Before trying to understand ancient scoop marks in stone, one needs to learn the primitive techniques as well. Every past culture had a type of technology, some were more primitive than others, and some had technology that supersedes that of us today.
(Below) The santa lucia mountains are pictured in the background, to the left is the arroyo seco river/ canyon and to the right is Salinas and Monterey. Between the car and the background mountains is one of north Americas largest underground rivers. The salinas river empties into one of the world’s largest underwater canyons, the monterey bay.
Growing up in california, in the fourth grade, we learn about how the missions were built using sun dried mud brick. Between 1769 and 1833, 21 missionary outposts were set up and once streached across half of the state of california. The outpost structures were built using primitive building techniques of stacked and packed dried mud brick (adobe).
Over the decades and now 2 centuries later, very little remains of these dirt buildings other than some jagged rock left over from the dirt dissolving away by common erosion and weathering.
The jagged and angular rock stays while the dirt disappears. Adobe is not meant to stand the test of time, much like an ice igloo is not stable during a hot summer day, it melts and disappears.
20 minutes from the Soledad mission is the Pinnacles national park (west side). The east side entrance has a trail leading to a mega rock constructed dam.
I felt a spiritual presence here, like a distant memory, when walking through the tunnels, caves, and trails. People say they see faces in the rock, I would suggest Pareidolia, but I see them too.
91 years ago in 1933, the civilian conservation corps (CCC) worked on the pinnacles and chiseled the rock steps and drilled 1.5” holes to separate larger rock.
Large, preformed boulders are stacked one on top of another, creating this dam. A labor-intensive job by young American workers.
The early morning visit at the pinnacles was calming and most peaceful.
The Pinnacles and Vasquez rocks were once connected to a single volcano, after 23 million years the San Andrea’s fault has split and separated the volcano in half and moved it 195 miles apart from one another.
Half of the volcano remnants are at the pinnacles in Soledad and the other half is outside los angeles at Vasquez rocks, both located along the san andreas fault.
Tiburcio Vásquez was born in Monterey in 1835. As a bandit he was known to travel through both the pinnacles and vasquez rocks (the formation was named after him). I know a secret hiding place of vasquez within the arroyo seco canyon (central California’s grand canyon) where he hid, just before he was hung (future field trip treasure hunt).
Hollywood does filming at vasquez rocks. Star trek and the ancient aliens TV programs have filmed there for visual aesthetics. Do they know what they are standing on?
Another well known bandit (a patriot to many) was Joaquin Murrieta. The zorro character I loved as a child is based on him and a book was made, titled, the curse of capistrano.
One of the earliest mission outpost was erected in san juan capistrano.
Mud is packed inside rectangular shape frames and sun dried to make not so uniform adobe bricks.
Molding mud or any type of molding of a material often has rounded edges. Rarely are the corners crisp and sharp.
(Above) An example of molding. The edges are rounded. A mold can make a mud arch, but it will disappear and dissolve away in a matter of decades. I used a knife to cut an opening into an arch block to show what a cut looks like (sharp and precise).
The element gallium (mentioned on TV series “Mystery at blind frog ranch”) is used below to show a simple molding technique of making a temporary necklace. Gallium melts at the same temperature as chocolate, so it only last in cool temperatures (not in your mouth).
(Below) Making a gallium cross that mimics TV series “the curse of oak island” lead cross. I call it, “the mysterious curse of the blind oak frog”. When gallium is at solid state, it can be machined.
The term cutting applies to any work that is made by high speed grinding, the material appears as if it were cut by a blade. High speed grinding allows for this precision work in stone.
(Below) High speed grinding created the faceted briolette. The star holes and cores were created using high speed ultrasonic machining.
Bricks are better made today, however, they still have rounded edges and will eventually dissolve away. A brick is only as good as the binding agent that connects each brick. Today we use cement for both brick making and binding agent (mortar).
Adobe mud brick is sun dried and red brick is fired in a kiln for longer and stronger durability.
California’s first brick house was built in 1847 and is located in monterey. Today, the red brick is dissolving away. The repair work using a cement binder (mortar) is surviving better than the brick.
Red brick is common still today, it is an inferior building product that does not stand up to california earthquakes.
(Below) While I was leaving the monterey brick house, I noticed another inferior wall, created to look like a solid piece. Brown fired bricks stacked with mortar and hidden with paint.
(Below) Red brick used for outlining walls and giving block-like designs at the mission in san juan capistrano. The red brick designs are then covered with a coating in order to give the illusion of solid built walls and arches. The missionaries and natives did not cut rock, they made blocks.
{Below) The primitive brick work is falling apart, the wall can conceal it no more. Restoration projects at capistrano are just as primitive as the work done over 200 years ago. Coating, molding, and concealing.
San Juan Capistrano is located on the 33rd parallel, along with other points of interest for the Ultra Arky (extreme researcher of art and antiquity)
Future field trip areas of interest lie upon the 33rd parallel. Santa Catalina Island (7 to 9 foot human skeletons), San Juan Capistrano rock ruin (enigmatic 9 foot tall stone doorways), Maze rock (a marker in Hemet), Palm Springs, Blithe Intaglios (ancient geoglyphs similar to the Nazca lines). The 33rd parallel continues and runs through Phoenix, Arizona.
