Manual hard stone polishing techniques are still used today, though electrical machining has take over almost exclusively. For polishing very hard surfaces, shark skin, ray skin and wet leather, covered in various sizes of sad grains are used. The sand becomes imbedded into the wet leather and is similar to sanding disc today. Final polishing is done with hard leathers, leaving NO scratching, as leather is able to even sharpen modern steels, as seen in barber shops, with a blade sharpening leather strap, which hones the edge of the blade, while not leavening a jagged cutting edge as using a F-Dick or similar sharpening steel tend to. Similarly, wet wood most commonly used, also copper and brass, were also used in this way, as the grains would embed into the soft metals, forming a matrix, like the hole saws and stone cutting saws seen today. Large surface polishing, was not done in a random circular motion, it was done in a straight forward and backward motion, like scrubbing the deck of a ship with sand stone. Ancient people were just as intelligent and resourceful as people today, more so in fact, as people today in the west, have become lazy and had everything made for them.
One thing is for sure, those ancient people knew how to work with stone. And the quality of what they did,with us today knowing hardly anything about the tools and processes,is what makes this great mystery so interesting. Great video !!
Vibrating sanders do NOT leave strait lines, they leave very small circular patterns. Because it vibrates back and forth, and it is impossible to keep it moving completely forward or backward. I have done a lot of sanding, as a stone mason, and a car restoring enthusiast. If you dont believe me, use a vibrating sander, and then look at the pattern left behind. A sanding block on the other hand, leaves long strait lines, just like those in your video.
From Flanders Petrie, more than 120 years ago: "And when we find on the surfaces of the saw-cuts in diorite, grooves as deep as 1/100 inch, it appears far more likely that such were produced by fixed jewel points in the saw, than by any fortuitous rubbing about of a loose powder. And when, further, it is seen that these deep grooves are almost always regular and uniform in depth, and equidistant, their production by the successive cuts of the jewel teeth of a saw appears to be beyond question..." "That the blades of the saw were of bronze, we know from the green staining on the sides of the saw cuts, and on grains of sand left in a saw cut. The forms of the tools were straight saws, circular saws, tubular drills, and lathes. The straight saws varied from .03 to .2 inch thick, according to the work; the largest were 8 feet or more in length..." "...No. 6, a slice of diorite bearing equidistant and regular grooves of circular arcs, parallel to one another; these grooves have been nearly polished out by cross grinding, but are still visible. The only feasible explanation of this piece is that it was produced by a circular saw." "...the lathe appears to have been as familiar an instrument in the fourth dynasty, as it is in the modern workshops. The diorite bowls and vases of the Old Kingdom are frequently met with, and show great technical skill."
No doubt they used saws like that for the strait cuts, but it still leaves the question how did they make the vases and statues with very intricate radiuses, convex and concave surfaces? It would be fairly easy to power a large saw with animal power, man power, water power, etc. But the small size the tools needed for these objects, idk what power source could have been used, as it would have to be very mobile (hand held). Something similar to a dremel tool or small electric drill. What I DO know is they sure as hell didnt do it with copper tools or by bashing it with rocks like many “experts” claim.
Exactly right. Most statues displaying what they would consider a "god-king" are like that in degrees. A proclamation of richness, skill and ability to their gods and people. "The Leader" is great because he commands such displays of his great Empire's wealth and talents.
ya those diorite vases are the clincher for me that it cant be copper tools alone. They were using power tools, Power doesnt have to be electricity. Living on the great river I can imagine water wheels and belt driven machines as one possibility.
The minerals in diorite (most of them) are either calcium-rich feldspar or pyroxenes. Pyroxenes have a Mohs hardness value between 5 and 6. Feldspars have a Mohs hardness value between 6 and 6.5. It would be better to say the hardness of diorite is between 5 and 6.5. Quartz and other hardstones can cut it and its variable nature allows for many effective techniques to be used.
I quite agree. In fact that is my position re. most of the ruins and artifacts of ancient Egypt...they cannot be fully appreciated by reading books or watching videos, you have to go see them in person to take in the full effect.
I found the same anomalies in the British Museum. Diorite carved stone with perfect symmetry and craftsmanship but the hieroglyphs were chiseled very crudely. Clearly a different artists and highly likely some time after. They'll never admit it though. Keep up the good work.
Yup. Re-purposing/hi-jacking earlier work was a long-cherished tradition in Ancient Egypt and other cultures around the globe as well, although it does not get the attention it deserves.
Thank you! Very interesting clues, I am realy happy that I can see those artifacts presented and examined this way. Please next time make longer videos.
They flattened those surfaces so they had other flat surfaces to work with(lapping) they had different types of saps or pitch they could have used to inbed diorite powder(different grades) to get the smooth finish with but they must have used some type of clear polish as well to get the glasy look. Good video my freind😊
finding the statue ' upside down ' .... any conjecture on how the object was moved or its weight ( looting or techtonic. ) Might there have been a thyrsus as part of its original design
Very interesting analysis of this statue. I've hunted Native American Artifacts for over 50 years. I've found quartz, granite, gneiss and hematite relics with drilled holes and polished so well you can see your reflection in them. Banner stones, gorgets, pipes, discoudals and others. Many of these are 5-10 thousand years old. It never ceases to amaze me how much time and effort it would take to drill a perfect hole in a quartz banner stone. Also drilling high quality hematite must have been extremely difficult. You got a sub from me.👍♋
Amazing video. I visited the Cairo Museum about 20 years ago. It changed the way I looked at ancient history. Thank you for these points. Keep them coming. 🏆😁👍
it was polished in the same manner that Michaelangelo's statue of Adam was polished, using a technique that has been lost since the advent of sandpaper and files and polishing compounds and various new methods, simple deduction can tell us how it was done! what material has the same rate of erosion as the material you're working on? well that's simple, the very material that you're working with! with marble polishing back in the old days they took scrap from the carving process and pulverized it into a fine powder and then mixed it with an oil or water to create a slurry and impregnated a cloth with that slurry and used that to polish and finish those statues to such a fine degree. this method works for literally any material, take the same material type and turn it into a fine powder and turn it into a slurry.
Hand polishing leaves straight lines. If you are actively rubbing back and forth either with a sandstone or water and sand you'll leave tell tale vertical scratches on stone reproductions. As you go back and forth for hours. You could take this even further with sand filtered through fabric for a higher grit and remove said scratches if you wanted to.
