Abusir, just 30 minutes south of the Giza plateau, is one of the most mysterious places in Ancient Egypt.
It is one of the most important proofs of the lost ancient use of high technologies for processing granite.
Speed, pressure, material - the scientists examined it on the spot.
Today we use hydraulic diamond-coated machines to drill granite. Egyptologists claim that the ancient Egyptians cut granite using copper saws, water and sand.
Cutting granite, dividing paving stones into 2 parts is quite feasible. But to achieve the level of accuracy found in Abusir, the handwork described above is not enough. In order to cut granite these days, we try to achieve a pressure on the drill head of 8-14 kg / m2. When drilling a well of 10 cm, a pressure of 110-170 kg is used.
So with what tool can you manually repeat this? And how can it be held manually, let alone constant pressure?
Scientists have analyzed and studied the sinking rate of the tool when drilling holes, because we are not talking about a specific case, but about numerous high-precision holes in granite.
Promotional video:
From William Matthew Flinders Petrie to Chris Dunn
As William Matthew Flinders Petrie noted during his research in the late 19th century, "The level attained is amazing."
In all drilled holes we can see indentations (notches / grooves). These grooves help determine the power of the machines. The distance between grooves in Abusir is 1 to 2.5 mm.
In 1983, scientist Chris Dunn undertook a study with Donald Rahn (a rig specialist). Ran pointed out that the Egyptians used drilling heads to drill the granite with a rotational speed of 900 rpm (15 rpm), passing 2.5 cm in the rock every 5 minutes (300 seconds). In other words, 0.005mm per revolution [(25mm / 300s) / 15rev]. Thus, the tools used by the Egyptians had performances ranging from 180 (for 1 mm between grooves) to 450 (for 2.5 mm between grooves) performance, superior to our current technology at the time of the 1983 study.
With modern equipment, a ~ 10cm well was drilled in 3 minutes (180 seconds). But according to calculations, all this turned out to be 14 times less effective than in ancient times! By the standards of that time, if our diamond-tipped equipment made one revolution, and the drill at 0.07 mm, the Egyptian tool would already drill 0.1 mm, which is many times more.
Thus, the stone cuttings in the granite, as we see today in Abusir, were made by unknown tools penetrating the stone like a feather in soft oil.