An example of hiding a preexisting structure is provided below. The rounded figure 8 dirt made earring looks like a flat dirt wall. As the weak dirt falls off, a different technology is unveiled from within. The hidden earring under the dirt is of a different more advanced technology.
Within the walls at the san juan capistrano rock ruin are machined polygonal rock blocks of volcanic tuff. The precision carved blocks are assembed with no mortar, and made into enigmatic giant columns and doorways. Surrounding the fine rock carvings is the primitive adobe and red brick filler. The missionaries built upon a pre existing ancient temple that was already in ruin.
(Below) Upon the entrance of Capistrano’s rock ruin there is a molded cement block in a flower garden made to emulate the precision stonework hidden under adobe. Molding cement is not machining rock. The cement is a decoration only and a poor molded copy with rounded edges. Not the same construction as the original more advanced builders.
Academia (archeologist included) say the carved stone is of Roman or Greek design. The romans and greeks did not make the megalithic construction that contained these ancient designs. They copied what they could not make (work of their gods) and reused the smaller materials.
We have copied these same designs here in america. The US white house, made with sandstone, is not of american, roman, or greek design, its all a copy of a much more ancient culture.
The romans did not construct walls with volcanic tuff rock. Instead, they created cement by crushing volcanic tuff and mixing it with lime. The roman colosseum is made of concrete not solid rock.
(Below) The wall below shows 2 types of construction. The romans made the top primitive portion.
Volcanic Tuff is considered an exotic building material and is not commonly machined on a large scale, today.
(Below) A single volcanic rock structure was created by digging straight down. The single cross structure is one hard solid basalt rock, no primitive bricks. We cannot achieve this feat today, we would need a different technology that was fast at aggregate removal.
Some of the giant statues of easter island are made of soft volcanic tuff. The statues are buried under thousands of years of sedimentary strata.
(Below) After being dug up, the amount of wear from the exposed area is minimal and so is the buried portion. This particular rock statue is standing the test of time.
{Below} Unfinished statues at easter island. The material removed was done quickly, and scooped out using ultrasonic technology. Ultrasonics allow for fast aggregate removal, regardless the toughness or hardness of the stone.
The ancient builders started removing rock (quarrying) material from the top using ultrasonics, scooping downward, and removing material away from the sides.
In 2018, I decided to make scoop marks in a hard stone. Instead of granite or sandstone that are not that tough, I used the toughest natural rock on earth, nephrite jade.
Nephrite jade is tougher than jadeite jade due to interwoven atomic structure as apposed to jadeites interlocking structure. Toughness is the resistance to breaking. Hardness is the resistance to scratching.
When scooping out the nephrite with a high speed oscillating tube, an abrasive material (silicon carbide) is introduced to achieve grinding. I used a gravity feed trough to flow the abrasive in water (slurry) over the area to be worked. Once the vibrating tube touches the rock with slurry, you are grinding away material really fast.
(Below) I changed the shape of a brass tube, pinched the end, and was able to grind a rectangular impression. Next, I cut off more of the tube and shaped a scoop end. Both experiments worked, the grinding would be faster if submerged in the slurry. In both cases the vibration was able to follow the shape of the tube and grind the same shape in rock as the shaped tool.
Ultrasonic drilling and carving is extremely fast compared to the slower rock removal of spinning diamond abrasive tools.
High speed grinding will leave behind cut marks in stone. Chisels and hammers do not make cut marks in stone.
(Below) Cutting a piece of sandstone and preforming an obelisk for a demonstration.
The pre-cut sandstone obelisk is placed inside a scooped out clay trough. The trough-like moat surrounding the obelisk keeps the abrasive and water together for grinding.
A shovel-like high speed oscillating tool is used to scoop material away. The shape of the tool will leave the same shape in stone.
(Below) Placing the abrasive powder in the moat along with water allows the tool to grind as soon as it touches the rock. The water acts as coolant when machining at high speeds.
You don’t want a large moat like shown above. Keeping the abrasive slurry on the rock at all times and around the obelisk allows for effective grinding in an instant.
A shovel shaped tool used in ultrasonic grinding will leave behind a shovel shaped scoop mark in the rock. Ultrasonics allow for large stones to be quarried in record speed.
(Below) The hard to reach areas are not difficult with the correct shape tool. Standing in the slurry, a person can remove aggregate with a shovel-like tool. Standing in the moat with slurry will not hurt the person, the grinding action is where the tool meets the stone only.
The ultra-sonically vibrating metal tool in the shape of a shovel will make a shoveled scoop mark in stone.
The whole shovel does not have to be oscillating at a high rate, just the end of the metal blade. As for an energy source? I don’t know yet. Today, we would hook up the end of the oscillating shovel tool with an extension cord and alternating current.
I have placed the advanced stonework found worldwide into 5 categories of technology. The categories are more like levels of understanding.
The below pendant was created using todays technology of a spinning abrasive tool for scooping out the citrine gemstone designs. Our technology used in lapidary today, combined with ultrasonics, is level 1.
The technology of stonework shown below is not molding, acid etching, or ultrasonics, this is level 4. We will discuss level 4 as soon as we get through the basics, Levels 1, 2, and 3.
