Dear friends, in this post, I present my latest findings about the predynastic Egyptian stone vases. I feel like I reached the end of the road on the vase project. What I think of these objects now is not at all what I thought a year ago. In fact, the evidence I uncovered led me to change my initial beliefs by 180 degrees. I
was wrong on many things, and it is time for me to correct/retract some of my claims.
Please keep in mind that I am not a hard-nosed academic; I have no stake in the outcome, and I conducted this research solely to satisfy my curiosity and uncover the truth. I wish the results were more earth-shattering than they turned out to be, but such is life! The truth is an austere lady, and what hides beneath the countless skirts may not be what you expect…
So here are my findings.
By relying on
concentricity and circularity metrics,
it is possible to tell genuine predynastic Egyptian objects apart from modern machine-made objects. Basically, objects turned on a lathe exhibit exceptional circularity and concentricity, which differ markedly from those of handmade objects (Fig. 1).
Unfortunately for the proponents of the ancient high-technology hypothesis, all widely discussed vases classified as 'precise' fall squarely within the machined class. That is, circularity and concentricity of both the inner and the outer surfaces of the 'precise' privately owned vases purportedly of ancient Egyptian origin are statistically indistinguishable from the quality of modern machine-made vases. As I
mentioned earlier, two conclusions are possible from this observation:
- The 'precise' vases are of modern rather than ancient origin;
- An equivalent of modern machining tools existed in the late Neolithic period before Egypt's unification.
While it was unquestionably more fun to side with the second interpretation, over time, additional evidence forced me to side with the first. This evidence, in order of importance, is as follows:
A.
The 'precise' vases are found only in private collections and are not present in museum collections. Granted, I did not scan every single predynastic vase out there; I personally scanned only
19 from the Petrie Museum, but I am not the only one scanning, and I have also looked at about 100 objects from private collections (Matt Beall, Jason Moras, and Rich Castagna). I ended up buying and owning a handful of objects, too. I visually examined hundreds of objects on display at museums, both
online and in brick-and-mortar institutions. The only items that even looked 'precise' were those on loan or bequeathed from private collections, with no provenance linking them to the archaeological context in which they were found. However, 8 out of 19 Petrie Museum objects have a record of a specific tomb from which they were excavated. Because Egyptian antiquities are the
world's most forged artefacts, it is only prudent to base judgment on objects with known archaeological origins, especially in a topic as potentially Earth-shattering as the existence of ancient high technology. So, until we find objects of similar quality with documented excavation histories, the genuine vs. forgery needle will continue to lean towards the latter.
B.
The 'precise' vases do not look their age. Think about it, a predynastic vase must be at least 6,000 years old. It must have endured millennia of weathering, handling, trading, use, and abuse. How likely is it that you will wind up with a predynastic object that looks like it was made yesterday? No scratches, no chips, no nicks, no defects of any kind make these privately owned 'precise' vases stand out from the rest, especially when compared to predynastic objects in museum collections. They look very different in terms of the condition of their surfaces.
C.
Some of the stone types and shapes of the 'precise' vases from the private collections do not match known ancient Egyptian artifacts. Predynastic Egyptians were very particular about the vase forms and stone types they used. They did not use some random rocks, nor did they produce random shapes.
To me, A & B move the genuine vs. forgery needle further to the right. You are, however, free to make your own judgement.
What would make me change my mind? Obviously, 3D scans of 'precise' vases with documented archaeological context of their discovery. But until this happens, the modern rather than ancient origins attribution for the 'pricese' vases from private collections is the most probable.
