Exploring the mysteries of our past, civilizations, cataclysms, and what it all means for us today
New video! Ancient Tube Drills, Part 2! More context, more Petrie, more cores, even some examples from Peru!
An addendum to my mini-documentary about ancient egyptian tube drilling, in this video I offer some additional thoughts and context on the topic, and I answer some commonly asked questions. I discuss other examples of tube drills, including some in Peru, and share some more depth on the role that Flinders Petrie has played in the history of Egyptology and our understanding of the ancient world.
23 thoughts on “New video! Ancient Tube Drills, Part 2! More context, more Petrie, more cores, even some examples from Peru!”
Superb video, and also nice and clear presentation Ben ! You are best at keeping us spellbound and at highlighting in such a way the beautiful achievements of Ancient Egypt.
A few weeks ago I sent you an e-mail highlighting some other interesting and mysterious aspects of the incredible stone working at Giza. Could you by chance have a look at it ?
Wishing you every success for your future projects,
Cheers !
Pierre
I’ very sorry, I am horribly behind on my email – the last several months I’ve been somewhat inundated. I see your message there, I have read it (I do read everything), I just haven’t had enough time to respond to everyone (and I spend a few hours at it every week). I am making an effort to catch up! I’ll give you my thoughts on it at some point over the next couple of days :). Thanks for the kind words and the support!
Hi Ben,
Don’t worry : we know your whole-hearted commitment to the subject and also that you are overstretched by the tons of messages must be getting every day.
Just take your time in answering : I am really passionnate about this fantastic issue but very patient as well.
Take care and all the best !
Pierre
Just watched your YouTube video about Petrie’s core 7. Thread and latex are very old technology. The helical vs. horizontal groove question could be answered in a day with a LIDAR scan. I payed $700 US to have a huge Soviet fighter jet scanned in Ukraine. I can’t imagine it would cost more than a few hundred bucks, and take longer than a few minutes, to scan core 7 to far-sub-millimeter accuracy. The only barrier is bureaucracy, which probably is a lot less onerous at the British Museum than in Egypt.
Ben, you’re brilliant.
Thanks very much for this: it really is all fascinating,
and I hope one day soon the paradigm will shift as more and more evidence
comes in.
I must confess I haven’t donated yet, but I really do intend to
as soon as I have a bit of spare cash.
Thanks again and please keep up
the good work.
Richard.
This is really good to put lights on this as it what Jousef also mean, we must start where proof is.
After read on the you tube channel on the comment section it is allot of ideas and many are still sceptical.
Thats why several core’s must has a mold done and a 3D analyze ”finally”.
I think that might get all this in a new direction instead of speculation on the feed rate.
-If a brutal feed rate, and proof new light will come.
Agreed. I’ve had a couple of conversations with people in the TV/streaming business…. If anything ever comes of it, if I ever get the budget and support, that is exactly the type of thing I will pursue doing… As you said, there are several cores that could be analyzed.
Is it possible that the spirals are a result of a drilling process which sees the drill being withdrawn from the hole when one of the cutting points becomes blunt or breaks or dislodges…once withdrawn, a new cutting point is then set on the drill…then the drill is reinserted into the hole…and drilling recommences at whatever depth had been reached previously. In reinserting the drill, the drill would be rotated and slowly lowered down the existing hole…at this stage, in bringing the drill down to the previous depth, the newly set cutting point might then leave a spiral…
Of course it this theory were to stack up there should be physical evidence…I wonder whether they might have had diamond cutting points somehow embedded in a tube drill (possibly copper)…if so, then my sense is that the cutting points would be prone to being dislodged…and that the drilling process would have involved withdrawing the drill and resetting cutting points fairly frequently…
Whatever the explanation, it’s all incredibly fascinating…
The taper of the core seems to work against the idea of the groove being made when it was withdrawn, it’s something commented on by both Petrie and Dunn.
hi Robert , had the same thought , wondering if that was caused by feeding a new bit into a bore that had drifted narrower by a worn bit , would expect to see that sort of detail , getting a friend who reads core samples for a living to look at this and tell me what she thinks
im thinking that its not necessary to have a continuous feed of the tube drill , if you oscillate the drill bit by rotating forward by 1mm and then reversing by 0.99 mm then you would travel almost 200 mm to proceed to the next mm , this would not conflict with the continuous helix
More than see feed/surface, I like to see roundness and taper.
