How did the ancient Egyptians drill through granite?
A question that has always intrigued archaeologists is how past civilizations made their objects and monuments
Works such as the exquisite staircases of Machu Picchu, the geoglyphs of Acre, and the pyramids of Egypt raise questions about the use of technologies and tools.
The lack of understanding usually leaves room for hypotheses about contact with aliens or the idea that these people were beyond their time; dangerous arguments when it comes to a faithful understanding of the past.
The ancient Egyptians, known for their temples, pyramids, and hieroglyphic writing, have always been a challenge for researchers.
And a skill that still intrigues many people is the ability to carve objects in granite – rock much harder than limestone or sandstone.
So, what tools did they have to hand? How long did the carving process take? Had they been helped by fantastic beings?
Egyptian artisans, the working class responsible for all the grandeur that has come to us, used instruments depicted in paintings that resisted time, showing the use of axes, saws, and bows, among others.
The most accepted theory is that these builders used wooden, bronze, and copper tools to carve the granite, mastering strict rules that allowed a good job.
Around 3500 BC, many copper tools were used, adding to the skills of the artisans, which made it possible to carry out any and all work with accuracy.
But would wooden tools be enough to carve granite? That was the main question during the nineteenth century when archaeologists came across artifacts like these.
Only later studies, not focusing on the objects themselves but on the way in which they were used, came closer to a solution.
According to current archaeology, the ancient Egyptians drilled granite with a method that consisted of introducing wooden wedges into a natural crack in the rock and soaking them with water.
As the wet wood expanded, the original crack widened, and after successive repetitions of the process, the rock split into smaller pieces.
Stone artisans, ancient and modern, use this natural process based on weaker parts of the rock. Another method used was successive incisions in the stone with metal objects, which, little by little, carved lines and designs, intervening in different ways in the rock.
However, such methods do not seem to explain everything. The English engineer, Christopher Dunn, is one of the great promoters of these issues, and since 1977, he has been questioning himself about the use of technologies in Ancient Egypt.
Talking to Egyptologists and visiting sites, Dunn was not convinced by the wedge and water method alone.
According to him, “the quarry marks I saw did not convince me that the methods described were the only means by which the builders of the pyramids worked their rocks.”
The tools displayed as instruments for creating many artifacts are physically incapable of being reproduced.
For the engineer, the artifacts would only have reached such a degree of precision with the use of saw blades and objects with a hardness comparable to that of diamond.
Discussions like these are still current, and perhaps Egyptologists have yet to find tools that better explain the construction of these objects.
But what we must keep in mind is that maybe we are the limited ones, relying too much on our own technologies and applying contemporary ways of seeing the world to the past.
See more here historicaleve.com
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Trackback from your site.
aaron
| #
Answer – They were way more advanced than we are.
We have been brainwashed to believe different
His story is not our story
Reply
Howdy
| #
“Mind over matter.” Humans capabilities have declined since those days. Egyptians used symbolism to convey meaning, rather than logic. Logic is the language of the material age.
Reply
Tom
| #
Perhaps civilization on the whole followed an up and down cycle and advancement was not always linear. We are on the cusp of another peaking civilization where we could easily downfall back to the stone age. Speaking of drilling, our pretend leaders in the world have many holes in their heads. Their brains have leaked out long ago.
Reply
george
| #
They didn’t, but sure as hell somebody did. Who remains a mystery. <:o)
Reply
James
| #
Native granite formations show cracks opened when the magma cooled, as seen in the many intrusions worldwide, so the quarrymen used the blocks that were already to size. If there are cracks in existing boulders, just insert wedges and hammer them, granite has little tensile strength. In Thailand and Sardinia I’ve seen 5-6 meter blocks split with three holes and wedges and a hammer, though black powder is quicker. To create an opening, use fire. For other types of stone, visit for example the ancient Greek marble quarries in Sicily where we can see work in progress abandoned 2-3000 years ago.
Reply
Howdy
| #
Forget stone splitting.
What about the 60 ton granite blocks in the pyramid base?
100 ton blocks nearby:
“they weigh upward of 100 tons apiece, are solid Aswan granite and “are precision engineered to tolerances which would be deemed remarkable today.”
https://www.wnd.com/2017/01/mystery-grows-over-100-ton-granite-boxes-in-egypt/
Megalithic stone walls of Saksaywaman:
The site is famed for its remarkable large dry stone walls with boulders carefully cut to fit together tightly without mortar. The stones used in the construction of the terraces at Saksaywaman, which weigh up to 200 tonnes
https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-americas/unravelling-mystery-behind-megalithic-stone-walls-saksaywaman-001470
Note the finish.
Reply
aaron
| #
would also be tough to haul the 60 ton granite blocks with horse and wagon or maybe it was slaves, wonder how many slaves it would take to move a few hundred 60 ton granite blocks?
all the history that is spoon fed to us is a distortion at best, more likely intentional lies
that program our minds to believe there insipid narratives, a bit of logic and reality shows their pathetic stories for what they are
Reply
Jerry Krause
| #
Hi You All,
Why did none of you question if the stones of the pyramids were actually composed of granite? Somebody is playing a game relative to your possible intellect and it seems they are winning.
Have a good day
Reply