JC - the ability of Romans to build stuff isn't in doubt here. They and their buckets of cement were excellent. It's the cartoon allegations of mainly the catholic church that the Romans were stupid that's being challenged.

The practicalities of having a pre-dug hole on a hill for executions and you drag 300lbs of wooden cross up and drop it in the slot, and it fits cos it didn't expand overnight or anything, and it fits without any wobble or play in the thing are ridiculous.
Carrying say a 50lb cross-piece, a ladder and some rope is practical.

It makes sense to have the apparatus of execution pre-installed at execution sites, it was certainly the case when we had public hangings in Britain. Open holes in the ground would be vulnerable to vandals dropping rocks down them and then what do you do if you have your cross and nowhere to erect it?

Bongo. FFS! Think about it. You don't erect the cross first. You  nail and lash the offender whilst the cross is flat on the ground. Then, with the foot of the cross placed against an abutment it is hauled upright by a gang of fellas assisted by some more shoving. Ropes are attached to the arms of the cross to help maintain alignment. Then, as the cross nears verticality it slides into the precast concrete hole.
There is absolutely NO requirement for perfect verticality here. If so desired, one could simply drive in a couple of wedges. Personally, I think a cross which is about five degrees off axis looks best.
And as for working it loose...I would be interested to know exactly HOW one would accomplish that! This is not the same as pushing and pulling on a bloody fencepost...unless, of course, bad guys weren't so clever then!

The only rule fro reconstruction is only materials or knowledge at the time must be used

Not visible enough, just nailed to any old tree. It is supposed to serve as a deterrent. Hence the theatre and drama of the events. That's why the victims would be displayed in a prominent location.
A bit like leaving an impaled person in open view or the head on a spike at the city gates. It says "Behave yourself or this could be YOU".

The practicalities of having a pre-dug hole on a hill for executions and you drag 300lbs of wooden cross up and drop it in the slot, and it fits cos it didn't expand overnight or anything, and it fits without any wobble or play in the thing are ridiculous.

Haven’t read all this, but about holes in the ground and concrete. You don’t need concrete, you simply dig the hole as small (to the diameter if the post) as possible then you put the soil back in a little at a time and tamp it hard. I’ve not done any crucifixions, but I’ve dug telegraph poles in with bird boxes on them with no concrete, such that you could put a ladder up and a man climb up to the box. Providing the ground’s not sodden to start with, they stay stiff and if it is chalk or sand they are unmoveable. This is also the case when you dig fence straining posts in a little over a metre deep in the countryside. No one uses concrete. When you strain the netting up the force is incredible (you can do several hundred metres pulling it with a tractor) and yet the post doesn’t go anywhere (admittedly there's a strut also, maybe the Romans used them?) – all with just what you’ve dug out holding it up.

..I don't have it

it is far from proved on this thread

be interesting

guinness2dear    21 Feb 15 23:56 
I wonder if Heysoos the carpenter exclaimed "Nice piece of wood this" as he was whistling on the cross...

I believe his words were 'FFS.. what a way to spend Easter.'

The power of google and a bit more information surfaces:

The bible uses greek words stauros ( upright pale or stake ) and occasionally xylon ( tree ) to describe what Jesus was strung up on. None of these describe what is shown in the bullsheet stations of the cross as painted up by mainly catholic cartoonists on their walls of worship.

The details in these stations of the cross also show the cross-section of the wood - it's a fecking BEAM with a rectangular cross-section, and in 30 AD it's possible to mill these from a tree but it is blooming hard work for the joiner. The first mechanical saw-mills appeared about 200 years later ( .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierapolis_sawmill is the earliest known ). So about 100 years after that when the roman emperor converts to Christianity beams are presumably much more common and easy to make.

As FlowerMyth suggests a telegraph pole ( circular cross-section ) is a lot less likely to wobble, but the ground still needs compacting as you fill ( we have machines for compacting and many how-tos suggest to still leave it a day to settle ). It's still a lot of hard work to do something like this on the day.

The catholic depiction that romans would crucify criminals using a beam with a rough 3 by 1 cross-section is bonkers.

You can't be having your saviour nailed up on any old piece of wood. Even if they did depict it thus, you would still be moaning about have the knots in the wrong place! It is a generic piece of wood that may well have been hewn for him as a mark of friendship, respect or devotion. Perhaps somebody paid for it to be better class than the normal run-of-the-mill cross. Perhaps he even said "Arise, lowly stave, and bear the son of thy God with pride".

I think it is more about depicting the idea of crucifixion than a detailed model of the piece of wood used in the event.