[HN Gopher] Ancient Egyptian Stone-Drilling (1983)
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Ancient Egyptian Stone-Drilling (1983)
        
       Author : smitty1e
       Score  : 127 points
       Date   : 2024-05-12 00:48 UTC (22 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.penn.museum)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.penn.museum)
        
       | Joker_vD wrote:
       | ...so it wasn't ancient aliens, with laser-cutting and other
       | amazing technology? That's disappointing. I mean, if I couldn't
       | imagine how it possibly could've been done, then it had to be the
       | aliens, right?
        
         | peutetre wrote:
         | > _I mean, if I couldn 't imagine how it possibly could've been
         | done, then it had to be the aliens, right?_
         | 
         | That sounds right.
         | 
         | I couldn't imagine how Indiana Jones 4 could possibly be such a
         | bad movie. It turned out to be aliens.
        
         | ganzuul wrote:
         | The technology is still used today. How is that not amazing?
        
         | Radim wrote:
         | You snark, but please note the "[1983]" in the title. This
         | article's points have since been expounded on, with new
         | evidence both archaeological and experimental.
         | 
         | Namely:
         | 
         | > _The concentric lines were not always perfectly parallel._
         | 
         | 1. What the article calls "concentric circles" are, in fact,
         | series of spirals. That is, a cutting point ploughing through
         | the granite, round and round.
         | 
         | And indeed the fine abrasive circles that this article manages
         | to reproduce (image 7b) look nothing like the original fairly
         | well-spaced, deep-cut grooves of the original hole (image 1a,
         | all the way at the top).
         | 
         | Petrie himself documented spiral grooves that span many drill
         | rotations, sometimes totaling over 6 metres in a single
         | continuous groove. This is well established and not disputed
         | because the physical evidence is so plain.
         | 
         | Why the OP failed to mention spiral grooves and talks about
         | "concentric circles" instead is unclear, given they otherwise
         | quote Petrie extensively.
         | 
         | > _[the hole] diameter on the outside is 5.3 cm. and tapers to
         | 4.3 cm. on the inside._
         | 
         | > _...a tubular copper drill creates a more parallel drill hole
         | since it cannot wear beyond the internal diameter of the
         | drill._
         | 
         | 2. By all accounts, the tubular drills were fairly thin. We
         | know this because there are thin (overdrilled) circles at the
         | bottom of discovered tube holes, up to 0.5cm in thickness of
         | the tube wall max. There you can see the actual narrow width of
         | the tube because the bottom wasn't sawn off as in the case of
         | OP's particular sarcophagus.
         | 
         | Again well documented by Petrie and others, supported by
         | overwhelming physical evidence, so not a point of contention.
         | 
         | The OP does not go into how the observed difference of 1cm
         | compares to the wear of the (presumably thinner) "internal
         | diameter of the drill". See for example [0] for a clearer,
         | updated exposition.
         | 
         | ----
         | 
         | To be clear, none of this is of course evidence for any
         | "aliens". But reading your snark reminded me of those internet
         | fly-by experts who deride honest work of others because "The
         | science is settled bro, I saw a documentary on NBC! Aliens lol
         | these other people are cretins!"
         | 
         | I'd recommend turning off sound if Youtube amateur commentary
         | irks you, but the breadth of physical evidence (photos and
         | videos of actual stone artefacts, not theories around them)
         | they display is astounding. Reading scientific papers (or
         | watching NBC...) alone won't build you enough intuition and
         | nuance for fly-by snarks. It is a complex topic, and not all
         | amateurs are cretins. A bit of humility helps.
         | 
         | [0] https://antropogenez.ru/drilling/
        
           | dtgriscom wrote:
           | I agree that they're misusing the word "concentric". However,
           | I'd be very surprised if they truly overlooked the grooves
           | being continuous spirals, as that would be extremely
           | meaningful. Accepting your citation of Petrie, I'm actually
           | surprised that the grooves were spirals, as that implies a
           | cutter which makes significant progress in a single rotation,
           | which seems unlikely in any stone, let alone granite.
        
