Masonry lintels are inefficient because they must depend on the cohesiveness of mortar, which is weaker than the blocks it bonds; so, in masonry construction, lintels of monolithic (single-slab) stone, wood, and stronger materials are employed.
Mayan inscriptions are found on stelae (standing stone slabs), stone lintels, sculpture, and pottery, as well as on the few surviving Mayan books, or codices.
It is in fact a slab of stone; carved into it are the words "Nothing is written in stone".
In earlier sites this is likely to be a small, thin, portable slab of stone used with a small pebble handstone, while later in the sequence, large, basin-shaped milling stones are more characteristic.
And what's that tall, bleak slab of stone beside the path?
A slab of stone worn smooth in a flight of steps: fantastic.
We asked directions twice but, at last, we stood by that simple slab of stone, breathing hard, pleased with ourselves.
Its colonnaded interior, radiating a confident simplicity, focuses on a central slab of stone, a dramatic altar sculpted by Henry Moore.
