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Egyptian Stonework—Petrified Wood?

Mythopoeika

I am a meat popsicle
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This interested me. Now, I'm not saying I agree with what this guy is saying, but it caught my attention. I'm just entertaining the notion right now, because it's interesting.
In the video, he examines an ancient Egyptian item apparently made of granite. He points out that woodworking techniques have been used to roughly drill out a mortice hole. His point is that it WAS wood when it was worked, and now it is petrified wood (i.e. stone). My initial reaction was 'nah, bullshit'. But...I did a web search for pictures of petrified wood, and it DOES look a LOT like certain types of granite.
If it was wood originally, I can't think how it eventually turned into stone. Normally, petrified wood has to be buried and the process takes thousands of years. Or...did the ancients have some method of petrifying wood?

Your thoughts?


Mods - feel free to merge, etc. I couldn't find a suitable thread to add it to.
 
My initial reaction was 'nah, bullshit'. But...I did a web search for pictures of petrified wood, and it DOES look a LOT like certain types of granite.
If it was wood originally, I can't think how it eventually turned into stone. Normally, petrified wood has to be buried and the process takes thousands of years. Or...did the ancients have some method of petrifying wood?

I'd say trust your initial reaction. First of all, when wood petrifies, it doesn't turn into igneous rock. Second, this guy's logic just leaves me dumbfounded. "This is the kind of joinery we use in woodworking, so these blocks must have been made of wood." :loopy:

To quote Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon . . ."
 
I'd say trust your initial reaction. First of all, when wood petrifies, it doesn't turn into igneous rock. Second, this guy's logic just leaves me dumbfounded. "This is the kind of joinery we use in woodworking, so these blocks must have been made of wood." :loopy:

To quote Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon . . ."
I know, his logic was completely off-beam. :D
I don't believe it was ever wood, but it still begs the question...how did the ancients drill granite like that with the tech available at the time?
 
...how did the ancients drill granite like that with the tech available at the time?

It can be done, probably with copper (or even wood) tools and abrasives. The circular marks in the bottom of that mortise suggest that's how it was done. As you can imagine, it's a tedious process. The upside, I suppose, is that the work proceeds so slowly that the workman can hew very closely to the line and get good results.
 
It can be done, probably with copper (or even wood) tools and abrasives. The circular marks in the bottom of that mortise suggest that's how it was done. As you can imagine, it's a tedious process. The upside, I suppose, is that the work proceeds so slowly that the workman can hew very closely to the line and get good results.
I suppose, with labour being so cheap, that the amount of time involved would not matter too much.
 
I suppose, with labour being so cheap, that the amount of time involved would not matter too much.

Very true. I suspect, though, that we'd be surprised how quickly an ancient skilled workman could drive that hole or make that cut.
 
I can't see the image.

But I did visit the petrified forest on Lesvos a few years ago. Very interesting place.

INT21
 
...Image? There's a video...

It may well be, but whatever happens there is invisible to me. All I get is a blank post.

It's been this way for months ever since I made some alteration to my Firefox.

Also My XP will not accept some updates to applications. And I don't wish to change the operating system just because Windows wants my money.

INT21
 
..."This is the kind of joinery we use in woodworking, so these blocks must have been made of wood." :loopy:

To quote Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon . . ."

Yup. And anyway, mortices are regularly used in masonry work and have been for millenia - so using their existence as evidence of the presence of timber is nonsense in the first place.

And, hold on:

...You literally glue another piece of wood into this joint - that's why it's white'...

Seriously...they used PVA to stick the pyramids together??!

Absolute bobbins.
 
...Seriously...they used PVA to stick the pyramids together??!...

PVA...Pharaoh's Versatile Adhesive.

Holds your tomb together whilst dynasties crumble.

INT21
 
I know, his logic was completely off-beam. :D
I don't believe it was ever wood, but it still begs the question...how did the ancients drill granite like that with the tech available at the time?
The aliens did it!! Okay, I'll go to my room.