This would be seen in a mold/3D.
One comment sceptical on the You Tube channel said no proof of equipment and mean if our world collapsed totally it would bee proof of tool, mining, construction etc a long time after ( I agree ) maybe x10 1.000 years. And from that it should be possible to trace how far we went in technology ( agree again )
If one hear what Eric Von Daniken say the ET did learn us and they brought the tool back.
I always think it is hard try trace something by that matters of speculations, and again we must reaseach what is here we can see.
Tube core drill is a perfect example of that.
If they did it with weight/pressuare sand, water or if it is high tech WE must be able figure that out now.
Speculation to ET or other directions is us no help or just say trust archeology etc.
The video quality is very high, and by that i don’t mean HD or something technical. I mean that the quality of the video from the camera-work to the narration is very good. Easily a TV quality documentary, but more substantial.
One of the last things in the video – the item seen at 22:30 looks fascinating. I hope to see an unchartedx video on it.
I would love to know what those modern equivalents are used for – and why the hell would ancient Egyptians even bother with making such a thing.
Hello,
I enjoy your videos. At some point in the first video you mentioned pressure as a possible answer for the feed rate. Nothing else was said about it. I would like to draw your attention to something called a Cole drill. It is based on the idea that a drill is turned very slowly but advanced by a screw. Think of a beefy c-clamp with a drill bit attached to the end. As you tighten the screw the bit advances. It can be used to drill very hard metals with regular bits by hand turning the screw. One could imagine using a hinged weighted lever pressing on to the top of the tube. I could see it being an analog for drilling hard stone. Just a thought.
Like most of you, I’m amazed by this subject. And it does my head in trying to understand why science isn’t throwing more weight at this.
Regarding Tube drills, feed rates and removing the core. Could it be possible that the spiral groove is a secondary process in relation to removing the core, and not the whole process? And has there ever been any microscopic samples of metal been found on either the cores or holes?
Ben, I’m in London for a week and see this as a wonderful opportunity to visit the Petrie museum. Other than watching your video, which I’ve done several times, what other prep work would you suggest and what would be good to focus on while I’m there?
Definitely check out the British Museum. Either go early in the morning for opening, or find the one night a week it’s open late and go then. It was utterly crammed with people when i went (early morning, took about 20 minutes to fill up after I got in)
Superb video, and also nice and clear presentation Ben ! You are best at keeping us spellbound and at highlighting in such a way the beautiful achievements of Ancient Egypt.
A few weeks ago I sent you an e-mail highlighting some other interesting and mysterious aspects of the incredible stone working at Giza. Could you by chance have a look at it ?
Wishing you every success for your future projects,
Cheers !
Pierre
Hi Pierre!
I’ very sorry, I am horribly behind on my email – the last several months I’ve been somewhat inundated. I see your message there, I have read it (I do read everything), I just haven’t had enough time to respond to everyone (and I spend a few hours at it every week). I am making an effort to catch up! I’ll give you my thoughts on it at some point over the next couple of days :). Thanks for the kind words and the support!
Cheers
Ben
Hi Ben,
Don’t worry : we know your whole-hearted commitment to the subject and also that you are overstretched by the tons of messages must be getting every day.
Just take your time in answering : I am really passionnate about this fantastic issue but very patient as well.
Take care and all the best !
Pierre
🙂
Just watched your YouTube video about Petrie’s core 7. Thread and latex are very old technology. The helical vs. horizontal groove question could be answered in a day with a LIDAR scan. I payed $700 US to have a huge Soviet fighter jet scanned in Ukraine. I can’t imagine it would cost more than a few hundred bucks, and take longer than a few minutes, to scan core 7 to far-sub-millimeter accuracy. The only barrier is bureaucracy, which probably is a lot less onerous at the British Museum than in Egypt.
Ben, you’re brilliant.
Thanks very much for this: it really is all fascinating,
and I hope one day soon the paradigm will shift as more and more evidence
comes in.
I must confess I haven’t donated yet, but I really do intend to
as soon as I have a bit of spare cash.
Thanks again and please keep up
the good work.
Richard.
Thanks so much Richard!
This is really good to put lights on this as it what Jousef also mean, we must start where proof is.
After read on the you tube channel on the comment section it is allot of ideas and many are still sceptical.
Thats why several core’s must has a mold done and a 3D analyze ”finally”.
I think that might get all this in a new direction instead of speculation on the feed rate.
