The mystery of Ancient Egyptian stone cutting on Old Kingdom sites, into incredibly hard stone like basalt, and granite – a full documentary length deep dive into the evidence for ancient advanced technology.
Only on Old Kingdom sites do we find the presence of large basalt pavements – made up of remarkably flat and machined blocks. On and around these pavements, as well as inside the pyramids, we can find evidence for advanced methods of stone cutting, including powered circular saws. Far beyond the capability of the Dynastic Ancient Egyptians – how were these cuts made? Were they created by the dynastic civilization? Or is it possible these structures and objects were inherited?
We also investigate the evidence for a strange, functional feature of these Old Kingdom sites – the installation of channeled ‘u-shaped’ blocks, beneath the stone of pavements and causeways. What was the function of these mysterious blocks?
Links:
Stone Jars and other mysteries of Saqqara: https://youtu.be/7LEt8VM42PY
The Story of Ancient Egyptian Tube Drills: https://youtu.be/KFuf-gBuuno
Ancient Egypt’s Lost Labyrinth: https://youtu.be/PADK6Qq2hgk
500,000 volts through megalithic stone: https://youtu.be/PS1azzN0b-I
Executive Producers for this episode:
Josh Lohse
Chris Partney
Antonio Kasljevic
Northern Investments
Citi
Neohippie
Associate Executive Producers for the episode:
Marc Taylor
GinaC
Grzegorz Bozek
Frederica Russell
Thomas Czerniewski
This has to have been considered before; however, could the circular saw effect be obtained by manpower by combining the action of a straight saw blade with a circular blade? That is, mount a circular blade vertical on an axel connected to a swinging arm—the bigger the better limited by the strength of the material—then connect two ropes, one to either side of the apex. Then one team of pullers to each rope can pull down in turn to oscillate the blade. I am sure that the arm would have to be supported to prevent the blade from coming into direct contact with the stone and jamming—relying on a mixture of cutting agent and water to be fed into each end of the cut in synchronicity with the action of the blade. A threaded strut to the swinging arm giving fine adjustments would be ideal. The cutting disk could be turned occasionally to give even wear and prolong its life. Unfortunately, I can’t include a sketch:)
Could it be blood? Look to the Aztec, Inca or other civilizations regarding sacrifice and worship in their temples. I think it is possible that is what the bowl is for. The blood of the sacrifices could be collected in the bowls. The channels would have to have been cleaned somehow, but sacrifice of a life is logical for many temples.
Love you videos and very accurate.
I would like to point out though, dont focus on the how so much as but the why.
Its not hard to work out that the next step is needed.
Dont look at this from an engineering perspective, rather a social one.
Regards Trent
I ran an engineering business for forty years designing machinery. After seeing your video yesterday I spent an hour thinking how the apparent circular saw marks could have been made while cutting stone and have designed a machine that would do the cutting and leave marks from straight to arced. It only uses technology in use at the time, wood working, A frames, ratchets, ropes, and pendulums. It is human powered and very efficient. No mystery just people speculating that have no knowledge of industrial processes. Want sketches?
post em if you like. But you’re discrediting an awful lot of highly qualified people who have tremendous knowledge of industrial process (far greater than yours, I’d wager) like Chris Dunn who do happen to think there is something of a mystery here. Go ahead and saw a big granite block in two, let us know when you’ve managed it. Also, as per the other experimentalists, publish your cutting rates, then do some extrapolation, and we’ll see where we are at.
Yes I have also worked in the field of construction and have seen a huge variety of concrete and asphalt cutting equipment for demolition. In my opinion carbide and diamond encrusted blades are the only way we currently have to cut objects of this nature. Some concrete cutting that I have witnessed were the hardest concrete that currently we can produce. These power tools are electric or hydraulically driving and can cut through extremely hard concrete that also has steel reinforcement embedded in it with veritable ease. I have heard of grinding heads that are mounted on large excavation equipment that can grind through similar materials. There is no doubt in my mind that all of these Egyptian objects were quarried, cut and finished with highly sophisticated tools similar to what we have today and if not more complicated due to the high level of finish.
Great comment Scott!
I came across this video showing very narrow ancient quarry marks that vary in depth, and seem to be made with a tool that could plunge into rock… not circular.
Time stamp at about 3 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB29y_r6NJs
Thanks for the videos.. and cheers. – Dave