but others are natural, often left by glaciers.Logan or rocking stones are known in Scotland sometimes as...
at the village of Kadov (in Strakonice District
Strakonice District
Strakonice District is a district within South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is Strakonice.- Complete list of municipalities :Bavorov -Bělčice -Bezdědovice -Bílsko -Blatná -Bratronice -Březí -Budyně -...
) to its original location, from where it had been removed by unknown vandals in the 19th century. He estimated that only 160 people with similar simple technology would have been necessary for transportation of the 800 ton stones in Baalbek
Baalbek
Baalbek is a town in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, altitude , situated east of the Litani River. It is famous for its exquisitely detailed yet monumentally scaled temple ruins of the Roman period, when Baalbek, then known as Heliopolis, was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Empire...
.
Books
- Pavel Pavel: Rapa Nui, České Budějovice, 1989. The book is now publicly available in electronic format: http://www.palmknihy.cz/www/detail.php?Xid=2607.
- Jaroslav Malina, Pavel Pavel: Jak vznikly největší monumenty dávnověku (How the largest ancient monuments had been built), Prague 1994, ISBN 80-205-0211-4.