The way the hawk tail hangs down the back is such a nice touch.

Sand (=quartz) has been a very good polishing tool for eons..

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.

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."

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 !!

is it possible that some of those scratches are the result of modern restoration/cleaning efforts?

Its almost like they chose the hardest stone just to tell us how legendary capable they were

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.

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’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

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.

What a beautiful and timeless peace of sculpture..you have to see it in the flesh to really appreciate it...

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.👍♋

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.

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'?

Never ceases to amaze me. Incredible

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What s great face he had and a beautiful work of art.

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.

absolutely outstanding work! Thank you.

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

Excellent! Please continue your work!

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. 🏆😁👍

Very intriguing! Thank you!

Awesome video. Thank you so much.

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!

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

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.

Thank You! Excellent video.

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.

Thanks for the observed polishing anomalies, always makes for interesting conjecture .

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.

The hieroglyphs are "tags" that were added later. The statue is much older than can be accredited.

So much to still explain about many things of ancient Egypt 👍🏻

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.

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.

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.

This is perfect for falling sleep to. Keep them coming love 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!

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.

This was good brother. I'll keep watching your channel. Keep up the great work

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

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

Wonderful, thank you!

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.

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.

Absolutely fascinating

Thank you for this video. Maybe the next one can be a bit longer 😁

Fascinating--thank you!

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.

Fascinating! Praise KZfaq for bringing me here! Subscribed. ✌🏼

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!

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...

Excellent form to only enlighten us with the observed facts and leave the speculation to our own particular belief patterns.

Interesting snippet on surely one of the most beautiful statues every made....👍

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.

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

Looking forward to more and longer videos🤓👍

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?

I liked and subscribed. fantastic posts. thank you. cheers.

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

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.

It seems they were showing off, showing ‘us’ what skill they developed, like the huge boxes in the serapeum.

Excellent video 👍Thank you

Very interesting. Well worth a subscription. 👍

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.

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.

From the isle of Naxos was a natural fine emery sand, still exported today.

Thanks for the video

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...

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.

Ima new sub to your chann because I find the content fascinating and thanks for the vids man

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.

Great video

How about percussion of tools hammered against the stone for rough shaping and ground up diorite for polishing?

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.

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.

Beautiful

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.

Interesting to note are the groves under the armpits behind the torso on both sides of the statue. Could potentially be an overcut. To "achieve this mistake" you would have to rub to surface for considerable amount of time before realising you are taking away to much material. On the contrary, using a fast spinning circular blade could result in this mistake within seconds.

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.

The basalt Sarcophagus of Harkhebit which is located at the MET Museum in NYC, is one of my favorites!

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..."

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!

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.

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.

Fascinating

Good details. I would really like to know how those vases were created with handles that flow into what appears to be a lathe worked container. The handles however defy explanation.

Soft copper will actually grip abrasives and can be used as files and saws. But it’s not gonna produce those regular scratch marks.

Wow amazing. I wonder how they did it and that bilateral symetry. Great video thankyou. Absolutely subbed :)

According to your hardness stats on diorite (6.5), it can easily be polished and cut with quartz. Do you know where quartz might be found in the area?

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...

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)?

Great vid. subscribed