One of the simplest ways of separating by particle size with abrasives is decanting in oil. The longer you wait the finer the particles are left in suspension. It's not outside the realm of possibility they knew and used this method.
With everything you see from ancient Egypt once you get you head around what you are looking at, your mind begins to repeatedly alternate between 'how did they do it', then 'what did they use to do it'?
If you want a material hard enough to work diorite you need only use diorite... it will require much time and a near religious dedication, but you can absolutely get laser fine details and a glass smooth polish. I feel if they had advanced tools they would have finished the chair as well instead of only putting effort into the figure
Maybe chair wasnt finished just like other ancient sites like machu pichu, balbaak lebanon which show signs of work being stopped abruptly. Maybe from an ancient 12,000 year old catastrophy?
i dont know how this ended up on my recommended but I'm happy it was, good stuff 😁 Makes me wonder just how much manual work went into all of these incredible artifacts!? But at the same time, what work ethic were they approaching this with? Maybe they were truly thinking "well, this *is* going to last *forever*" and given the subject matter of the artwork, that gives it a whole new context to view it from the perspective of a worker/artist in ancient Egypt. What i'd give to be a fly on the wall in those times, even just for a fleeting moment
Great comment. Yeah, I'm sure they had some idea of the longevity of what they were creating, and clearly went to great pains to make it immaculate. I love the details on the bird, and how the tail overlaps the back of the chair. And cuticles on the toes! Stunning. I think that desire, like you said, to be a "fly on the wall" is what gets so many people into Egyptology in the first place.
I particularly enjoyed your use of high magnification to dispel their rediculous copper, leather and stone dust polishing theories. The hubris and laziness of modern institutions is appauling. The dogma is so thick in modern universities, perhaps they should refer to themselves as religious institutions instead. It amazes me that egyptologists use hen scratch grafifiti applied by later egomaniac rulers to proove the origin of a an exquisite piece carved from lost technology. You would think their reputations were more important to them. So many of their theories crumble into dust with the sightest bit of analysis applied.
Ya I dont understand why they cant just say we dont know how these things were made, instead of coming up with dumb theories and presenting them as facts.
Too many of academics especially historically never consider asking one of those manual labourers like stonemasons on how to carve and finish stone work.
Speculation about the method used to smooth the surface? This is fascinating to me as I regularly polish things and just bought a special kit of progressively finer diamond powder polish compounds. You microphotographs are very interesting.
they could have just polished it by hand going back and forth in linear directions, people can polish straight, not as straight as a machine but straight enough to explain those images
Thanks for a great video! With all areas showing evidence of cross hatching scratches from a mechanical device as you present, and no evidence of a hand method mean maybe since 1860 August Mariette or maybe the early museum restorers used a mechanical sanding device to polish the stone smooth? What is your conclusion, or maybe you don't intend there be one? Thanks for being the only one to do the 500 times magnification study and reveal this to the world for the first time!
In Karnak, there is a large green diorite doorway, perfectly cut from a single block 8 ft tall and about 6 feet wide and over 2 feet deep to walk through. It has been polished to a glass finish. It is absolute perfection, flat with polished inside angles, similar to the boxes in the Ramasseum. Marvels we could not produce even today.
Yes, I noticed that too, also that the surrounding masonry does not seem to be of the same period or quality, as if it was built around the doorway at a much later date. (Not an unusual thing in Egypt's ancient sites)
@@AncientEgyptArchitecture That was restoration work. The whole structure is cast stone concrete. Don't look to the restorers for announcements of all the things that aren't original.
Very interesting, thanks. It got me thinking. I wonder if they could have crushed harder rock like sapphire, topaz, garnet etc into differing size particles and impregnate their copper tools with it. Today, diamond dust can easily be pressed into copper disks for cutting and polishing faceted stones.
It's akin to a child writing their name on your Ferrari, and the Supreme authority on ancient Egypt saying "See, see! Sophia built this... There is her name!". Amazing that they still cling to their mistake, and refuse to accept logic. Enlightening video!
Great video very well put and displayed!! the average joe does not realize the man hours involved in that level of polish and/or the way you get there. i polished a lot of "draw dies" made of carbide for forming stainless steel. i would magnify the surface 800 times and had to have the "scratches" out at that level. ive done a lot of polishing, 8+ hours on an interior rectangle 5/8 x 1/2
Totally , the time , dedication and manpower is the real magic involved in all of those ancient works I work as a blacksmith making knives so i sand and polish a lot , and when i see that level of craftmanship in old artifacts/buildings/things I can't stop thinking about all the hours and people behind
There was an advanced civilization prior to the Younger Dryas. That statue is 25,000 to 35,000 years old. Yes, power tools and likely more advanced technology than 2022
6:03 I'm not sure how much faith you could put in those scratch patterns. Most museums keep the real stuff in back and put out a very convincing replica.
Seems like the Ancient's sought to demonstrate to future civilization a confidence in their fearless choice of stone and their unmatched skill. They expected to impress. They expected that we would celebrate their mastery. They set a high bar in discipline, in difficult material, and in precision. Generations after them had a lower standard and skill set. It doesn't even exist today. Amazing.
I am certainly no expert in anything here, but one thought as you mentioned polishing that is still practiced today from middle ages time period is samurai sword polishing, which is near the same hardness after hardening (around 50Rc). They polish in vertical lines with a special mud slurry and very hard small stones to prevent chipping.
I have delt quite a bit with surface finishes and what methods it takes to obtain these surfaces. The science behind obtaining a particular finish is a science in and of itself. If you want to take this to the next level I suggest getting with Michigan Metrology. There is so much more that Don could tell you about these surfaces...
I suspect they were using something more similar to long boarding, which would produce smoother surfaces than hand polishing, and this sort of scratch pattern.
So the parts that were said to be at odds with the rest of the craftsmanship, the cruddy lines and hieroglyphics, are the only parts that place it in the older kingdom. And as stated earlier in the vid the stele by the pyramids says he restored it, not that he built it. Pretty likely he just claimed the statue by "vandalizing" his name on it.
At 6:17, you can observe, with some difficulty, that there are another set of scratch marks underneath the clearly visible 'top' layer of scrath marks. The lower layer set are at more of a 45% angle. It's possible they used a very large sanding surface, perhaps powered by a person on each side, much like the old-timey saws that frontiers men would saw down huge trees with. Nice video!