             | Radim wrote:
             | Well yes, that's my point - the process is not trivial,
             | with surprising technical details.
             | 
             | For a more in-depth take on grooves - at least more in-
             | depth relative to "concentric circles" or Lehner's "wet
             | sand" video) check out my link above,
             | https://antropogenez.ru/drilling/. Specifically on Petrie's
             | testimony they offer this:
             | 
             | > _Of course, Petrie's Core#7 does not bear any regular
             | helices or a thread cut in granite with a fixed jewel point
             | with a pitch of 2.0 mm, as it has been described by him.
             | There is only a series of grooves, the formation mechanism
             | of which is described above in detail. Their pitch, being
             | very irregular, is not related to the advance movement of
             | the tool cutting edge._
             | 
             | Most importantly, they ran actual experiments on actual
             | stones.
             | 
             | And their theory for those grooves is a sort of emergent
             | property of the accumulated effect of corundum grains
             | falling into the same crest/trough pattern along the tube
             | wall while drilling downward, leading to the observed
             | series of (irregular) cut spiral grooves.
        
             | kragen wrote:
             | you could do it with a cutter that was itself a rotating
             | grinding wheel
             | 
             | i'm pretty sure the grooves are not actually spirals though
        
       | et1337 wrote:
       | The best part is the very end, where it is revealed that the
       | study was done by two dentists.
        
         | trwm wrote:
         | The whole thing reads like great literature. There should be a
         | scientific magazine for papers that can be understood by the
         | motivated layman. I accidentally read the whole thing in one
         | sitting.
        
           | surfingdino wrote:
           | For more of excellent writing read Derek Lowe's
           | https://www.science.org/blogs/pipeline His "Things I Won't
           | Work With" series is particularly entertaining whilst
           | remaining firmly scientific.
        
             | devilbunny wrote:
             | You misspelled "terrifying" there. I've never practiced
             | chemistry, just got my B.S. and went to med school, but
             | simply _reading_ the names of most of those compounds made
             | my blood run cold.
        
         | jdietrich wrote:
         | The argument between the eminent Egyptologists that opens the
         | article is frustratingly naive to anyone who has real
         | experience in drilling and shaping hard materials. A dentist
         | is, oddly enough, exactly the person I'd expect to write this
         | article - academic enough to bother writing it, but practical
         | enough to see the tool marks and have an insight into how they
         | were made.
        
         | unwind wrote:
         | ... and one of them has the last name "Gorelick" [1?].
         | Impressive study, happy I'm not a patient of his.
         | 
         | 1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptronym
        
           | rrr_oh_man wrote:
           | _Gorelik or Gorelick (Russian: Gorelik; Belarusian: Garelik:
           | Harelik) is a Jewish occupational surname historically
           | denoting a vodka distiller or trader. Its etymology is
           | Slavic, from Belarusian harelka (garelka), a calque from
           | Polish gorzalka, itself from German geprant Wein 'burnt
           | wine'._
           | 
           | So what?
        
       | Nykon wrote:
       | I think respecting the cutting depth per rotation would give
       | better clues and would make the the assumption actually
       | comparable to "what they did" back then
        
       | jstanley wrote:
       | > Photograph of a model of the bottom of the drill hole shows
       | that lines are spaced closer together (arrow). This may be due to
       | abrasive having become finer as drilling continued.
       | 
       | Anyone who has drilled brittle materials will know why the lines
       | got closer together. The feed pressure was reduced near the end
       | of the hole to avoid chipping out the back surface.
        
