5,300-Year-Old 'Bow Drill' Rewrites Story of Ancient Egyptian Tools

5,300-year-old 'bow drill' rewrites story of ancient Egyptian tools

3,300 BC ‘Bow Drill’ Rewrites Story of Ancient Egyptian Tools

Bow drill from a New Kingdom tomb painting. Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain A small copper tool buried in Upper Egypt more than 5,000 years ago is reshaping views of Egyptian tools, with researchers saying the 3,300 BC object functioned as a bow drill and places advanced rotary drilling centuries earlier than previously confirmed. Researchers from Newcastle University and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vie…

Long Misidentified, Object in Museum Is Oldest Drilling Tool Found Yet in Egypt

A small metal object excavated almost 100 years ago has been identified as the oldest known drilling tool yet found in Egypt. The news was reported by Archeology Today. The artifact came from a predynastic cemetery at the archeological site of Badari in Upper Egypt and dates to the late 4th millennium BCE. Part of the grave goods of an adult male, it is made of copper alloy and measures only about two and a half inches. A 1924 catalog entry …

5,300-Year-Old Bow Drill Found in Predynastic Grave Rewrites Early Egyptian Technology Timeline

A 5,300-year-old copper bow drill from Predynastic Egypt, discovered in a Badari grave, reveals advanced rotary drilling technology more than

5,300 year old metal bow drill found in Egypt is earliest known rotary tool

A small metal tool from a Predynastic cemetery in Upper Egypt is changing views on early Egyptian technology. Researchers have identified the object as the oldest known metal drill from Egypt. The piece dates to the late fourth millennium BCE, long before the first pharaohs ruled. Archaeologists found the tool at Badari about a century […]