There are many scripts and paintings done on papyrus that show how the ancient Egyptians were building and sculpting. Even the hardest stone can be cut and polished with simple tools if known the technique and have the patience.
We polish concrete to a glass like finish. We use diamond grit pads, from 30 grit up to 3000. Mostly floors with 1000lbs machines. Edges are done with a 9inch grinder with similar diamond pads.Even with diamond grit power tools it a slow and laborious process that requires a LOT of downward pressure. I can not fathom how this could be achieved by hand.
If they used hand polishing methods you would see dips and waves as there are soft and hard spots in all stone types so it would be impossible to maintain perfectly flat surface.
As a craftsman of many decades I know this to be the case. Flat surfaces require some kind of box jig or guide at the very least. For compound curves the challenge is far greater, and so when we observe the tendons / muscles / joints / face, it becomes obvious that a different level of workmanship was required. Hand work, if done very carefully, could certainly account for a portion but IMHO, not all of this artifacts surface.
@@AncientEgyptArchitecture I used to be a stone mason. If I could go back in time I would go back far enough to see how these things were made. lol its so fascinating. They obviously had to have some sort of tools and it mustve been fairly easy for them to make this stuff. Also just moving these blocks is another amazing feat. As you know just transporting masonry blocks creates a whole problem in trying to prevent the blocks from getting chipped or dropped or damaged in any way.
The stone is harder than steel!!!!! Holy cow!!! I had no idea it was such a hard stone. Thank goodness it was, that's why it's still here. Incredible, just Incredible. How do the stones in other civilizations rank to Egyptian in terms of hardness of stone used?
well depends , the thing about steel is depending on the alloy it can be heat treated to achieve different properties like hardness , flexibility , thougness etc so depending on the alloy and heat treat it can be harder or softer than that stone steel is amazing
These types of statues were fairly common in India too and many have been found specially statues of Gods intricately carved to perfection & with a mirror polish. Even after several thousands of years you will be amazed to see the smooth polish.
Many of the Indian temples and statues were made with soapstone. Soapstone is easy to polish, and will retain that finish for thousands of years. But you can carve it with a hard wooden stick. The truly amazing thing is that some of these temples have lasted for hundreds and in some cases over 1000 years, and vandals and tourists haven't completely destroyed them.
OH yeah! This wins the WWW! Excellent. We must take into account to manipulate the position of the stone to sit on a large abrasive table (to achieve that straight/fineness) would be just as difficult as innovating a tool of that size that can also be manipulated to polish at various angles. But not impossible given the size of the other stones found in and around, is still astonishing stuff. Such fine grit would leave rough/deeper kerfs (cutting lines) that you see, those are the straight lines. I can tell you from experience that those contours would need a template to work from to remain 'perfect' in proportion, because even as you see here - non-guided work wonders. With hard stone - impact tooling is a curse for later stages of work, and powered/rotary abrasive tooling is a must. Aluminium Oxide, Carborundum, Silica carbides... resins... Not a difficult bunch of substance to know how to make, especially given mummification is well practised. Chemistry (alchemy), one can assume, was the blood of this creation.
Now this is a honest unbias narration to a great video!! Great choice of work for the video bro,this Statue predates the ancient Egyptians. The civilisation that cut, carve and transport this magnificent statue sre actually long gone,they were completely destroyed!
I think it would be difficult to replicate a Diorite statue of such quality with available modern tech. If it could be done it would be very expensive.
@@jonathankidwell6889 Agreed - when you are the absolute ruler of a wealthy empire, you aren't going to skimp on producing symbols of your power! A few dozen man-years would have been neither here nor there to a Pharaoh...
Why would it be difficult today? We have diamond blades and dremel tool and polishing compounds that could give those results. You would still need a skilled sculptor, but the tools would not be a problem nor or are they very expensive.
I remember when i was a kid in school learning about Egypt & pyramids when teacher said was made/sculpted with copper tools and polished with sand. I was like no f-ing way.
It is remarkable. Prisoners have been known to cut through steel bars using dental floss, spit and sand. It takes a very long time and constant replacement of floss and sand. I can't imagine this work was done in this fashion even using incredibly small hand-powered grit drills. I am very interested to see the differences in the sarcophagus external surface polishing and the patterns left in the bottom of the hieroglyphics on it. I theorize the finish on the external surfaces will be much finer and consistent than the surfaces in the etched parts. I also think these surfaces were manufactured at different times, possibly thousands of years apart...
0:15 That is not a statue of Khafre. That statue was made with advanced tools. By a completely different civilization. The hieroglyphs at the statues feet were done by the Egyptians with chisels and hammers.
It is possible to use weaker materials for cutting and polishing harder stones, if you add water and sonic. Maybe they managed to build such devices. Rough cutting with high presure water could be possible too. The materials you need for this already existed.
What is also fascinating with these objects is the symmetry. Its one thing to polish very hard stone that smooth, but to make each side virtually identical requires something far more advanced than just eye-balling it and sanding by hand. Many of these statues, even the giant megalithic ones, have been scanned with lasers/optical devices and they are almost exactly the same dimensions (right and left side of a face, for example). You cannot measure complex surfaces with simple measuring devices that were thought to have existed then. Even today, that kind of accuracy requires CNC machining or some type of complex computing machinery.
I have attempted to do some checking on the symmetry of the statue based on my own photo surveys of it with simple photogrammetry in photoshop, and although the method / photos are not good enough to base a paper on, the degree of similarity between the left and right sides of the face is quite close. Your comment re. the difficulty of eye-balling such work is correct, because as the scale increases it becomes more and more difficult to ensure symmetry. In Chris Dunn's book, Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt, he presents some very carefully executed photogrammetric surveys he performed on some very large statues at Karnak, and the results show a variation of only 2-3 MM between the left and right sides of the face. This is clearly not possible to create by 'eyeballing' it. At the very least, some sort of duplicating pantograph or series of profile templates would have been required, but Mr. Dunn's conclusions go a bit further.
I'd guess that they used some type of cylindrical polishing method. Something like a spinning tube that had abrasive added, to achieve such straight scratch marks. This would also explain how the curved areas were achieved.
This absolutely fascinates me. Will we ever truly know how they accomplished many of the things they produced without modern technology (which in my opinion seem to be inferior)?
Probably not exactly. Just like in thousands of years, humans will not be able to know exactly how we made the microprocessors in our computers. Because we won't have a need for computers anymore.