       | Simon_ORourke wrote:
       | This is one of the most intriguing ancient mysteries, and is
       | sufficiently well grounded in engineering practice that it can be
       | experimentally validated. Things like the hardness of the cutting
       | edge, the RPM required to mimic the drill markings, the shape and
       | progression of the drill bit etc.
       | 
       | So, it's reasonably clear that the bronze-age Egyptians must have
       | had some drilling rig for boring hard stone - one which operated
       | at 1,000 rpm or similar and could make an impression into
       | something like quartz. All the ancient aliens nonsense aside,
       | this rig in itself must have been quite impressive in itself -
       | probably a composite of pulleys and ropes with a tubular emery-
       | embedded cutting bit. Would have loved to have seen it working!
        
         | aixpert wrote:
         | *copper-age
        
           | pavlov wrote:
           | Bronze is a copper alloy, and there are Egyptian bronze
           | objects dating back to the first dynasties of the Old
           | Kingdom.
        
           | detourdog wrote:
           | I'm starting to think we should think of the pre-historic
           | times as the "simple machine age". When I see the artifacts
           | I'm left with the impression that these people had plenty of
           | labor and they were exploiting and learning the use of simple
           | machines.
           | 
           | Everything they did could be explained by mastery of use
           | gravity, ropes, and levers. If the materials used were
           | primarily organic in composition the tooling would be long
           | gone by now.
        
           | tokai wrote:
           | Always weird when people correct others with something that
           | is wrong. Its bronze age. And if it was the copper age the
           | correct term would be chalcolithic.
        
           | adrian_b wrote:
           | Pure copper is too soft and it has never been useful for most
           | tools.
           | 
           | The widespread use of copper for other purposes than jewelry
           | has begun only after it became possible to produce in a
           | reproducible way various alloys of coppers, now known as
           | bronzes.
           | 
           | The tin bronze, i.e. the alloy of copper with tin, has been
           | discovered relatively late, around 5500 years ago, close to
           | the time when writing has been invented, so we have much more
           | historical information about the civilizations that used tin
           | bronze. (The much cheaper brass has been discovered only long
           | after the method of iron extraction, during the Greco-Roman
           | Antiquity.)
           | 
           | Nevertheless, for several thousands of years before, other
           | copper alloys have been used, e.g. arsenical bronze or
           | antimony bronze, so that is still "bronze age", even if it
           | would be useful to differentiate between the ages of iron, of
           | tin bronze and of other "bronzes". The Egyptian state
           | definitely belongs to the age of the tin bronze.
        
             | kragen wrote:
             | experimental archaeologists (forget the names, sorry)
             | drilling egyptian granite with egyptian sand+ found that
             | copper tube drills work better than bronze tube drills,
             | presumably because copper is, as the machinists say,
             | 'gummier'
             | 
             | so while you're right that copper is much less useful than
             | bronze for _most_ tools, here the tool we 're talking about
             | is one of the exceptions
             | 
             | they also tried tubular reeds, with and without water.
             | those didn't work at all
             | 
             | the egyptian state seems to predate not just tin bronze or
             | even arsenical bronze but even copper tools, at least in
             | egypt
             | 
             | ______
             | 
             | + emery doesn't occur locally and doesn't start appearing
             | in the drilled holes during the first millennium of rock
             | drilling
        
         | westurner wrote:
         | If the claims of levitation, ultrasonic resonance, and/or
         | lingam electrical plasma stone masonry methods are valid;
         | perhaps the necessary RPMs for core drilling are lower than
         | 1000 RPM.
         | 
         | Given drilled cores of e.g. (limestone, granite,), which are
         | heavy cylinders that roll, when was the wheel invented in that
         | time and place?
         | 
         | Wheel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel
         | 
         | "Specific cutting energy reduction of granite using plasma
         | treatment: A feasibility study for future geothermal drilling"
         | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235197892...
         | :
         | 
         | > _The plasma treatment showed a maximum of 65% and a minimum
         | of 15% reduction in specific cutting energy and was regarded as
         | being dependent on mainly the hardness and size of the samples_
         | [and the electrical conductivity of the stone]
         | 
         | E.g. this video identifies electrodes and protrusions in
         | various megalithic projects worldwide:
         | https://youtu.be/n8hRsg8tWXg
         | 
         | Perhaps the redundant doors of the great pyramid were water
         | locks rigged with ropes. There do appear to be inset places to
         | place granite cores for rigging.
         | 
         | Ancient and modern stonemasonry skills; how many times have
         | they been lost and why?
        
