Ancient Egyptian Forum

Tash · Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2004 12:18 pm Post subject:

"Now they did it with an iron winch, you know, an iron cable and a winch that pulled the stone away from the quarry wall, and all their tools were iron."(quote from pbs site)

What were the ancient egyptian ropes actualy made out of? i would imagine strong fibers. expecialy if it was made to withstand 2.5 tonnes of pressure. and copper? it is easy to bend and manipulate. a copper winch does not stand a chance against 2.5 tonnes. it doesnt even stand a chance against a couple of Kilo's, without a winch you would have never even gotten the stone out of the hole. its like when i get the icecream out of the freezer and it is frozen so solid that it bends the spoon when i try to dig it out. and the spoon i am using is stainless steel. lucky we dont use copper spoons. i wouldnt be able to eat icecream Crying or Very sad

theres more to say but i hve to go for now.
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Sekhmet · Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2004 12:26 pm Post subject:

Aww try either linen or hemp fiber for ropes.
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Osiris II · Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2004 7:03 pm Post subject:

At the time of the building of the GP, the ancient Egyptians did not have the wheel--ruling out any type of winch. Tools used were copper only--no iron.
Sekhmet is correct in stating that ropes at that time were made either of linen or hemp--both remarkably strong, considering the fiber from which they were made.

Sekhmet · Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 2:25 am Post subject:

Ankhesenamun3 · Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 3:08 am Post subject:

Well , the Egyptians did have chariots , with wheels.

Tash · Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 4:07 am Post subject:

not enough iron for what they would have needed to quarry stones,
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Sekhmet · Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 5:24 am Post subject:

Hi Tash, how much iron do you believe is needed to make a winch? Anyway here is a site and excerpt about ancient iron usage.

http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/elem/fe.html [

Although Iron occurs only sparingly in the free state, the abundance of ores from which it may be readily obtained led to its use in a very remote period. Iron has been known and used since prehistoric times. The writings of the most early civilizations refer to it, and there is evidence that it was known more than 7000 years ago; in China the usage of steel goes back to 2550 B.C. Some vedic poets wrote that their prehistoric ancestors already knew iron and were able to transform it into utensils through a considerable range of technics.

So the PBS site is probably right in suggesting iron as winches.
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Tash · Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 6:35 am Post subject:

The amount of Iron needed for a winch would depend on the style, size of the winch and weight of the block. i would think not much iron would be lying around the Giza plateu. anyway if they had made iron winches. why not use iron tools? it is quite possible they traded, around 1000BCE there were batterys containing iron found in a tomb near Modern day baghdad.
http://www.unmuseum.org/bbattery.htm (just for a point of interest.)
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Tash · Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 6:43 am Post subject:

well, i also said 'not enough iron for what they would have needed to quarry the stones' because there was either no iron or little of it.
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Sekhmet · Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 6:56 am Post subject:

Tash · Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 7:01 am Post subject:

no, orisis II said,

Osiris II · Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2004 12:10 am Post subject:

This is taken from the following website:

http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/trades/metals.htm

It's an interesting article, very discriptive of the metals used at all stages of Egyptian history. The following is just one statement taken from the site:

During the early stages of an age the use of the new metal was still infrequent, became widespread during the middle stage and common in the final period: The first iron weapons began to appear during the late New Kingdom, but the Egyptian Iron Age began in earnest only in the 7th or even the 6th century BCE when Greeks settlers at Naucratis introduced iron production.

Tash · Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 8:09 am Post subject:

well there was still little iron.
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PharoahKel · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 2:52 am Post subject:

Si-amun · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 8:18 am Post subject:

Very good point there actually. lol
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