In London, University College houses the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archeology. Named after its creator. Founded at the end of the 19th century. It displays about 80 thousand exhibits from Egypt and Sudan. Perhaps, only a part of them are on public display.
I came across an interesting photo selection of one of the visitors of this museum, taken in 2014, but he posted the photos without his comments (link at the end of the article). I propose to look and think about some of the brightest and most incomprehensible products of the ancient masters of Egypt.
Signature under the exhibit: basalt drill for making vases. Traces of processing are visible on the basalt, possibly from drilling. Yes, it is possible that they polished the inner cavity of the stone phases. But this is only an assumption based on external signs, footprints on the stone.
And here is an obvious stone casting from the temple in Khefren. The signature under the exhibit speaks directly about this: a cross-section of the casting of a hinge hole made with a tubular drill in granite. And then, as we can see, a liquid stone was poured inside. Was it melt or some kind of mortar like concrete? Has the rock been analyzed for this casting? This is a prime example of how the Egyptians cast stone products. Whether it was the technology of petrurgy (stone melting) or whether they knew the recipes for liquid granites is still a question. It is possible that someone knows the answer to it.
Promotional video:
Basalt bowl and jug. How was the rock removed from the inner cavity of the basalt vase? It expands inside and simply by drilling with the same basalt material (basalt rod) - not done!
1. Vessels made of calcite. Rather, calcite alabaster. The breed is fragile. But the question is in the technology of manufacturing the inner cavity. How can you make a cavity inside through a narrow neck?
2. Broken basalt vessel. Now it is possible to make this only by petrurgy - casting. Probably, they did it from basalt.
3. Blanks for calcite vases.
It is probably not so difficult to process a jug made of such calcite alabaster. Like marble, for example. But how did you take out the inner cavity in the jug? Yes, also at 90 degrees!
1. A calcite dish with very thin walls. There is a risk of breaking it at every stage of processing. Maybe this happened, judging by the cracks (collected from fragments by restorers).
Photo 2-4 - unfinished calcite bowl. Even from the photograph one gets the impression that the rock was somehow etched away, dissolved. If so, then the Egyptians were also chemists, they knew what the calcite minerals reacted with. But this is just a guess.
Basalt vessel with quality workmanship. The most amazing thing is on the second slide. A chip was allowed. And there they skillfully inserted a stone "insert" from a different breed. And the impression is that this insert was filled in according to technology, when we restore something with epoxy resin. There are no gaps or hints of gaps between the rock of the vessel and the insert.
Was there glass in Ancient Egypt? Or is he not so ancient Egypt? Note the colored stones in the foreground. They look like melted granite - rhyolite. Such a beautiful pattern is obtained by melting it. And granite melts on average at 950-1250 gr.
Pay attention to the left on the second slide you can see a vessel made of basalt with either a painted ornament, or it is fused into its structure. The photograph on the third slide proves that the vessels and bowls made of glass were not unique.
Interesting basalt ladle. He's fragile! It cannot be used. Symbolism or Cargo Cult? And imagine all the difficulties for its manufacture! Or is it also cast from the melt?
One more basalt vessels. On the second and third slides, you can see that the inside was selected with some kind of rotating tool. Or the vessels themselves were rotating. Fifth slide - rotation sampling is clearly visible.
Metal exhibits. Apparently - from bronze and silver. But the quality is on top. Coinage technology?
More photos in the source of photos by the link here: https://laiforum.ru/viewtopic.php?f=172&t=4575 or here yadi.sk/a/pfs94C003YZARc
As you can see, the finds made in Egypt in the late 19th century, early 20th century. - scattered around the museums of the world. And each one contains very interesting exhibits that make you think: how it was done. Some questions can be answered. And some are still open.
Author: sibved