 We are constantly saying it all the time that there are things missing from the ancient past that have not survived the ages, and we are not considering a technological past. To lift enormous blocks, the Greeks used machinery and according to a paper published just recently on PHYS Online, temple ruins suggest lifting machines were in use earlier than previously believed. Researchers do agree that Greek contributions to culture and building technologies are myriad with the crane being the most significant and enduring, but when and how did these machines enter the picture? New research by Alessandro Petratini, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame adds nuance to the broadly accepted view that the crane was not in use until 515 BC by demonstrating how forerunners to the machine were experimented with as early as 700 to 650 BC. The professor states, the foremost discovery of the Greeks in building technology is the crane. No previous civilization are known to have used it, and it has remained central to building construction without remarkable changes for nearly 25 centuries because it was perfect. Petratini studies the architectural history of Greek temples with special focus on the ruins at Ithmiah and Corinth. In a new article published in the annul of the British school at Athens, he argues that in the first half of the 7th century BC, Greek builders were experimenting with a lifting framework. Petratini also suggests that winches were associated into frameworks from around 600 BC. Cranes including both winch and hoist appeared only later, as argued by the renowned scholar of Greek design and construction, J.J. Colton in 1974. The ashlar blocks from the early temple at Ithmiah and Corinth dating from 700 to 650 BC and weighing between 200 and 400 kg each have a peculiar feature, twin grooves running parallel along the bottom and turning up on one end, while scholars have debated whether these grooves served for lifting the blocks during construction or for moving them within and from quarries. Petratini argues they were intended for lifting and also for placing the temple blocks to form walls. The ancient Corinthian's mastered shipbuilding, which was the most advanced technology of the early archaic period, Pyrantini contends that the Corinthian temple builders adapted to construction the same concept of using a framework to redirect force that they commonly used in nautical applications and which they probably also used for lowering heavy sarcophagi into burial pits. While examining the blocks, I found evidence that after being lifted the blocks were maneuvered into place with a method anticipating the classical period's sophisticated lever technique, according to Pyrantini. The placement involved a combination of levers and ropes that allowed for lowering each block tight up against its neighbor already in place in the wall. This is the earliest documented use of the lever in Greek construction in historical times. He said, If we are getting the timeline so drastically wrong for even these typically well-established and accepted ideas, then what else are we missing? What are you guys thinking? Comments below and as always, thank you for watching.