From my research on these artifacts over the last 50 years it’s clearly obvious that these creations were not possible by humans but from other beings.
. ancient craftsmen were very skilled at using sand,(silicon dioxide) as a polishing compound. Chinese jade carvers also were adept at this technique, but used a bow drill to get higher speeds for using very fine silica. Ultra fine abrasive powders can be made by pounding sand or other minerals to a powder then sifting them. As a modern lapidaryand stone carver I have studied several ancient polishing systems. These old techniques were used up until the Renaissance, when the new science of chemistry started to have an effect.
The large flat surfaces are easy moving the stone being worked and polished on a granite or other surface with desired grits. Lighter grit goes further in a breeze so easy to classify. Using something like wooden boxing to guide working the stone down so a tail area is left is easy.
Archeologist scratching his head: "We have no idea how they carved or polished this... must have been ancient Aliens..." Alien scratching its head, standing next to archeologist, "Waddunt us..."
You neglected to mention that the nose on this statue has been REPLACED with a European-looking nose that is much narrower than the noses on 2 other statues attributed to him. Zoom in 150% on a profile photo to view where the 'new nose' was attached. The 'Glowing' statue of Nesi (Pharaoh) Khafre is the best-known "Anorthosite Gneiss" sculpture. The stone came from a distant Kushite quarry, it is hard to work and only moderately attractive. However, it has a rare optical property-it glows in sunlight. Its deep blue glow is caused by the presence of the iridescent mineral Bytownite. 4th Dynasty, Old Kingdom. The new nose doesn't glow.
The damage patterns on 'Khafre Enthroned' are suspicious. The statue was 'found' in a remote isolated location similarly to the finding of Nefertiti's bust. Both objects exhibit unlikely damage, or lack of sufficient damage for the age and weight of the object. Both look like they were MADE to sit in museums. The Khafre nose always stuck out as uncharacteristic of ancient Egyptian statuary art. What you say makes sense. A repair gone astray from reality......unintentionally, of course. 😁 There is a large pharaoh statue with a repaired nose and it looks ridiculous. The bias looks as glaring as Hawass's overhanging tall Arabic nose. A nose never seen on any mural wall or pharaoh statue.
That finish can be achieved by hand. Modern custom knives are typically ground with a belt grinder, then hand sanded to fine grits. The final strokes are done in a single direction because it looks better. I’m sure any expert polisher would be aware of this. This can be done with stones or abrasive powders.
And i don't know what he means when he says copper can't chip a stone just because it is hard. Copper is used in flint knapping to chip away hard stones all the time. Sometimes you want it because it is soft even.
My remarks do not reference copper or bronze tools used for 'chipping' or 'knapping' granite and Diorite....but rather point out that they are inadequate for 'CARVING' , fine detail work/engraving or precision work in all minerals that have a significantly higher hardness. Anyone can use almost anything to clobber away at a rock and get some of the material to dislodge/fracture away, but creating a carefully modeled surface as a 3 axis representation of a real world subject, such as a human face, requires more subtle and carefully controlled material removal techniques. Rough sculpting via impact runs the risk of fracturing/dislodging portions of the workpiece below the plane of the desired finished surfaces, meaning that one blow could invalidate the entire sculpture while it is still in the early stages. Take another look at details such as the perfectly wrought cuticles of the toes and fingers, the shapes of the eyelids, lips and the exquisite modeling of veins and muscles. If you think these precision features can be reproduced by hammering, chipping or knapping in Diorite, I invite you to search for any modern/stonemason/carver who has done so with flint, obsidian, copper or bronze tools and post a link here to photographs of their work.
The carvings may look very precise but the statue itself far exceeds the quality of the carvings so I believe that the carvings are geafitti from antiquity...
Развлечения
The way the hawk tail hangs down the back is such a nice touch.
Manual hard stone polishing techniques are still used today, though electrical machining has take over almost exclusively. For polishing very hard surfaces, shark skin, ray skin and wet leather, covered in various sizes of sad grains are used. The sand becomes imbedded into the wet leather and is similar to sanding disc today. Final polishing is done with hard leathers, leaving NO scratching, as leather is able to even sharpen modern steels, as seen in barber shops, with a blade sharpening leather strap, which hones the edge of the blade, while not leavening a jagged cutting edge as using a F-Dick or similar sharpening steel tend to. Similarly, wet wood most commonly used, also copper and brass, were also used in this way, as the grains would embed into the soft metals, forming a matrix, like the hole saws and stone cutting saws seen today. Large surface polishing, was not done in a random circular motion, it was done in a straight forward and backward motion, like scrubbing the deck of a ship with sand stone. Ancient people were just as intelligent and resourceful as people today, more so in fact, as people today in the west, have become lazy and had everything made for them.
Sand (=quartz) has been a very good polishing tool for eons..
One thing is for sure, those ancient people knew how to work with stone. And the quality of what they did,with us today knowing hardly anything about the tools and processes,is what makes this great mystery so interesting. Great video !!
Add this to the remarkable stone walls in Peru.
They don't call it the stone age for nothing!
Those people are Africans.
Vibrating sanders do NOT leave strait lines, they leave very small circular patterns. Because it vibrates back and forth, and it is impossible to keep it moving completely forward or backward. I have done a lot of sanding, as a stone mason, and a car restoring enthusiast.
If you dont believe me, use a vibrating sander, and then look at the pattern left behind.
A sanding block on the other hand, leaves long strait lines, just like those in your video.
From Flanders Petrie, more than 120 years ago:
"And when we find on the surfaces of the saw-cuts in diorite, grooves as deep as 1/100 inch, it appears far more likely that such were produced by fixed jewel points in the saw, than by any fortuitous rubbing about of a loose powder. And when, further, it is seen that these deep grooves are almost always regular and uniform in depth, and equidistant, their production by the successive cuts of the jewel teeth of a saw appears to be beyond question..."
"That the blades of the saw were of bronze, we know from the green staining on the sides of the saw cuts, and on grains of sand left in a saw cut.
The forms of the tools were straight saws, circular saws, tubular drills, and lathes.
The straight saws varied from .03 to .2 inch thick, according to the work; the largest were 8 feet or more in length..." "...No. 6, a slice of diorite bearing equidistant and regular grooves of circular arcs, parallel to one another; these grooves have been nearly polished out by cross grinding, but are still visible. The only feasible explanation of this piece is that it was produced by a circular saw."
