Ancient Impossible - First Season

Narrator: What incredible

power tool did the ancient

Egyptians use to create this

mysterious cylinder known as

Core 7?

How that happens in granite,

it almost seems impossible.

Narrator: How were they able

to build instruments so precise

they could create the greatest

treasure of the ancient world?

The work in this is

awe-inspiring.

Narrator: How were they able

to craft the world's first

multi-tool?

And it's staggering to think

that it's almost 2,000 years

old.

Narrator: And how did the

ancient Chinese build a mega

machine that would start the

world's first industrial

revolution?

Monuments more colossal than

our own, ancient super weapons

as mighty as today's,

technology so precise it defies

reinvention.

The ancient world was not

primitive.

Their marvels are so advanced,

we still use them now.

Travel to a world closer than

we imagine, an ancient age

where nothing was impossible.

Behind all the incredible

ancient monuments is something

even more amazing -

The tools that built them.

Today we possess extraordinary

power tools that can slice into

the hardest rocks, grind down

the toughest metal, and carve

into mountains.

But what of the ancient

Egyptians?

The monuments they left behind

are awe-inspiring and have

somehow been built from

limestone, sandstone, and even

granite.

Is it possible the ancients had

tools more advanced than our

own?

Could the answer lie in this

ancient, mysterious Egyptian

artifact?

It is known as Core 7.

Made of granite, it is beyond

what we imagine.

Its very existence appears

impossible to explain.

This might not be visually as

titillating as one of the gold

death masks or something

encrusted in jewels, but from

the point of view of being able

to understand the technology of

the ancient Egyptian culture,

this is pure gold.

Narrator: Core 7 now resides

2,000 miles from Egypt, in the

Petrie Museum in London.

And it's one of the most

remarkable objects in their vast

collection.

This reveals more about

ancient Egyptian technology than

virtually anything we've seen.

Technologically, it reveals

things that we would never have

known without a sample like

this.

This shows that they possessed

the ability to do advanced

technical material cutting

really on a level that not only

matches anything that we could

do today but surpasses it and

surpasses it in ways that we

still can't explain.

Narrator: Experts have

subjected Core 7 to the most

detailed scientific

investigation

but all this does is raise more

questions.

How could ancient Egyptians

have possibly made this?

It’s a fairly unprepossessing

looking object, but it's the

"how" that is so intriguing.

It’s actually an incredible feat

and something that the Egyptians

only achieved using techniques

that are unknown to us.

Narrator: All we know for

sure is where this miraculous

object was discovered.

Core 7 was uncovered in 1881 by

the archeologist Flinders Petrie

in the Khafre Valley temple,

near the foot of the pyramids of

Giza.

It soon became clear that this

was a unique find.

But what was it?

Could the answers lie in a close

study of the temple where it was

found?

Now around every archway, I

find these sort of indentations

where this is where the door

would have joined right in here.

And there's a bit of a socket

here, a round socket that could

have just been made by bashing a

rock into the granite.

These are very interesting but

on this site, there's another

hole, a place where the door

would have joined in that's

even more intriguing.

Narrator: Could this

mysterious hole be the place

where Core 7 came from?

You can see if you look up in

there.

A tool clearly drilled out that

hole.

In a lot of other door bolts,

what we see is more of a kind of

a ball joint, something that

could have been just pounded out

with a rock

but this really seems to be

drilled.

It’s clearly been cut in by

something quite cylindrical but

how that happens in granite, I

mean, is a mystery to me because

this is such a hard stone, and

the Egyptians really didn't have

anything which could cut granite

like that.

I mean, it almost seems

impossible, how they cut this

hole.

Core 7 was cut from a red

granite lintel by the ancient

Egyptians in Khafre's Valley

temple to make a door pivot.

This is Core 7.

For the workmen who cut it, it

was just rubbish to be thrown

away

but this rubbish is evidence of

ancient technology people still

think is impossible.

Narrator: To further

investigate the amazing mystery

that is Core 7, we have to look

at the tools we know the

Egyptians possessed.

This well-preserved wall

painting may provide a vital

clue to the tools of the

Egyptians.

It depicts a man sawing with

what appears to be a metal tool.

The hardest metal they had in

any real quantity at that time

was copper.

The stone used in these massive

constructions is mainly

sandstone and limestone.

Could copper tools have cut

through these rocks to create

the ancient monuments of Egypt?

In a stone quarry in Somerset,

England, we are going to put

this to the test.

But how strong is copper in

cutting stone?

There’s a scale of hardness

going from 1 down to 10 which is

Mohs hardness scale.

1 is talc, and 10 is diamonds.

Now, limestones and chalks and