{"it":{"id":"W21LA07","kind":"artifact","sub":"Authenticated","name":"Karnak Ramses head with tool marks","place":"Karnak","mat":"granite","dims":"tool marks 0.30 x 0.18 in","loc":"Karnak","acc":"not given","find":"Karnak","flag":"genuine ancient","src":[198],"tags":[],"sum":"Look closely at royal granite statues of Ramesses and the surfaces seem to change character: broad, even curves across the face, and finer, softer work around the eyes and lips. That contrast is the whole debate in miniature.\n\nKarnak, the great temple of Amun, was filled with royal statues over many centuries. Christopher Dunn has studied Ramesses statues carved in red Aswan granite, a hard stone to shape by any method.\n\nWhat is hard to explain, for some, is how hard granite was brought to such even curves at all.\n\nDunn says it was not done by hand alone. He has said that the statues he studied are not 'perfect': their contours were machined, he believes, and lips and eyelids finished by hand. He proposes tools as advanced as a 5-axis CNC with an ultrasonic bit. Petrie's evidence answers him from the workshops: Egyptian cutters used fixed points of very hard stone, probably corundum, under heavy load, and sand worked with copper. In 1999 Denys Stocks drilled granite with a copper tube, sand and three people working a bow at Aswan. Even contours and hand-finished details are what a skilled team grinding with sand would leave. No independent measurement of these statues has been published (single source).\n\nThe open edge is the marks themselves. Hand tools and machines leave different traces, and until someone records these surfaces closely, the statues can be read either way.","why":"Ramesses granite statues where the claimed machine contours and the hand-finished details sit side by side.","nfacts":0,"nsrc":1,"yt":"Compare marks with experimental tools.","rel":["W21LA01"],"hook":"Ramesses statues in red granite. Christopher Dunn reads their surfaces as machine work, then hand finishing.","ss":1},"S":{"198":["Christopher Dunn, Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt: Advanced Engineering in the Temples of the Pharaohs (Bear & Co 2010, ISBN 978-1-59143-102-2); printed-page refs","file:books/upload5.pdf"]},"rec":{"id":"W21LA07","alias":[],"ms":[],"lab":[],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[],"dat":[],"aa":[],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"art":{"claimed_anomaly":"oscillating tool","mainstream_reading":"not opened","provenance_flag":"genuine ancient","current_location":"Karnak","find_circumstances":"Karnak","claimant":"Christopher Dunn","status":"no data","dimensions":"tool marks 0.30 x 0.18 in","material":"granite","date":"","culture":"","museum_accession":"not given","b":"S","s":["W21LS01"]},"sub":[],"src":[{"id":"W21LS01","t":"Christopher Dunn, Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt: Advanced Engineering in the Temples of the Pharaohs (Bear & Co 2010, ISBN 978-1-59143-102-2); printed-page refs","u":"file:books/upload5.pdf"},{"id":"VW21LA07-2","t":"Brandon Ellis, Medium: The ancients built gigantic power plants (believer page)","u":"https://medium.com/@brandonellis_25067/the-ancients-built-gigantic-power-plants-f7761c803114"},{"id":"VW21LA07-3","t":"Petrie 1883, Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, ch. 19: mechanical methods of the pyramid builders","u":"https://www.ronaldbirdsall.com/gizeh/petrie/c19.html"},{"id":"VW21LA07-4","t":"Anarkia333: Aswan 1999 expedition, 8 cm tube (believer page)","u":"https://www.anarkia333data.center/megalithe/exp-dassouan-de-1999-tube-de-8cm"}],"qs":["Machined curves with hand-finished eyes and lips: does that combination point to machines, or to two stages of hand work?","Only one person has studied these marks. How should a claim like this be tested?","If Egyptians cut granite with machines, why do none of their texts or pictures show them?"]},"img":null,"md":{"h":"img/m/W21LA07-16x9.webp","w":1600,"hh":900,"alt":"Illustration: setting associated with Karnak Ramses head with tool marks, Karnak","by":"Illustration made for The Nommo","lic":"","lu":"","p":"","g":true,"ct":false,"cap":"","sec":[]},"hh":[{"v":"Granite","h":"Made of","s":[269]},{"v":"Karnak","h":"Where it was found","s":[269]}],"hs":{"269":["Christopher Dunn, Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt: Advanced Engineering in the Temples of the Pharaohs (Bear & Co 2010, ISBN 978-1-59143-102-2); printed-page refs","file:books/upload5.pdf"]}}