It strikes me as appropriate – my 701st post not only contains No. 7, but resonates with ancient wonder that got me blogging in the first place.
No. 7 requires an open mind, suspension of belief, dismissal of dusty textbook historical timelines, willingness to resist alien conspiracy theories and a good dose of childlike wonder. To ponder No. 7, is to accept we know jack about the past. Clear your mind of rolled eyes, dismissive platitudes, tin foil hats, new age fruit cakes, divine intervention and crocks of shit.
In 1881 British archeologist Flinders Petrie found something remarkable near the great pyramids at Giza. He didn’t unearth great riches or open an undisturbed tomb. Petrie picked up a piece of granite – a 4000 year old chunk of construction debris. A treasure politely tucked away in the Petrie Museum of Egyptology in London, England – one that defies explanation, logic or reason.
Flinder Petrie’s chunk of granite – Core No. 7 – only makes sense if you accept the ancient world as capable beyond imagination. Granite is hard, it can only be cut with something harder – today we use diamond tipped drills. Murals show Egyptian workers cutting blocks of lime or sandstone with copper saws – this makes sense. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being the softest – copper is a 3, so are marble, lime and sandstone. Granite is a 7, diamonds are 10.
Science doesn’t know how, but think they know where No. 7 came from. A plug of red granite drilled to form a door pivot – not chiseled, drilled with precision accuracy. Drills leave marks behind – a road map of rate and pressure. This is when 4000 year old granite cores get freaky – the markings on Core No. 7 are so perfectly spaced, engineers don’t believe a modern diamond tip mechanized drill could duplicate them.
Ponder Core No. 7 a moment – forget plausible explanations, suspend belief and allow lost knowledge to plaster a grin on your face.
notestoponder 