Tube drills, not saws alone, cleared the interior of the Great Pyramid's coffer. Dennis Stocks studied the small curved marks left on the sarcophagus walls to estimate tube drill diameters and how many drills could sit side by side inside the box. The presenter's proposal: drill out each interior corner first so the blade has clearance to turn, smash out the stone left between holes, then clean the interior faces with a flat blade in the same reconfigurable frame saw — the drill holes letting in fresh grit and flushing spent slurry. Once one long exterior face was cut it could act as a guide, via hooks on both sides of the frame riding the exterior while the interior was sawn, and short interior edges came from readjusting blade spacing. 🪛🪨
Tube drills mortised out the Great Pyramid coffer interior, per Stocks study
EgyptGeneral
Key facts
- Physical marks on the Great Pyramid coffer and other sarcophagi show that tube drills were used to roughly mortise out the interior material
- Dennis Stocks used small curved marks left on the Great Pyramid sarcophagus walls to estimate the diameter of the tube drills and how many drills would fit side by side inside the box
- The presenter proposes drilling a hole in each interior corner before sawing, giving the blade clearance to turn, with the stone left between holes smashed out afterwards
- Interior faces would then be cleaned up with a flat-bladed saw using the same reconfigurable frame saw, the drill holes serving to introduce fresh grit and clear spent slurry
- Once one long interior face was cut, the previously cut exterior edge could serve as a guide, for example via hooks on both sides of the frame rubbing along the exterior while the interior was cut
- Short interior edges could be sawn by reconfiguring the frame and adjusting the spacing between the blades
Was this story useful?
Keep exploring
Every site on this page sits on the globe, and the people who research them are on the Discord.
3D Globe · Sites by country · Story Archive · Research Library · Weekly Journal · Search
AI-generated text · images from the original sources · always verify with the sources.