       | DoctorOetker wrote:
       | > (Note: Emery is a granular rock composed mainly of corundum--a
       | crystalline compound of silicon and carbon--magnetite and spinel.
       | Here, `emery' and `corundum' are used for the abrasive powders
       | derived from these rocks.)
       | 
       | Corundum is Aluminium Oxide (not clear if this is part of the
       | original article?)
        
         | CapitalistCartr wrote:
         | Yeah, carborundum is the correct word.
        
           | oersted wrote:
           | Reminded me of the witty:
           | 
           | > Illegitimi non carborundum
        
           | kragen wrote:
           | emery is corundum (sapphire, aluminum oxide, a-alumina) and
           | carborundum is silicon carbide (a compound of silicon and
           | carbon)
        
       | dhsysusbsjsi wrote:
       | Ben from UncharteredX has a good video on these drill samples,
       | but does not buy into the mainstream acceptance of how they were
       | made. In fact the granite core samples show continuous grooves
       | and you can calculator the pressure per turn the mechanism was
       | under, and it's not really able to be done easily.
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/KFuf-gBuuno
        
         | Tor3 wrote:
         | The core samples do _not_ show continuous grooves, that claim
         | has been thoroughly debunked. With visuals.
        
           | bjackman wrote:
           | You can even see the discontinuity clearly in the linked
           | article
        
             | synecdoche wrote:
             | A discontinuity being an exception from a great majority of
             | surface consisting of spiralling and continuous lines is no
             | proof, nor debunking.
             | 
             | A spiral form being an exception from a great majority of
             | circular lines may be just that, an exception, and would
             | point towards a non-spiraling cut.
             | 
             | The photo with the discontinuity shows one side only.
             | Therefore there is no way of knowing if and how the lines
             | are connected on the obscured side, and no conclusion can
             | be made either way.
        
               | abakker wrote:
               | Important to distinguish a spiral cut from a spiral ream.
               | It is entirely possible to chip/drill/chisel a hole, and
               | then to ream it out with a spiral tool.
        
           | synecdoche wrote:
           | Right. Where may we see the debunking?
        
             | ImPostingOnHN wrote:
             | In the linked article here, for one.
        
               | synecdoche wrote:
               | Could someone point to where in the article that is?
               | Figure 5 is not a counterexample in my opinion, for the
               | reasons mentioned in an one of my other comments, namely
               | a single deviation from a spiralling line (if there are
               | such lines) is not proof that all other lines are not
               | spiralling. It is only a counterexample with regards to
               | those particular lines.
        
       | BostonFern wrote:
       | There's a 1995 PBS Nova episode in their Secrets of Lost Empires
       | series which includes a segment on drilled granite. The episode
       | features egyptologist Mark Lehner, stone mason Roger Hopkins, and
       | ancient tool expert Denys Stocks.
       | 
       | The episode mainly explores the question of how an obelisk was
       | raised. The team ran out of time before they were able to reach a
       | satisfying conclusion, but they returned to Egypt in 1999 to
       | record another NOVA episode, which includes two competing
       | theories on how to raise an obelisk. I highly recommend both
       | episodes.
       | 
       | https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/obelisk/cutting08....
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/qeS5lrmyD74
        
       | mhb wrote:
       | Another theory:
       | 
       | An initial undersized hole was drilled using any of the methods
       | they suggest which produce no concentric rings. Then a single
       | point boring tool was used to machine the hole to its final
       | dimension. The hole tapers 1 cm over its length. 0.5 cm of wear
       | of the single point tool in use would account for the decrease in
       | diameter.
        