"...the lathe appears to have been as familiar an instrument in the fourth dynasty, as it is in the modern workshops. The diorite bowls and vases of the Old Kingdom are frequently met with, and show great technical skill."
Blades of Bronze - leaving green staining - fascinating. Its truly a stunning achievement.
No doubt they used saws like that for the strait cuts, but it still leaves the question how did they make the vases and statues with very intricate radiuses, convex and concave surfaces? It would be fairly easy to power a large saw with animal power, man power, water power, etc. But the small size the tools needed for these objects, idk what power source could have been used, as it would have to be very mobile (hand held). Something similar to a dremel tool or small electric drill. What I DO know is they sure as hell didnt do it with copper tools or by bashing it with rocks like many “experts” claim.
Its almost like they chose the hardest stone just to tell us how legendary capable they were
Yup...
Exactly right. Most statues displaying what they would consider a "god-king" are like that in degrees. A proclamation of richness, skill and ability to their gods and people. "The Leader" is great because he commands such displays of his great Empire's wealth and talents.
They knew it would last for thousands of years most certainly
Powers to turn human to stone
They have that
I’ve always been amazed by the diorite vases in the museum ,,How material as hard as this was removed from inside a tall vase is just amazing
Yes - leaving fine spiral groves inside.
They are the top of the stonework art ... and so mysterious
Because it's laser work! Oops, did I just state that we had more advance technology before our time? >_
@@crafty3329 It seems obvious they had some high tech kit but the tools dont get found as far as I know
ya those diorite vases are the clincher for me that it cant be copper tools alone. They were using power tools, Power doesnt have to be electricity. Living on the great river I can imagine water wheels and belt driven machines as one possibility.
The minerals in diorite (most of them) are either calcium-rich feldspar or pyroxenes. Pyroxenes have a Mohs hardness value between 5 and 6. Feldspars have a Mohs hardness value between 6 and 6.5. It would be better to say the hardness of diorite is between 5 and 6.5. Quartz and other hardstones can cut it and its variable nature allows for many effective techniques to be used.
What a beautiful and timeless peace of sculpture..you have to see it in the flesh to really appreciate it...
I quite agree. In fact that is my position re. most of the ruins and artifacts of ancient Egypt...they cannot be fully appreciated by reading books or watching videos, you have to go see them in person to take in the full effect.
I found the same anomalies in the British Museum. Diorite carved stone with perfect symmetry and craftsmanship but the hieroglyphs were chiseled very crudely. Clearly a different artists and highly likely some time after. They'll never admit it though. Keep up the good work.
Yup. Re-purposing/hi-jacking earlier work was a long-cherished tradition in Ancient Egypt and other cultures around the globe as well, although it does not get the attention it deserves.
Yep but the polishing is one type of process, and inscribing quite another.
Eagle?? What eagle?
@@AncientEgyptArchitecture The one on the statues back . It's right there . He talks about the wings no ?
@@petem7118 you meant the falcon.
is it possible that some of those scratches are the result of modern restoration/cleaning efforts?
The hieroglyphs were likely done at a later date as well. They are crude compared to the finish.
Thank you!
Very interesting clues, I am realy happy that I can see those artifacts presented and examined this way.
Please next time make longer videos.
We will
They flattened those surfaces so they had other flat surfaces to work with(lapping) they had different types of saps or pitch they could have used to inbed diorite powder(different grades) to get the smooth finish with but they must have used some type of clear polish as well to get the glasy look. Good video my freind😊
finding the statue ' upside down ' .... any conjecture on how the object was moved or its weight ( looting or techtonic. ) Might there have been a thyrsus as part of its original design
Very interesting analysis of this statue. I've hunted Native American Artifacts for over 50 years. I've found quartz, granite, gneiss and hematite relics with drilled holes and polished so well you can see your reflection in them. Banner stones, gorgets, pipes, discoudals and others. Many of these are 5-10 thousand years old. It never ceases to amaze me how much time and effort it would take to drill a perfect hole in a quartz banner stone. Also drilling high quality hematite must have been extremely difficult. You got a sub from me.👍♋
thank you
Never ceases to amaze me. Incredible
Amazing video. I visited the Cairo Museum about 20 years ago. It changed the way I looked at ancient history. Thank you for these points. Keep them coming. 🏆😁👍
it was polished in the same manner that Michaelangelo's statue of Adam was polished, using a technique that has been lost since the advent of sandpaper and files and polishing compounds and various new methods, simple deduction can tell us how it was done! what material has the same rate of erosion as the material you're working on? well that's simple, the very material that you're working with! with marble polishing back in the old days they took scrap from the carving process and pulverized it into a fine powder and then mixed it with an oil or water to create a slurry and impregnated a cloth with that slurry and used that to polish and finish those statues to such a fine degree. this method works for literally any material, take the same material type and turn it into a fine powder and turn it into a slurry.
Hand polishing leaves straight lines. If you are actively rubbing back and forth either with a sandstone or water and sand you'll leave tell tale vertical scratches on stone reproductions. As you go back and forth for hours. You could take this even further with sand filtered through fabric for a higher grit and remove said scratches if you wanted to.
One of the simplest ways of separating by particle size with abrasives is decanting in oil. The longer you wait the finer the particles are left in suspension. It's not outside the realm of possibility they knew and used this method.
With everything you see from ancient Egypt once you get you head around what you are looking at, your mind begins to repeatedly alternate between 'how did they do it', then 'what did they use to do it'?
absolutely outstanding work! Thank you.
Excellent! Please continue your work!
Wow thank you so much for answering some of the detail that has long been missing on these artifacts and statues. There is still so much to learn.
This was good brother. I'll keep watching your channel. Keep up the great work
By one hand the smooth polish, by the other THE PERFECT SYMMETRY.
If you want a material hard enough to work diorite you need only use diorite... it will require much time and a near religious dedication, but you can absolutely get laser fine details and a glass smooth polish. I feel if they had advanced tools they would have finished the chair as well instead of only putting effort into the figure
Maybe chair wasnt finished just like other ancient sites like machu pichu, balbaak lebanon which show signs of work being stopped abruptly. Maybe from an ancient 12,000 year old catastrophy?
i dont know how this ended up on my recommended but I'm happy it was, good stuff 😁 Makes me wonder just how much manual work went into all of these incredible artifacts!? But at the same time, what work ethic were they approaching this with? Maybe they were truly thinking "well, this *is* going to last *forever*" and given the subject matter of the artwork, that gives it a whole new context to view it from the perspective of a worker/artist in ancient Egypt. What i'd give to be a fly on the wall in those times, even just for a fleeting moment
Great comment. Yeah, I'm sure they had some idea of the longevity of what they were creating, and clearly went to great pains to make it immaculate. I love the details on the bird, and how the tail overlaps the back of the chair. And cuticles on the toes! Stunning. I think that desire, like you said, to be a "fly on the wall" is what gets so many people into Egyptology in the first place.
