Workers dragged Forbidden City stones along roads of artificial ice

(Phys.org) —Fifteenth and sixteenth century Chinese workers transported enormous stones to the Forbidden City by carrying them in sledges along roads of artificial ice, according to Jiang Li of the University of Science and Technology in Beijing and his colleagues. The researchers translated a document showing that in 1557, workers used this method to transport a 123-ton stone more than 70 kilometers. Li and his team say that dragging large stones over ice, rather than over dry ground, reduced the amount of friction created and the number of workers needed for the job. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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