[Spirochete]

Egyptian antiquities look beautiful in photographs. Up close, they convey the impression of kindergarten crafts.

Last year I visited a museum exhibit of matchlock and flintlock firearms. Afterward, I decided to check out the new Egypt exhibit and was stricken by the contrast.

I expected the Egyptian stuff to have a high degree of craftsmanship; not Baroque Period quality, but something like the pictures in the Egypt coffee table books.

Instead, everything look shabby and Neolithic.

[Jonty30]

You’re also looking at things that have been eroded by 2000 of environmental damage.

[Jonty30]

It probably looked much more impressive when they were fresh off the quarry.

[Williams]

Bingo! They used thousands of odd shaped blocks and made them all fit together, nothing uniform like what you’d expect from modern craftsmen.

And as for that great unfinished granite obelisk, if they weren’t taking forever slowly chipping it away, it would have been finished!

[RainMan]

I have been to Egypt, and seen the artifacts up close. The craftmanship in ancient Egyptian art greatly exceeds a lot of the crap being pushed out today. A great example is the Avenue of Sphinxs … over 1300 Sphinx statues, every few feet, on each side of the street, for 3 KM. Each statue is 10 feet tall. Even with millenia of weathering, there is still great detail in many of them.

[SunkenCiv]

Well put -- they worked in stone because they were rooted in the Neolithic. They used stone to cut stone, and the discarded, worn out tools looke like, well they're bits of stone. The job was extravagant of labor and time, but a large number of workers accomplished a lot by each doing a little simultaneously. The finer work was done by a smaller number who were just better at it.

Even tomb-painting got done that way -- the text was roughed in, and the corrections were made by the master, who proofread the work. The corrections are found over the originals, seen now because the final painted versions have flaked off.

This isn't a criticism of the ancient Egyptians -- they did magnificent work, even if it isn't all the gleaming perfection seen in those coffeetable books. The fact that they did it with sweat and effort makes it even more impressive. I'm also glad I didn't have to do the work.

• Evidence of a lost Ancient Civilization at the Serapeum of Saqqara [ch 5, Conclusion] | Posted on 06/09/2019

[PIF]

that depends on which period you are looking at and which examples that are displayed. They could have been Neolithic or even earlier.

Tools from ancient Egypt stretch from the 5000 BC to 300 AD approximately.