       | throwawaycities wrote:
       | For what seems like every 100 YouTube channels that speculate on
       | everything from lost civilizations to aliens there are some
       | mundane channels that actually set out to demonstrate and
       | reproduce technologies and works like the ancients.
       | 
       | One of the more well known channels is scientists against myths,
       | here is a link to one of their videos reproducing granite drill
       | holes how the Egyptians might have:
       | https://youtu.be/yyCc4iuMikQ?si=oUkmF122iHIklvuz
       | 
       | I really like their videos making granite and diorite vases,
       | while the YT algo will tend to take you down the must have been
       | lost technology/lost civilization/alien rabbit hole, sometimes
       | you get lucky and they suggest other channels doing amazing work.
       | The comments are fun too, no matter how well done anything is
       | there's always someone demanding demanding the small channels
       | recreate the great pyramids at scale.
        
         | bjackman wrote:
         | I'm getting a bit off topic here but regarding the pseudo-
         | archaeology that's popular on YouTube: Graham Hancock (who had
         | a 10 part Netflix series called Ancient Apocalypse about an
         | advanced global civilization during/before the last glacial
         | maximum) recently appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast alongside
         | Flint Dibble who is an archaeologist that does public
         | communication on YouTube.
         | 
         | At least according to my own YouTube bubble it seems we are in
         | a pretty big moment for pseudo-archaeology! Here's an informal
         | discussion about it from Stefan Milo who I highly recommend for
         | anyone intereated in prehistory:
         | https://youtu.be/rWugM4XRPuc?si=EkO5PEAKRAIYYRJD
         | 
         | I have seen another good quality video summarising the debate
         | on the podcast but annoyingly I cannot remember it to share,
         | maybe someone else can share a fun resource (unfortunately the
         | Joe Rogan podcast is way too long for me to actually listen
         | to)!
        
           | throwawaycities wrote:
           | Graham has been appearing on Rogan's podcast for years now.
           | It's Grahams exposure from Rogan that actually got Graham his
           | Netflix show not the other way around.
           | 
           | In terms of proliferation of "pseudo archeology" - whatever
           | that is - yes, lots of people are realizing they can profit
           | from this, so more content than ever is being created to
           | monetize the attention capture. It's not unlike flat earth
           | content that people have been able to successfully monetize.
           | 
           | It's not all bad, Graham is no doubt responsible for getting
           | people interested in history, archeology, and even geology.
           | It's really not societies fault they are ill equipped to
           | exercise independent and critical thinking, much less the not
           | having the skill sets, tools and resources to evaluate the
           | existing archeological record.
           | 
           | Though for the people that want to make a career out of it,
           | I'd rather see them obtain formal educations and contribute
           | in meaningful ways in lieu of the majority of the grifting
           | type social media content...most people probably have the
           | capability to become educated about the actual science and
           | they'd also learn pretty quickly there is no vast conspiracy
           | to hide history/prehistory as much of the monetized social
           | media promotes.
        
         | fififbaajdjd wrote:
         | > lost technology, lost civilization
         | 
         | Are you saying there's not ancient technology or civilization
         | that's lost to us? That seems extremely unlikely to me.
         | 
         | The name "scientists against myths" makes me wary of this
         | channel. They clearly have an agenda, and I as a laymen have no
         | way to identify when they're letting that agenda cloud their
         | judgment.
         | 
         | As a laymen I can at least evaluate the trustworthiness of
         | other humans, and framing the debate as "science vs myth" when
         | history is rife with examples of myths later being explained by
         | science sets off alarm bells.
        
           | ajcp wrote:
           | > The name "scientists against myths" makes me wary of this
           | channel. They clearly have an agenda[...]
           | 
           | myth: an unfounded or false notion [0]
           | 
           | Given that definition of "myth" I find the name "scientists
           | against myths" to be rather redundant, wouldn't you? In what
           | version of reality is that _not_ the agenda of every
           | scientist?
           | 
           | 0. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/myth
        
             | ab5tract wrote:
             | The existence of Troy was once considered a myth.
        
