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Revision Alert

I preserved this post in its original form to illustrate the evolution of ideas. Change of mind is an important and normal part of the scientific process. As of 2026, my latest findings and conclusions are presented in my peer-reviewed paper, “A metrological method for manufacturing quality assessment and classification of ancient Egyptian stone vessels,” published in Nature Heritage Sciences.

I retract my conclusions presented in this post. For complete details on why I changed my mind and what I discovered when I expanded my study, please refer to my Nature paper or watch my presentation on Danny Jones’ podcast or live stream with Flint Dibble.

High Resolution Gamma Spectroscopy

The astonishing precision of ancient Egyptian stone vases motivated me to put forth a nuclear machining hypothesis, which I decided to test by measuring gamma spectra of two stone vases from Matt Beall’s collection using high-precision germanium spectroscopy. For this, I set up a Canberra GC1018 germanium detector inside a massive 3,000 lbs lead shield – Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Canberra GC1018 germanium detector inside a lead shield.

I connected the detector to an MCA-PRO running PulseCounter Pro software. My plan was to capture gamma spectrum of the vases (Fig. 2) and then compare it to the gamma spectra of the corresponding ‘virgin’ rocks.

Fig. 2. Capturing the gamma spectrum of a stone vase.

For this study, I chose two exceptionally well-made vases from Matt Beall’s collection: S1 (Fig. 3), which is made from the red Aswan granite, and V18 (Fig. 4), which is made of dolerite.

Fig. 3. The S1 vase made of red Aswan granite.
Fig. 4. The V18 vase made of dolerite.

For comparison I procured a sample of pink Egyptian granite (Fig. 5) and a dolerite rock (Fig. 6).

Fig. 5. A sample of pink Egyptian granite.
Fig. 6. A dolerite rock.

I calibrated my detector using 137Cs and 133Ba sources to ensure the energy resolution was within 0.1 keV of the spec. Then I counted each vase and its corresponding granite and dolerite samples for 24 to 48 hours inside the lead shield to obtain a high-quality spectrum.

The resulting spectra for the red granite vase S1 are shown in Fig. 8-9.

Fig. 8. The gamma spectra of the red granite vase S1 (blue) and the Egyptian pink granite sample (red).
Fig. 9. The zoomed-in gamma spectra of the red granite vase S1 (blue) and the Egyptian pink granite sample (red).

Both spectra are very similar and contain the same energy peaks, although of somewhat different height. The peaks correspond to natural radionuclides (e.g., U, Th, 40K, Bi, etc.), and nothing unusual immediately jumped out at me.

The resulting spectra for the dolerite vase V18 are shown in Fig. 10-11.

Fig. 10. The gamma spectra of the dolerite vase V18 (blue) and the dolerite rock sample (red).
Fig. 11. The zoomed-in gamma spectra of the dolerite vase V18 (blue) and the dolerite rock sample (red).

Here, I see that the spectrum shows a broad peak around 60 keV, circled in Fig. 11. I find this interesting, and this observation merits further study, although the peak is likely due to thorium (234Th).

Next Steps

A potentially fruitful avenue of research is on-site measurements of gamma spectra and surface composition analysis via XRF. These measurements can be taken with handheld gamma spectrometers and XRF analyzers. Are any of the archaeological sights/artifacts exhibiting anomalies consistent with the hypothesized nuclear machining? I say, let’s find out.

One thought on “Radiological Study of Ancient Egyptian Stone Vases”

  1. Alan Smith says:
    January 15, 2025 at 1:40 pm

    Hi Max.

    Interesting hypothesis. The granite worktops in my kitchen are pretty radioactive, about twice background for anywhere else in my home. Never put a scope on them, just a particle detector.

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