Very interesting, this is the kind of investigation needed, if we are ever going to have any idea how they did amazing things like this, great video.
I particularly enjoyed your use of high magnification to dispel their rediculous copper, leather and stone dust polishing theories. The hubris and laziness of modern institutions is appauling. The dogma is so thick in modern universities, perhaps they should refer to themselves as religious institutions instead. It amazes me that egyptologists use hen scratch grafifiti applied by later egomaniac rulers to proove the origin of a an exquisite piece carved from lost technology. You would think their reputations were more important to them. So many of their theories crumble into dust with the sightest bit of analysis applied.
Ya I dont understand why they cant just say we dont know how these things were made, instead of coming up with dumb theories and presenting them as facts.
Too many of academics especially historically never consider asking one of those manual labourers like stonemasons on how to carve and finish stone work.
“Hubris and laziness”
You give them too much credit. They’re lying. They’re hiding truths. I refuse to believe otherwise.
What s great face he had and a beautiful work of art.
Absolutely
Speculation about the method used to smooth the surface? This is fascinating to me as I regularly polish things and just bought a special kit of progressively finer diamond powder polish compounds. You microphotographs are very interesting.
they could have just polished it by hand going back and forth in linear directions, people can polish straight, not as straight as a machine but straight enough to explain those images
Incredible that we're led to believe that such beautiful and precise carvings in such a hard rock were made by chisels and hammers. Science.
Thanks for the observed polishing anomalies, always makes for interesting conjecture .
So much to still explain about many things of ancient Egypt 👍🏻
Thanks for a great video! With all areas showing evidence of cross hatching scratches from a mechanical device as you present, and no evidence of a hand method mean maybe since 1860 August Mariette or maybe the early museum restorers used a mechanical sanding device to polish the stone smooth? What is your conclusion, or maybe you don't intend there be one? Thanks for being the only one to do the 500 times magnification study and reveal this to the world for the first time!
Fascinating! Praise RUclips for bringing me here! Subscribed. ✌🏼
Welcome aboard!
This is perfect for falling sleep to. Keep them coming love it!
Very intriguing! Thank you!
Interesting snippet on surely one of the most beautiful statues every made....👍
In Karnak, there is a large green diorite doorway, perfectly cut from a single block 8 ft tall and about 6 feet wide and over 2 feet deep to walk through. It has been polished to a glass finish. It is absolute perfection, flat with polished inside angles, similar to the boxes in the Ramasseum. Marvels we could not produce even today.
Yes, I noticed that too, also that the surrounding masonry does not seem to be of the same period or quality, as if it was built around the doorway at a much later date. (Not an unusual thing in Egypt's ancient sites)
@@AncientEgyptArchitecture That was restoration work. The whole structure is cast stone concrete. Don't look to the restorers for announcements of all the things that aren't original.
Very interesting, thanks. It got me thinking. I wonder if they could have crushed harder rock like sapphire, topaz, garnet etc into differing size particles and impregnate their copper tools with it. Today, diamond dust can easily be pressed into copper disks for cutting and polishing faceted stones.
Entirely possible.
It's akin to a child writing their name on your Ferrari, and the Supreme authority on ancient Egypt saying "See, see! Sophia built this... There is her name!". Amazing that they still cling to their mistake, and refuse to accept logic.
Enlightening video!
Excellent form to only enlighten us with the observed facts and leave the speculation to our own particular belief patterns.
Great video very well put and displayed!! the average joe does not realize the man hours involved in that level of polish and/or the way you get there. i polished a lot of "draw dies" made of carbide for forming stainless steel. i would magnify the surface 800 times and had to have the "scratches" out at that level. ive done a lot of polishing, 8+ hours on an interior rectangle 5/8 x 1/2
Totally , the time , dedication and manpower is the real magic involved in all of those ancient works
I work as a blacksmith making knives so i sand and polish a lot ,
and when i see that level of craftmanship in old artifacts/buildings/things
I can't stop thinking about all the hours and people behind
Awesome video. Thank you so much.
Thank You! Excellent video.
There was an advanced civilization prior to the Younger Dryas. That statue is 25,000 to 35,000 years old. Yes, power tools and likely more advanced technology than 2022
6:03
I'm not sure how much faith you could put in those scratch patterns. Most museums keep the real stuff in back and put out a very convincing replica.
the actual pyramid is a replica.
your sleeping. we cant even replicate this stuff TODAY
Dude, it's not just clueless people that get to go to museums.....
@@sa.8208 yes, we can.
@@sa.8208 LOL
Seems like the Ancient's sought to demonstrate to future civilization a confidence in their fearless choice of stone and their unmatched skill. They expected to impress. They expected that we would celebrate their mastery. They set a high bar in discipline, in difficult material, and in precision. Generations after them had a lower standard and skill set. It doesn't even exist today. Amazing.
it would be interesting to compare the marks on the material to those left by a belt sander
I am certainly no expert in anything here, but one thought as you mentioned polishing that is still practiced today from middle ages time period is samurai sword polishing, which is near the same hardness after hardening (around 50Rc). They polish in vertical lines with a special mud slurry and very hard small stones to prevent chipping.
I have delt quite a bit with surface finishes and what methods it takes to obtain these surfaces. The science behind obtaining a particular finish is a science in and of itself. If you want to take this to the next level I suggest getting with Michigan Metrology. There is so much more that Don could tell you about these surfaces...
Looking forward to more and longer videos🤓👍
Working on it!
Thank you for this video. Maybe the next one can be a bit longer 😁
I will try!
Ima new sub to your chann because I find the content fascinating and thanks for the vids man
Welcome!
I suspect they were using something more similar to long boarding, which would produce smoother surfaces than hand polishing, and this sort of scratch pattern.