               | throwawaycities wrote:
               | You say Troy was considered a myth as if it were an
               | absolute, it wasn't, it was debated among scholars.
               | 
               | Fact is German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann was one
               | of those learned people that didn't think it was a myth,
               | and in fact did locate and excavated a city matching the
               | descriptions.
               | 
               | That's how science works, things generally tend not to
               | exist until there is proof or record of their existence,
               | science doesn't default to things existing until record
               | of their non-existence emerges.
        
               | ab5tract wrote:
               | You seem to have missed the point entirely:
               | 
               | The scientists who considered it a myth were completely,
               | utterly wrong. I think it is perfectly healthy to have
               | skepticism about scientists who wage war against "myths".
               | 
               | See also the long fight against the "myth" of lead
               | poisoning, amongst dozens if not hundreds of other
               | examples.
        
           | gherkinnn wrote:
           | They make videos about drilling holes in rock using rocks and
           | lots of time.
        
           | jameshart wrote:
           | 'Ancient technology that's lost to us' is one of those
           | phrases that is used to construct a motte and bailey argument
           | which opens a gap through which some crazy theories get
           | inserted, so it's worthy of being treated with skepticism.
           | 
           | Are there ancient structures where we are unsure what
           | technologies were used to make them? Yes, absolutely.
           | 
           | Does the existence of such artifacts imply the existence of
           | certain precursor technologies and tools used to build them?
           | Yes, but we must proceed cautiously. Without direct evidence
           | of the tools and technologies used we are speculating based
           | on the results we observe, about what the means used to
           | produce them must have been. The same result, though, can be
           | produced in many different ways. Problems we look at today
           | and say 'surely that would require a machine or a powerful
           | engine to do?' might be solved instead by just throwing
           | manpower at the problem, or by taking much more time to
           | execute than we might initially assume is reasonable. And the
           | existence of doubt about which of several historically
           | plausible theories as to how something was constructed does
           | not automatically mean that historically _im_ plausible
           | theories are equally valid.
           | 
           | And, most importantly, does the fact that we have 'lost' the
           | precise techniques used in ancient constructions leave open
           | the possibility that those ancient techniques were actually
           | superior to what we have today? Theoretically, but in
           | general, no, of course not. Be very wary whenever you see
           | someone say something like 'the precision of these stone
           | blocks exceeds what we can do today'. These are nonsensical
           | claims made from ignorance about what modern engineering is
           | capable of. Take a look just at how modern kitchen counters
           | are cut, let alone how precisely engineered something like a
           | modern tunnel, or the LIGO gravity wave detector was
           | constructed.
        
         | borgdefense wrote:
         | People want to believe in something more when it comes to
         | ancient Egypt even if they know it is not reality. To me, it is
         | obviously linked to the beauty and other worldly feel of the
         | ancient Egyptian iconography and art.
         | 
         | If you just had the pyramids in the desert with the entire
         | civilization lost, while impressive there wouldn't be other
         | worldly explanations that sounded palatable. It would obviously
         | just be the engineering of a lost civilization.
         | 
         | It is really a testament to the power of ancient Egyptian art
         | that it can still inspire the imagination to such a degree
         | thousands of years later and across cultures.
        
           | TeaBrain wrote:
           | I think for some that it is the opposite. Most people are
           | able to understand that due to the extensive evidence of
           | centuries of advanced civilization, including extensive
           | surviving writings and evidence of mathematics knowledge, the
           | Egyptians were able to coordinate the construction of the
           | pyramids using advanced, but not anachronistic technology.
           | However, due to the disproportionate vastness and majesty of
           | the pyramids and some of the other surviving ancient Egyptian
           | works, many people can still be led to believe that there was
           | something more at work than practical engineering with
           | ancient technology.
        
