If you take any diamond cutting tool for stone/ceramic/glass in your hands, you will suddenly discover that cutting surface made from copper/brass/bronze with diamonds in it. Not from steel.
You don't need steel to cut the stone. Moreover, steel is not used to cut the stone at all. But even a thin cotton rope with abrasive glued to it will work.
I’ve seen demonstrations. Imagine something like a wet saw, just in very slow motion. I think they found they could do like 2 inches a day, and that was the modern archeologists starting from scratch in their attempt. These masons didn’t know what they didn’t know yet, but they did have all the knowledge that came before them, showing how something like that was possible, along with the other infrastructure and tools needed to make it happen on a grand scale.
Easiest and simpliest thing that could cut rocks is a rope, glue, sand and water. Today this technology is still used to cut the stones and slice retired concrete structures in the form of "diamond wire saw".
If you will use some tech like pulleys and crankshafts, prefectly known for ancient Egyptians, you could even make a decent human powered stone cutting rig that will cut stones not worse than modern wet saw without limits on the size. If you have thousands of slaves there will be no any problem to cut thousands of rocks of any size in reasonable time.
Of course cutting huge granite cube will take some time (and ancient people had plenty), but limestone is pretty easy thing for processing.
Also, since the rope saw is fundamentally self-aligning, you will get pretty precision cuts regardless of size.
Another tech that was perfectly available for ancient Egyptians is a abrasive-filled bronze. I'm shure, occasional sand in bronze was pretty regular thing for the ancient metallurgists. Knife from such defective cast was not very useful for cutting leather or food, but could be useful to work on stones.
Explain the core drill holes found in granite or the star shaped holes cut in granite found in Maine.
Again, stone is cutted by abrasive, not some sophisticated steel. There are tons of abrasive around since the beginning of human race. You could make a drill hole in granite even with wooden stick. If you have a bronze, things become much simplier - you could cut only circumference, then remove inside with hammer.
Star shaped holes are not a rocket science too. Cut a circular hole at center, then use rope saw.
If you take any diamond cutting tool for stone/ceramic/glass in your hands, you will suddenly discover that cutting surface made from copper/brass/bronze with diamonds in it. Not from steel.
You don't need steel to cut the stone. Moreover, steel is not used to cut the stone at all. But even a thin cotton rope with abrasive glued to it will work.
I’ve seen demonstrations. Imagine something like a wet saw, just in very slow motion. I think they found they could do like 2 inches a day, and that was the modern archeologists starting from scratch in their attempt. These masons didn’t know what they didn’t know yet, but they did have all the knowledge that came before them, showing how something like that was possible, along with the other infrastructure and tools needed to make it happen on a grand scale.
Easiest and simpliest thing that could cut rocks is a rope, glue, sand and water. Today this technology is still used to cut the stones and slice retired concrete structures in the form of "diamond wire saw".
If you will use some tech like pulleys and crankshafts, prefectly known for ancient Egyptians, you could even make a decent human powered stone cutting rig that will cut stones not worse than modern wet saw without limits on the size. If you have thousands of slaves there will be no any problem to cut thousands of rocks of any size in reasonable time.
Of course cutting huge granite cube will take some time (and ancient people had plenty), but limestone is pretty easy thing for processing.
Also, since the rope saw is fundamentally self-aligning, you will get pretty precision cuts regardless of size.
Another tech that was perfectly available for ancient Egyptians is a abrasive-filled bronze. I'm shure, occasional sand in bronze was pretty regular thing for the ancient metallurgists. Knife from such defective cast was not very useful for cutting leather or food, but could be useful to work on stones.
Again, stone is cutted by abrasive, not some sophisticated steel. There are tons of abrasive around since the beginning of human race. You could make a drill hole in granite even with wooden stick. If you have a bronze, things become much simplier - you could cut only circumference, then remove inside with hammer.
Star shaped holes are not a rocket science too. Cut a circular hole at center, then use rope saw.