Pavel Pavel (born March 11, 1957 in

Strakonice Strakonice (; german: Strakonitz) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,000 inhabitants. Administrative parts Strakonice is made up of town parts of Strakonice I and Strakonice II, and villages of Dražejov ...

) is a Czech

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...

and experimental archaeologist best known for investigating how ancient civilizations transported heavy weights. Pavel Pavel studied electrical engineering at the university in Plzeň 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. He began this line of inquiry as a child, when he became worried he may inadvertently be transported back in time and charged with moving heavy objects. After the

Velvet revolution The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...

(1989), Pavel became involved in local politics as a member of the Civic Democratic Party. He ran in two elections for the

Czech Senate The Senate (), literally "Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic", is the upper house of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The seat of the Senate is Wallenstein Palace in Prague. Structure The Senate has 81 members, chosen in s ...

(in 2002 and again in 2003) finishing second. Since 1990 Pavel has worked in the field of heavy transportation, founding his company ''PAVEL PAVEL s.r.o.'' in 2000.

Experimental archaeology

Inspired by

Thor Heyerdahl Thor Heyerdahl KStJ (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. Heyerdahl is notable for his ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000& ...

's '' Kon-Tiki'', Pavel Pavel set out to demonstrate how the monolithic

Moai Moai or moʻai ( ; es, moái; rap, moʻai, , statue) are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Rapa Nui in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, ...

Easter Island Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearl ...

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 ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

using a

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

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 stones (also known as logan stones or logans) are large stones that are so finely balanced that the application of just a small force causes them to rock. Typically, rocking stones are residual corestones formed initially by spheroidal ...

at the village of Kadov (in Strakonice District) to its original location, from where it had been removed in the 19th century by unknown vandals. He estimated that only 160 people with similar simple technology would have been necessary for transportation of the 800 ton stones in

Baalbek Baalbek (; ar, بَعْلَبَكّ, Baʿlabakk, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In Greek and Roman ...

. One of next experiments, realised 1991, was building of one segment of

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connec ...

model 1:1. Ten people transported during one day a five-ton concrete stone to the top of other two stones, using only ropes and wooden sledges. This model is erected in Strakonice.

Books

* Pavel Pavel:
Rapa Nui
', České Budějovice, 1989. * Jaroslav Malina, Pavel Pavel: ''Jak vznikly největší monumenty dávnověku'' (''How the largest ancient monuments had been built''), Prague 1994, . * Rapa Nui, The Man Who Made the Moai Walk, first edition, Rapanui Press 2014, Chili. . www.rapanuipress.com

Notes

External links

Article on Pavel's visit to Easter Island
(in Czech)

(archived link) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pavel, Pavel 1957 births Living people People from Strakonice Czech engineers Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic) politicians University of West Bohemia alumni