They were smart enough to use a fly wheel on the drill. I'd expect them to be smart enough to make a fly cutter or trepan-like rosette cutter.
Posted on 01/07/2026 9:00:47 AM PST by SunkenCiv
...The excavation at Milestone Ground in Broadway uncovered 8,000 years of human activity but it was the discovery of a carved bone box which really excited archaeologists.
The bone box was recovered from the grave of a young woman with archaeologists believing the find could offer new insight into the lives, beliefs and craftsmanship of the people who once occupied the north Cotswolds.
Jamie Wilkins, who led the excavation, described the find as extraordinary and that he had never seen anything like it before...
The artefacts found, which span prehistoric, Roman and Saxon times, took centre stage in an episode of BBC's Two's Digging for Britain.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Once the center pilot has entered the work, fly cutters would be well behaved. The fly cutter would be mounted so as to engage the work after the central drill was seated. Look closely. That is exactly what you will see.
They were smart enough to use a fly wheel on the drill. I'd expect them to be smart enough to make a fly cutter or trepan-like rosette cutter.
Better not let Titus Pullo find out about that...
It’ll be interesting to see what the residues are.
That’s what I was thinking, too. I’ve used fly cutters before, but (obviously) in drill presses and hand-held electric drills. It’s amazing to think that they could make one that would work with a bow-drill.
Do you think the circular cuts are too precise to be hand-cut?
Yes, it would be a small step to mount a cutter on that flywheel.
Frankincense and myrrh.................
No. You can't really judge the precision of the cuts without setting dial indicators on a fixed base. That being said, a machinist told be that he used sandpaper on a wooden block to fashion a sphere. He was bed-ridden for two years, so he had time to work on it. When finished, he said the sphere was round to .0001 inch all around. He also carved and sanded a long screw made of wood. When that was finished the sphere would track down the screw, and the lead never went out by more than .0001.
Tools have no choice but to cut nice circles around a fixed centers, assuming a rigid cutter and a center that doesn't wander.
I do see that those rosette cuts are not all cut to the same depth.
Precision like this can easily be attributed to slow work and checking against a gauge. Amateur telescope mirrors are ground and polished by hand; yet, they are optically perfect when completed. The ancients were truly skilled and resourceful craftsmen. Most of them better than I.
May have eaten it, if sheep, burned it.
Archimedes raps box
Looks too small for that. Seems like game pieces would still be inside, if that was its use.
He didn’t seem to like people cheating him, and he could certainly respond.
I went to school with Frank. Always thought that was an unwieldy last name.
I’ve never seen one of those before. That a nice kit.
He didn’t care to have deities micturate on his face, either.
I was in the Marines with a guy named ‘Stein’ and his wife was expecting their first baby. I suggested he name, if a boy, to be Franklin Nelson Stein.
He was not amused........
He was, of course, my wife’s favorite character.
Do you think there is any truth to the story that the Southern boy with the name of R.B. Cox who went through his service known as Ronly Bonly? (For R only, B only)
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