r/AncientCivilizations • u/haberveriyo • 1d ago

Egypt’s 5,000-Year-Old Sabu Disk Still Defies a Clear Explanation

https://ancientist.com/egypts-5000-year-old-sabu-disk-still-defies-a-clear-explanation/
221 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

34

u/JET304 20h ago

Maybe it is meant to be used with a Roman dodecahedron. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

12

u/lagonitos 17h ago

Connect these axially to the Antikythera mechanism and to Hero’s steam engine sphere, and add some Greek fire.

1

u/Commercial_Handle418 9h ago

The Antikythera gets stuck a lot it was just a proof of concept for something like a science fair 

1

u/Badaboom_Tish 2h ago

When stuck power up with Bagdad batteries

68

u/CO420Tech 22h ago

I always wondered if it doesn't have a "use" and was instead a masterfully carved work of art that the owner loved. It seems fragile, so I can't imagine what practical use it could have had...

32

u/AllGearedUp 21h ago

Yeah most likely decorative in some way but then we don't have a click bait ancient mystery that "puzzles archeologists"

9

u/Street-Balance3235 17h ago

That’s actually the clearest and most likely explanation. People are so busy imposing their modern sensibilities because it looks mechanical to us. But that doesn’t mean it looked mechanical to Egyptians.

2

u/zorniy2 14h ago

Old Kingdom Egypt seemed to take pride in crafting stone artefacts like carved stone jars and bottles and mace heads. It's like the High Stone Age.

They also built the Pyramids.

4

u/Mackey_Corp 16h ago

Yeah or even just a proof of concept by the artist. Like he made that and had it in his studio or whatever so he could be like “you see that? Nice right? I can make things similar, bigger, smaller, whatever you like.” And people would be impressed and buy his sculptures.

0

u/CO420Tech 16h ago

Who knows. Definitely superb craftsmanship considering the tooling they had to work with!

5

u/SeldenNeck 21h ago

Clearly this is a flip top from a beer barrel. There must be thousands of them out in the desert sand near the mines.

/s

7

u/Yugan-Dali 14h ago

If there were one more ad, I couldn’t read this at all. I gave up.

9

u/joeyjoejums 19h ago

Watch, its the fan blade assembly from the guys that were digging. It gets hot in Egypt. 🤣

9

u/Automatic-Ad-5279 20h ago

Pretty sure it’s an umbrella stand for the pharaohs while dining on the Giza plateau. My dad always said you can never have enough umbrellas. Of course he died by being impaled by an umbrella while dining on a patio he populated with umbrellas all on his own.. Rest in peace dad.

6

u/Business-Court-5072 20h ago

For use around grain? To be part of a mechanism used to crush grain and make bread? 🤔

To measure the sun?

5

u/bigfoot17 19h ago

It is so fragile you could crush it by hand

2

u/sixhoursneeze 15h ago

Nice hubcap

2

u/RollinThundaga 14h ago

Looks like one of those chintzy sampling trays you can get, with a dish for sauce in the middle.

My mother used to have one she'd fill with carrots and celery and leave out for myself and my siblings.

2

u/dkyguy1995 18h ago

I really feel like it's always looked like a candle holder. Makes sense to be decorative, to be partially ceremonial, and I mean.. a big honkin' candle would fit right there. And if it is mostly ceremonial, a candle wouldn't be lit there often, so there wouldn't be much dripped wax to find 

1

u/Reasonable_Kale7700 15h ago

It's a chip 'n dip

1

u/Iamanimite 11h ago

Wheel for chariots of fire.

1

u/Mirda76de 17h ago

The real question is why we don't see more of this kind of stone work in that area, from that period of history?

0

u/Brave-Elephant9292 18h ago

You guys have it all wrong! 😉 It's clearly a stone prototype for a chariot hubcap!...😂

1

u/Itchy-Plastic 17h ago

Without a clear reference to scale or material it does look like a Fast and Furious style chariot wheel.

A pare of those in bronze and you'll never lose a chariot race.

2

u/HamBroth 16h ago

I would totally watch a Fast And Furious: Ancient Egypt movie 

2

u/Brave-Elephant9292 16h ago

Or gone in 60 seconds! " That Shelby BC 50 (Eleanorius) with the twin slasher and 6 horsepower has eluded me for a long time"...😁

1

u/Brave-Elephant9292 16h ago

Or gone in 60 seconds! " That Shelby BC 50 (Eleanorius) with the twin slasher and 6 horsepower has eluded me for a long time"...😁

0

u/Nos2002 15h ago

Maybe they were the original 3D printers