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It is pertinent to ask if the method could have been used for rolling stones not having a square cross section, and for stones of much larger size than the average 2.5 tonne stones making up the Great Pyramid. Stones with a regular rectangular cross section present no problem, as equal size filler pieces could be used at each end of the cradles on the longer faces, and full scale tests of this type were carried out in Tokyo. Less regular shapes could be fitted with cradles by using variable size filler pieces, but extremely irregular shapes would be difficult to accommodate.
Many ancient civilisations proved themselves capable of transporting huge megaliths commonly up to 40 or 50 tonnes, and there are stones of this size at Stonehenge, Mycenae, various Inca structures such as those at Sacshuaman and Ollantaytambo and in many Egyptian structures, not least in the roofing over the King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid. Although speed of transport would not have been a factor in moving these megaliths it would still have been advantageous to have moved them by rolling if possible. A 17th C Jesuit priest recorded having seen blocks rolled up earthen ramps used in the construction of Cuzco cathedral, built using traditional Inca methods.
Vitruvius describes the efforts of one Paconius to do just this in attempting to transport a 40 tonne plinth for a statue of Apollo. According to Vitruvius, Paconius encapsulated the ends of the stone block in wooden "wheels" 15 feet in diameter, then linked these with 2 inch crossbars at intervals around the rims to form a slatted cylinder. He then coiled a rope around the bars and, as anticipated, when pulled by oxen the rope uncoiled and moved the stone, but it proved unmanageable and swerved from side to side. This probably occurred because he used only a single rope and, worse, it was probably the rope and not the crossbars which contacted the road surface. This problem did not occur in the Tokyo tests. It is possible that this method of transporting large stones was common in the ancient world and Paconius had heard of it, but simply failed to apply it successfully.
A method known as parbuckling has traditionally been used, perhaps for hundreds of years, to lower beer barrels down ramps into beer cellars, and it has been suggested that this method could have been used to raise heavy stones up ramps. It was proposed, for example, by Thomson 1954 as the method by which the lintels at Stonehenge could have been drawn up earthen ramps to rest on the uprights, In order to raise a stone by this method, two haul ropes fixed at the top would be run down the ramp, looped around the stone, and the stone rolled up the slope by hauling on the free ends,
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