HOW DID THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS CORE DRILL THE HARDEST OF STONE? Abstract: We know from the archeological record that the ancient Egypans could core drill the hardest of natural stone. Previously, the tool to core drill, the core drill bit, has never been idenfied. The absence of the tool has led to a range of speculaon as to how this process was accomplished. Now a core drill bit has been idenfied in a private collecon, which allows definive answers as to how it was done. This arcle analyzes the major design features of the bit. Finally, a proof of the analysis is shown by the tool marks leſt in the boom of “blind” holes, core drilled in a Kohl jar, and a stone fragment from Amarna. Today, core drilling hard stone such as granite, with modern tools and equipment, remains a difficult operaon. Lacking modern technology, how did the ancient Egypans accomplish this task? Core drilled holes, and the associated stone cores, have been widely found in the archaeological record of ancient Egypt. However, no core drill bit has ever been previously idenfied, leaving the analysis of the methodology mostly confined to the tool marks leſt behind. The typical tool marks are striaons on the exterior wall of the core, and the interior wall of the hole. The sll outstanding ancient technological quesons to be answered are: 1) What “teeth,” of sufficient hardness to cut stone, were employed? and 2) How were the “teeth” aached to the drill? Only an actual core drill bit can definively answer these quesons. The photograph below is an example of ancient Egypan core drilling in stone. Petrie Museum, University College London, UC 44993, arfact cut in half to illustrate process