Past Projects

For those of you with a fast connection to the Net, we offer a 55-second MPEG video of a discussion between Al Anderson and Grigg Mullen atop the structure (the wind competes with the voices, unfortunately). If you have only a modem connection, it will take about 5 minutes to download.

A diverse group of members of the Guild and Massachusetts College of Art, inspired by our own Rick and Laura Brown, have again joined to work with a crew from WGBH/NOVA to film the raising of a multi-ton granite obelisk Egyptian style. This follows the failed attempt last spring by a team of experts that included Rick and his son, Wyly, to raise an obelisk in Aswan, Egypt. (You may view a report of this attempt at the WGBH/NOVA site at www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/egypt/dispatches/990325.html.)

The current project is being filmed under the direction of producer Julia Cort. It is part of the NOVA PBS television historical series "In Search of Lost Empires." (Another in the series is the trebuchet project in Scotland filmed last fall with an international team of some 50 timber framers; the program will be aired in the Spring of 2000.)

After several months of presentations and extensive deliberations with local engineers, Rick has assembled a cracker jack obelisk team consisting of Guild members Grigg Mullen, Jim Kricker, Rick and Laura Brown, Wyly Brown, Andy Smith, Al Anderson, Ellen Gibson, Barb Cahill, Joel McCarty, Brian Wormington, Ed Levin, and many others to be listed in the next dispatch. Volunteers also include men and women from a local air force base. Veteran experts at the site include stone mason Roger Hopkins and archaeologist and Egyptologist Mark Lehner.

The plan, based on Roger Hopkins's original idea demonstrated on a smaller scale in Egypt, is to haul the huge obelisk, on its side, up a gravel ramp to the edge of a sand-filled pit lined with stone blocks. As the sand is removed from two doors at each side of the pit, slowly and painfully by human diggers and carriers of the sand, the base of the obelisk slowly lowers into a turning groove, to a 75 degree angle, where it can be then pulled by ropes into an upright position. Extensive ropes and rigging master-minded by Jim Kricker and Grigg Mullen allow all of this to happen in a controlled and careful manner.

The obelisk lies vertical and fully roped awaiting its controlled descent into the sandy pit.

With everything in preparation, Wyly Brown gathers everyone to describe what will happen and asks us to pray each in our own way for project success.

Workers move sand from both sides of the pit to gradually lower the obelisk. The conditions must certainly mimic the Egyptian environment, as blowing sand and burning sun sandblast exposed skin. Masks are needed and appreciated.

Some of the team members (from left): Ed Levin, Grigg Mullen, Al Anderson, Jim Kricker, Wyly Brown.
Barb Cahill, Andy Smith, Joel McCarty, WGBH/NOVA coordinator and veteran of the Scotland project Mary Brockmyre.

Above and below: The intricate rigging, necessary for controlling and stabilizing the obelisk raising.