I ask because, while I think I could find information on how to harness livestock (like horses, oxen, dogs, etc.) to properly haul heavy loads, I don’t know the efficient and/or ergonomic way to do it with human beings.
I guess I can come up with specifics for numbers of people doing the hauling, or the weight of the cargo, if needed. Though for the sake of simplicity, I’ll leave out the factor of myself wearing a Nemes, standing on top of the cargo, bellowing and cackling sadistically.
Several British polar expeditions in the early 20th century used “man-hauling” instead of sled dogs to pull laden sledges over the snow. This .doc file on a museum exhibition of expedition artifacts shows a picture of a man-hauling harness.
Basically, it looks (from the front) like a leather belt with shoulder straps.
Not to different, once you account for the upright posture of humans. A harness around the shoulders and waist. I think some of the sled-dog types also add(ed) a head strap for another place to distribute the weight to, but that bit of information comes from historical novels, not a googleable picture or citable narrative.
Of course, the Egyptians had a whole lot of people to work with, so it’s very possible they just pulled ropes with their arms, so they could quickly replace men who fell over or tired out and they could quickly readjust their ropes as needed, having no stable wheel base underneath them.
(By the way,the people who built the pyramids weren’t slaves, they were a rotating labor force of free men who ate like kings while on duty and slept in serviceable dormitories. Working on the pyramid was both an honor and a duty, like a pilgrimage to Mecca or Jerusalem is for some people today.)
Link does not work as is but I managed to see the photo which is not very good quality. It looks like the “harness” is just a simple big loop which starts at the back of the neck, goes forward over the shoulders and then back under the armpits. It does not look like a designed harness at all but such an improvised harness would be very effective.
Watch the World’s strongest men as well. They have, what I would assume, are optimal harnesses to maximize power and minimize injury while pulling trucks and planes.
My friends at Ironmind Enterprises would be happy to sell you a pulling harness, strong enough to pull a tractor trailer with (tractor tarailer not included )
Unlike most critters, humans have hands, so simply hauling on a rope is a tolerably effective way to use human muscle power. For may hundreds of years sailing ships (some of which were quite large) relied on this scheme for all jobs except retrieving an anchor (for which a windlass with capstan bars was used).
I was coming in to suggest something just like this. A month or so ago, I retrieved my hunting tree stand and climbing sticks (strap on ladder) from the woods. I brought along my climbing harness (safety harness, like above), and my daughter’s “Red sled” (the long one). I loaded up the sled, tied it all down, then clipped the sled to the caribener (sp?) to it’s pull cord, and hiked out in deep snow.
Granted, I was walking out through 3 feet of snow, pulling about 70# so it was tough work, but the harness spread the weight out well. I found that you may need to fiddle with the connecting cord/strap’s length, depending on load, and pitch of the surface, but it went pretty well. It was much easier than pulling by hand, or trying to carry heavy, bulky gear.
Heavy loads that were not taken to a windlass or a capstan would have had a block-and-tackle arrangement. Sailing ships have the advantage, not shared by pyramid builders, of needing a heavy load to be moved over a relatively short distance repeatably.
It should be noted, by the way, that any old weakling can pull a truck or plane, so long as the bearings in the wheels are good enough and you don’t mind waiting a while to get up to speed.
A harness on the shoulders would put a lot of stress on the spine. A harness on the hips would not. If you want your slaves to last longer and healthier I would recommend a hip harness.
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