So the parts that were said to be at odds with the rest of the craftsmanship, the cruddy lines and hieroglyphics, are the only parts that place it in the older kingdom. And as stated earlier in the vid the stele by the pyramids says he restored it, not that he built it. Pretty likely he just claimed the statue by "vandalizing" his name on it.
At 6:17, you can observe, with some difficulty, that there are another set of scratch marks underneath the clearly visible 'top' layer of scrath marks. The lower layer set are at more of a 45% angle.
It's possible they used a very large sanding surface, perhaps powered by a person on each side, much like the old-timey saws that frontiers men would saw down huge trees with.
Nice video!
There are many scripts and paintings done on papyrus that show how the ancient Egyptians were building and sculpting. Even the hardest stone can be cut and polished with simple tools if known the technique and have the patience.
What Tools did they use
Could they have used another piece of the same material they were sculpting ? 🤔
😂😂. Ok bro
Fascinating--thank you!
Our pleasure!
We polish concrete to a glass like finish. We use diamond grit pads, from 30 grit up to 3000. Mostly floors with 1000lbs machines. Edges are done with a 9inch grinder with similar diamond pads.Even with diamond grit power tools it a slow and laborious process that requires a LOT of downward pressure. I can not fathom how this could be achieved by hand.
It can't. The thought that it was shows zero knowledge of stonework.
We know somebody vitrified the forts in Scotland and elsewhere
Absolutely fascinating
If they used hand polishing methods you would see dips and waves as there are soft and hard spots in all stone types so it would be impossible to maintain perfectly flat surface.
As a craftsman of many decades I know this to be the case. Flat surfaces require some kind of box jig or guide at the very least. For compound curves the challenge is far greater, and so when we observe the tendons / muscles / joints / face, it becomes obvious that a different level of workmanship was required. Hand work, if done very carefully, could certainly account for a portion but IMHO, not all of this artifacts surface.
@@AncientEgyptArchitecture I used to be a stone mason. If I could go back in time I would go back far enough to see how these things were made. lol its so fascinating. They obviously had to have some sort of tools and it mustve been fairly easy for them to make this stuff. Also just moving these blocks is another amazing feat. As you know just transporting masonry blocks creates a whole problem in trying to prevent the blocks from getting chipped or dropped or damaged in any way.
It seems they were showing off, showing ‘us’ what skill they developed, like the huge boxes in the serapeum.
The stone is harder than steel!!!!! Holy cow!!! I had no idea it was such a hard stone. Thank goodness it was, that's why it's still here. Incredible, just Incredible. How do the stones in other civilizations rank to Egyptian in terms of hardness of stone used?
Granite is similar
well depends , the thing about steel is depending on the alloy it can be heat treated to achieve different properties like hardness , flexibility , thougness etc
so depending on the alloy and heat treat it can be harder or softer than that stone
steel is amazing
These types of statues were fairly common in India too and many have been found specially statues of Gods intricately carved to perfection & with a mirror polish. Even after several thousands of years you will be amazed to see the smooth polish.
Many of the Indian temples and statues were made with soapstone. Soapstone is easy to polish, and will retain that finish for thousands of years. But you can carve it with a hard wooden stick.
The truly amazing thing is that some of these temples have lasted for hundreds and in some cases over 1000 years, and vandals and tourists haven't completely destroyed them.
I liked and subscribed. fantastic posts. thank you. cheers.
OH yeah! This wins the WWW! Excellent.
We must take into account to manipulate the position of the stone to sit on a large abrasive table (to achieve that straight/fineness) would be just as difficult as innovating a tool of that size that can also be manipulated to polish at various angles. But not impossible given the size of the other stones found in and around, is still astonishing stuff.
Such fine grit would leave rough/deeper kerfs (cutting lines) that you see, those are the straight lines. I can tell you from experience that those contours would need a template to work from to remain 'perfect' in proportion, because even as you see here - non-guided work wonders. With hard stone - impact tooling is a curse for later stages of work, and powered/rotary abrasive tooling is a must.
Aluminium Oxide, Carborundum, Silica carbides... resins... Not a difficult bunch of substance to know how to make, especially given mummification is well practised. Chemistry (alchemy), one can assume, was the blood of this creation.
Now this is a honest unbias narration to a great video!! Great choice of work for the video bro,this Statue predates the ancient Egyptians. The civilisation that cut, carve and transport this magnificent statue sre actually long gone,they were completely destroyed!
Very interesting. Well worth a subscription. 👍
Welcome aboard!
Wonderful, thank you!
I think it would be difficult to replicate a Diorite statue of such quality with available modern tech. If it could be done it would be very expensive.
I'm sure it was very expensive back then too.
@@jonathankidwell6889 Agreed - when you are the absolute ruler of a wealthy empire, you aren't going to skimp on producing symbols of your power! A few dozen man-years would have been neither here nor there to a Pharaoh...
what about a big ol animal hyde buffing wheel powered by slaves? some unknown powder as a buffing compound. just sayin
Why would it be difficult today? We have diamond blades and dremel tool and polishing compounds that could give those results. You would still need a skilled sculptor, but the tools would not be a problem nor or are they very expensive.
It was commissioned by the god emperor of the oldest and richest state that had ever existed. It was probably the most expensive.
I remember when i was a kid in school learning about Egypt & pyramids when teacher said was made/sculpted with copper tools and polished with sand. I was like no f-ing way.
From the isle of Naxos was a natural fine emery sand, still exported today.
It is remarkable. Prisoners have been known to cut through steel bars using dental floss, spit and sand. It takes a very long time and constant replacement of floss and sand. I can't imagine this work was done in this fashion even using incredibly small hand-powered grit drills. I am very interested to see the differences in the sarcophagus external surface polishing and the patterns left in the bottom of the hieroglyphics on it. I theorize the finish on the external surfaces will be much finer and consistent than the surfaces in the etched parts. I also think these surfaces were manufactured at different times, possibly thousands of years apart...
I think the dental floss thing is a myth though....it's plausible but very unlikely.
0:15 That is not a statue of Khafre. That statue was made with advanced tools.
By a completely different civilization.
The hieroglyphs at the statues feet were done by the Egyptians with chisels and hammers.
No
Absolutely. Khafre Enthroned was made by another civilization....and so was Nefertiti's bust. 😁
It is possible to use weaker materials for cutting and polishing harder stones, if you add water and sonic. Maybe they managed to build such devices. Rough cutting with high presure water could be possible too. The materials you need for this already existed.
