Ancient Egyptian Stone-Drilling

More than most technical procedures in the ancient world, drilling of hard stone such as quartz and granite has evoked awe and puzzlement. Neither wall paintings, nor textual information, nor excavated material has provided complete answers as to how drilling was done. As a conse­quence, there has been scholarly contro­versy. One such disagreement occurred between two eminent Egyptologists, A. Lucas and Sir Flinders Petrie. Their argument revolved around a difficult and important question, namely, how did the ancient Egyptians of the 3rd millennium B.C. drill granite?

This unresolved question, raised by Petrie as early as 1883, is important not only to Egyptologists, but to scholars of ancient lapidary technology anywhere in the world where hard stone was drilled. Here, we report on our preliminary experi­ments directed toward a resolution of this controversy. The reader must bear in mind that our work is based solely upon the evidence of the object examined, and does not take into account ancient Egyptian textual or material evidence that might shed light upon this problem.

The disagreement between Lucas and Petrie can be most accurately summarized by alternately juxtaposing their own words written over a 35-year period.

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