Seriously, there is some ancient stonework that is incredibly precise, and we don't have an explanation for it yet. My hunch is that there were a few technologically advanced civilizations prior to us.

Please note that I said 'hunch'. As in 'I can't prove it'.
 
...Image? There's a video...

It may well be, but whatever happens there is invisible to me. All I get is a blank post.

It's been this way for months ever since I made some alteration to my Firefox.

Also My XP will not accept some updates to applications. And I don't wish to change the operating system just because Windows wants my money.

INT21
Try a different browser, perhaps?
 
The aliens did it!! Okay, I'll go to my room.

Seriously, there is some ancient stonework that is incredibly precise, and we don't have an explanation for it yet. My hunch is that there were a few technologically advanced civilizations prior to us...

The merest flick through J G Landels Engineering in the Ancient World would suggest that the old guys were doing pretty well without outside interference.

(And, to be honest, if someone came to my planet offering advanced technology - and kept crashing into the desert in the process - I'd probably thank them very much, wait until they were out of sight so as not to hurt their feelings, and then go back to the screw-pump and the block and tackle and just give it a bit of time.)
 
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Egyptians did start out using wood working practices on stone until they developed better techniques.
I don't know if that's the case here, though, think it's just a typical piece. And yeah, it's granite, not petrified wood.
There's a video online somewhere from a Nova presentation where they practices some of the ancient stone drilling and cutting techniques. It's slow going but it works.
 
If I recall correctly, the builders of Stonehenge also used mortice and tenon techniques in the fitting of the stones. I think in this case that they are round, and I suspect maybe formed by hammer and bolster rather than drill - but I stand to be corrected.
 
Another interesting video that discusses the high precision of stone working in ancient Egypt.
The researchers make the conclusion that the granite sarcophagus in this pyramid is indeed solid granite and not some cast composite.
The bit where they show the sarcophagus is 11.40 onwards.
 
What is it this guy is trying to imply? That this tomb was made by an advanced civilization? Aliens? He is aware of the immense precision used to make the Incan and other precolombian civilizations structures.
 
What is it this guy is trying to imply? That this tomb was made by an advanced civilization? Aliens? He is aware of the immense precision used to make the Incan and other precolombian civilizations structures.
I don't think he's implying anything about aliens in the video, but he is pointing out that the Egyptians must have had tools well in advance of what we thought they had. Problem is, there's no trace of these tools. Where are they?
 
I don't think he's implying anything about aliens in the video, but he is pointing out that the Egyptians must have had tools well in advance of what we thought they had. Problem is, there's no trace of these tools. Where are they?
As i said in my post, the precolombian civilizations managed to build structures such as Machu Picchu and Sacsayhuamán using very primative tools, making very precise cuts and joins using no morter or binding agent, so it is no so unbelievable that the Egyptians could have done the same with similar tools.

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Even some relatively non-woo sources often imply that copper tools cannot be used to drill granite. These guys appear to prove otherwise (although the copper is only part of the process):


If in doubt, it's always useful to look for someone handy, who's actually prepared to give it a go. I suspect that very many internet judgments on the practicality or even possibility of certain physical actions are made by people who wouldn't know where to start if you asked them to dig a ditch or wire a plug. It's often better to trust the people with dirt under their fingernails.
 
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Even some relatively non-woo sources often imply that copper tools cannot be used to drill granite. These guys appear to prove otherwise (although the copper is only part of the process):


If in doubt, it's always useful to look for someone handy, who's actually prepared to give it a go. I suspect that very many internet judgments on the practicality or even possibility of certain physical actions are made by people who wouldn't know where to start if you asked them to dig a ditch or wire a plug. It's often better to trust the people with dirt under their fingernails.
Good find!
 
The Egyptians were very good workers in stone.

Largely because they could not get much wood.
 
There was also very little usable wood in Egypt itself, and they had to import a lot of usable timber; they wouldn't have used good wood for things like that when their was plenty of stone around, and there is endless evidence of their mastery of that material, even from the earliest times (in diorite).
 
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