The Quarrying Industry

As the oldest industry in the UK, it is unsurprising that quarrying was an industry in ancient Egypt. Jaw crushers may not have been in use at this time but the essence of the quarrying industry was the same.

The Study of Quarrying in Egyptian Times

The study of the Aswan quarries, the only in-depth study of Egyptian hard-stone workings has provided an insight into ancient quarrying techniques. It has been estimated that around 45,000 cubic metres of stone were removed from the Aswan quarries during the Third to Sixth Dynasties and it seems likely that loose surface boulders would have been exploited first.

Quarry Tools

Although it is clear that the ancient Egyptians did not use jaw crushers and impactors to crush and cut rock, it remains a bit of a mystery exactly what tools were used for quarrying. The tool marks which can be found preserved on many soft-stone quarry walls suggest that some form of pointed copper alloy pick, axe or maul, followed by the later use of a mallet-driven pointed chisel from the Eighteenth Dynasty onwards. For harder material such as granite it is more likely that the boulders were simply prised out of the Earth. There is also some evidence to suggest that a hard greenish stone known as dolerite was used in order to detach the stone from its base. In order to get to the higher quality rock they would light fires on the granite to get it to a certain temperature. Cold water would then be thrown on it to cool it fast this would cause the outer layers to crack and fall off leaving the harder rock from the inside for them to use. In order to transport the huge rocks, it is more than likely that the Egyptian used manpower on a major scale.

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