Wow amazing. I wonder how they did it and that bilateral symetry. Great video thankyou. Absolutely subbed :)
Thanks for the sub!
Excellent video 👍Thank you
Thank you too
What is also fascinating with these objects is the symmetry. Its one thing to polish very hard stone that smooth, but to make each side virtually identical requires something far more advanced than just eye-balling it and sanding by hand. Many of these statues, even the giant megalithic ones, have been scanned with lasers/optical devices and they are almost exactly the same dimensions (right and left side of a face, for example). You cannot measure complex surfaces with simple measuring devices that were thought to have existed then. Even today, that kind of accuracy requires CNC machining or some type of complex computing machinery.
I have attempted to do some checking on the symmetry of the statue based on my own photo surveys of it with simple photogrammetry in photoshop, and although the method / photos are not good enough to base a paper on, the degree of similarity between the left and right sides of the face is quite close.
Your comment re. the difficulty of eye-balling such work is correct, because as the scale increases it becomes more and more difficult to ensure symmetry.
In Chris Dunn's book, Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt, he presents some very carefully executed photogrammetric surveys he performed on some very large statues at Karnak, and the results show a variation of only 2-3 MM between the left and right sides of the face. This is clearly not possible to create by 'eyeballing' it. At the very least, some sort of duplicating pantograph or series of profile templates would have been required, but Mr. Dunn's conclusions go a bit further.
the feather gap was a nice touch, would have been an interesting moment to find that in a endless pile of rocks sand and debris.
I'd guess that they used some type of cylindrical polishing method. Something like a spinning tube that had abrasive added, to achieve such straight scratch marks. This would also explain how the curved areas were achieved.
This absolutely fascinates me. Will we ever truly know how they accomplished many of the things they produced without modern technology (which in my opinion seem to be inferior)?
Probably not exactly. Just like in thousands of years, humans will not be able to know exactly how we made the microprocessors in our computers. Because we won't have a need for computers anymore.
The basalt Sarcophagus of Harkhebit which is located at the MET Museum in NYC, is one of my favorites!
Do you know if this statue or one very similar with the bird on the back was ever in the museum in NY. I'm sure I saw it about 12 or 13 years ago?
From my research on these artifacts over the last 50 years it’s clearly obvious that these creations were not possible by humans but from other beings.
. ancient craftsmen were very skilled at using sand,(silicon dioxide) as a polishing compound. Chinese jade carvers also were adept at this technique, but used a bow drill to get higher speeds for using very fine silica. Ultra fine abrasive powders can be made by pounding sand or other minerals to a powder then sifting them. As a modern lapidaryand stone carver I have studied several ancient polishing systems. These old techniques were used up until the Renaissance, when the new science of chemistry started to have an effect.
As an addendum, the crystal skulls from South America are thought to have taken several generations to make and polish.
@@charlesbduke7947 those skulls are "fakes "sir , probably made at the end of the 19th century to scam museums and collectors
The large flat surfaces are easy moving the stone being worked and polished on a granite or other surface with desired grits. Lighter grit goes further in a breeze so easy to classify. Using something like wooden boxing to guide working the stone down so a tail area is left is easy.
easy-peezy!
Great video
Beautiful
Archeologist scratching his head: "We have no idea how they carved or polished this... must have been ancient Aliens..."
Alien scratching its head, standing next to archeologist, "Waddunt us..."
The hieroglyphs are "tags" that were added later. The statue is much older than can be accredited.
Fascinating 👍👍👍👍
You neglected to mention that the nose on this statue has been REPLACED with a European-looking nose that is much narrower than the noses on 2 other statues attributed to him. Zoom in 150% on a profile photo to view where the 'new nose' was attached. The 'Glowing' statue of Nesi (Pharaoh) Khafre is the best-known "Anorthosite Gneiss" sculpture. The stone came from a distant Kushite quarry, it is hard to work and only moderately attractive. However, it has a rare optical property-it glows in sunlight. Its deep blue glow is caused by the presence of the iridescent mineral Bytownite. 4th Dynasty, Old Kingdom. The new nose doesn't glow.
The damage patterns on 'Khafre Enthroned' are suspicious. The statue was 'found' in a remote isolated location similarly to the finding of Nefertiti's bust. Both objects exhibit unlikely damage, or lack of sufficient damage for the age and weight of the object. Both look like they were MADE to sit in museums.
The Khafre nose always stuck out as uncharacteristic of ancient Egyptian statuary art. What you say makes sense. A repair gone astray from reality......unintentionally, of course. 😁
There is a large pharaoh statue with a repaired nose and it looks ridiculous. The bias looks as glaring as Hawass's overhanging tall Arabic nose. A nose never seen on any mural wall or pharaoh statue.
Can you discount modern restorative methods from this analysis?
Yes.
That finish can be achieved by hand. Modern custom knives are typically ground with a belt grinder, then hand sanded to fine grits. The final strokes are done in a single direction because it looks better. I’m sure any expert polisher would be aware of this. This can be done with stones or abrasive powders.
And i don't know what he means when he says copper can't chip a stone just because it is hard. Copper is used in flint knapping to chip away hard stones all the time. Sometimes you want it because it is soft even.
My remarks do not reference copper or bronze tools used for 'chipping' or 'knapping' granite and Diorite....but rather point out that they are inadequate for 'CARVING' , fine detail work/engraving or precision work in all minerals that have a significantly higher hardness. Anyone can use almost anything to clobber away at a rock and get some of the material to dislodge/fracture away, but creating a carefully modeled surface as a 3 axis representation of a real world subject, such as a human face, requires more subtle and carefully controlled material removal techniques. Rough sculpting via impact runs the risk of fracturing/dislodging portions of the workpiece below the plane of the desired finished surfaces, meaning that one blow could invalidate the entire sculpture while it is still in the early stages.
Take another look at details such as the perfectly wrought cuticles of the toes and fingers, the shapes of the eyelids, lips and the exquisite modeling of veins and muscles. If you think these precision features can be reproduced by hammering, chipping or knapping in Diorite, I invite you to search for any modern/stonemason/carver who has done so with flint, obsidian, copper or bronze tools and post a link here to photographs of their work.
The carvings may look very precise but the statue itself far exceeds the quality of the carvings so I believe that the carvings are geafitti from antiquity...
Thanks for the video
Great vid.
subscribed
Thanks for the sub!
Fascinating