Cyclopean architecture, using offcuts

[Philip Davies]

This is a game. I am using up some offcuts, especially some hardwoods: I cannot think of much else to do with them, so I am making sets for Christmas presents. I was relieved to see that I could build a wall with an entrance, without assistance! It’s not meant to be a competitive game, but cooperative, since it is not easy to put it together, so I think children would find it too frustrating.

I played with blocks a lot when I was a little lad. I found also that in very old age, my mother and other residents in her care home, enjoyed playing with Duplo, the larger version of Lego.

Before I met my wife, I read that a good test of character is to start building a tower of playing cards, to see what your prospective partner will do. Will he/she help you? Or will they knock it over? I am sure you can guess what my wife did.

It has been intriguing to speculate how the ancients shaped monumental masonry, especially the really close fitting walls in South America ( although similar architecture is found around the globe). The most plausible theory is that the Incas used highly acidic mine water, which, combined with bitumen and organic material, possibly using fire also, converted the mating surfaces of the igneous rocks to kaolin. And I suppose if they were banging them about with mauls, the vibration would assist the process. There’s a lot of crazy speculation though.