-If a brutal feed rate, and proof new light will come.
Agreed. I’ve had a couple of conversations with people in the TV/streaming business…. If anything ever comes of it, if I ever get the budget and support, that is exactly the type of thing I will pursue doing… As you said, there are several cores that could be analyzed.
Hi,
Is it possible that the spirals are a result of a drilling process which sees the drill being withdrawn from the hole when one of the cutting points becomes blunt or breaks or dislodges…once withdrawn, a new cutting point is then set on the drill…then the drill is reinserted into the hole…and drilling recommences at whatever depth had been reached previously. In reinserting the drill, the drill would be rotated and slowly lowered down the existing hole…at this stage, in bringing the drill down to the previous depth, the newly set cutting point might then leave a spiral…
Of course it this theory were to stack up there should be physical evidence…I wonder whether they might have had diamond cutting points somehow embedded in a tube drill (possibly copper)…if so, then my sense is that the cutting points would be prone to being dislodged…and that the drilling process would have involved withdrawing the drill and resetting cutting points fairly frequently…
Whatever the explanation, it’s all incredibly fascinating…
Regards
Robert
The taper of the core seems to work against the idea of the groove being made when it was withdrawn, it’s something commented on by both Petrie and Dunn.
hi Robert , had the same thought , wondering if that was caused by feeding a new bit into a bore that had drifted narrower by a worn bit , would expect to see that sort of detail , getting a friend who reads core samples for a living to look at this and tell me what she thinks
im thinking that its not necessary to have a continuous feed of the tube drill , if you oscillate the drill bit by rotating forward by 1mm and then reversing by 0.99 mm then you would travel almost 200 mm to proceed to the next mm , this would not conflict with the continuous helix
hi Ben , trying to leave comment for you but getting blocked as suspected bot ???
Hi Greg,
It takes a minute sometimes, I generally need to approve comments first, I need to jiggle my settings!
Cheers
Ben
really like your stuff , gets my brain working
More than see feed/surface, I like to see roundness and taper.
This would be seen in a mold/3D.
One comment sceptical on the You Tube channel said no proof of equipment and mean if our world collapsed totally it would bee proof of tool, mining, construction etc a long time after ( I agree ) maybe x10 1.000 years. And from that it should be possible to trace how far we went in technology ( agree again )
If one hear what Eric Von Daniken say the ET did learn us and they brought the tool back.
I always think it is hard try trace something by that matters of speculations, and again we must reaseach what is here we can see.
Tube core drill is a perfect example of that.
If they did it with weight/pressuare sand, water or if it is high tech WE must be able figure that out now.
Speculation to ET or other directions is us no help or just say trust archeology etc.
Hello!
The video quality is very high, and by that i don’t mean HD or something technical. I mean that the quality of the video from the camera-work to the narration is very good. Easily a TV quality documentary, but more substantial.
One of the last things in the video – the item seen at 22:30 looks fascinating. I hope to see an unchartedx video on it.
I would love to know what those modern equivalents are used for – and why the hell would ancient Egyptians even bother with making such a thing.
Regards,
Paul
Thanks Paul!
Hello,
I enjoy your videos. At some point in the first video you mentioned pressure as a possible answer for the feed rate. Nothing else was said about it. I would like to draw your attention to something called a Cole drill. It is based on the idea that a drill is turned very slowly but advanced by a screw. Think of a beefy c-clamp with a drill bit attached to the end. As you tighten the screw the bit advances. It can be used to drill very hard metals with regular bits by hand turning the screw. One could imagine using a hinged weighted lever pressing on to the top of the tube. I could see it being an analog for drilling hard stone. Just a thought.
Like most of you, I’m amazed by this subject. And it does my head in trying to understand why science isn’t throwing more weight at this.
Regarding Tube drills, feed rates and removing the core. Could it be possible that the spiral groove is a secondary process in relation to removing the core, and not the whole process? And has there ever been any microscopic samples of metal been found on either the cores or holes?
Best wishes all. And thanks.
Phil
Ben, I’m in London for a week and see this as a wonderful opportunity to visit the Petrie museum. Other than watching your video, which I’ve done several times, what other prep work would you suggest and what would be good to focus on while I’m there?
Definitely check out the British Museum. Either go early in the morning for opening, or find the one night a week it’s open late and go then. It was utterly crammed with people when i went (early morning, took about 20 minutes to fill up after I got in)