       | art3m wrote:
       | Some Russians were so annoyed about alien theories so they
       | recorded a video how they drill the stone themselves using only
       | ancient instruments.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g305wqCdPRs (English subtitles
       | included)
        
         | abj wrote:
         | It's obvious Egyptians could carve granite using stone
         | instruments. What is worth more investigation, is how they
         | carved symmetric granite vases within 1/100th of an inch
         | precision.
        
           | kragen wrote:
           | nowadays, when people need precision to 1/100th of an "inch"
           | (250mm in modern units) on soft materials like unhardened
           | steel, they can use steel tools
           | 
           | but when they need precision of 1mm or better (in medieval
           | units, 1/25000th of an "inch"), or when they're cutting
           | materials harder than steel, they resort to grinding with
           | stone, typically emery (sapphire) for most of the grinding,
           | followed by polishing. poor people who don't have steel tools
           | also commonly do this for lower-precision work in soft
           | materials; you can find all kinds of videos on youtube of
           | people using angle grinders for things that a well-equipped
           | machine shop would do with a bandsaw or milling machine
           | 
           | similarly, to get the dimensional references to measure to,
           | common shop work can use cast-iron straight edges. but, for
           | more precise work, they resort to granite surface plates
           | 
           | the egyptians of the old kingdom clearly had granite surface
           | plates (they built significant parts of the pyramids'
           | interiors out of them) and grinding, though they were
           | evidently using the inferior quartz sand as their abrasive
           | 
           | as for symmetry, the most likely explanation is that they
           | used lathes; the oldest indisputable records of lathes are
           | from new kingdom egypt, but rotationally symmetric work that
           | seems to have been made on a lathe appears as far back as the
           | old kingdom
           | 
           | with respect to granite, while i don't doubt that you can
           | find a granite vase here and there, most ancient egyptian
           | fine stone carvings are from much softer rocks such as
           | schist, alabaster (gypsum), and "alabaster" (calcite)
           | 
           | so i would say the investigation has already been done and
           | found convincing answers
        
           | Loughla wrote:
           | >What is worth more investigation, is how they carved
           | symmetric granite vases within 1/100th of an inch precision.
           | 
           | The thing that gets me is that all of these questions can
           | seemingly be answered with -- lots of time.
           | 
           | If you work slowly, and have lots and lots of people to throw
           | at problems, nearly anything is possible.
        
       | abj wrote:
       | If you're like me and want to some actual evidence, here's a
       | video where they scanned and uploaded STL files from pre-dynastic
       | Egyptian vases. https://youtu.be/QzFMDS6dkWU?feature=shared
        
         | alt227 wrote:
         | This video is really frustrating. It spends the first 10
         | mintues trying to convince the viewer that these vases are not
         | fake, yet has no evidence other than "There is no possible way
         | these are fakes, just look at them!". Then he actively offers
         | up that they have not performed this analysis on any museum
         | piece vase which has been confirmed to come from an Egyption
         | tomb or pyramid.
        
       | amai wrote:
       | That might explain how they drilled holes into granite. But how
       | did the ancient Egyptians carve hieroglyphs into granite?
        
         | chris_st wrote:
         | With flint, evidently:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQkQwsBhj8I
        
         | throwaway173738 wrote:
         | Probably with similar techniques. If you can spin a round thing
         | against the same spot to make a hole you can certainly use the
         | same materials and rub them in a straight line or along a
         | curve. Hand woodworking involves painstakingly rubbing a little
         | material off the work and then checking it, or shaving it off
         | or cutting it off depending on where you are in the process.
         | And you can also strike a soft metal against the stone to chip
         | out a rough area before finishing and polishing. Inferior tools
         | just have to be sharpened more often is all
        
       | RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
       | From the perspective of a person living in the US, it is
       | technically correct that ancient aliens were responsible for all
       | the ancient Egyptian artifacts.
       | 
       | They were _ancient_ in that they lived a long time ago and they
       | were _aliens_ in that they were not citizens or residents of the
       | US.
       | 
       | So yes, ancient aliens built the pyramids.
        
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