#22 - Leading Egyptologist Finds Egypt's Lost Drill Tech | Dr. Martin Odler

Ancient Technology Podcast

6/14/2026

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Martin Odler, an Egyptologist and leading expert on ancient Egyptian copper tools, to discuss his newest discovery: the earliest confirmed metal drill ever found in Egypt, dating back roughly 5,300 years.

We dive into ancient copper metallurgy, the “pure copper” myth, why this tiny Predynastic drill bit may change our understanding of early Egyptian technology, how Flinders Petrie went to Egypt to test a Great Pyramid theory and ended up debunking it, and what real archaeological research looks like inside museum collections and excavations.

This is Part 1 of our conversation. In Part 2, we get into topics such as the Petrie core, stone vases and lathes, the Giza iron plate, the Hawara Labyrinth, and who really built the Great Pyramid.

Dr. Martin Odler's books mentioned in the podcast:
https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Copper-Tools-Archaeopress-Egyptology/dp/1784914428

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invisible-Connections-Archaeometallurgical-University-Archaeopress/dp/1789697409

https://www.amazon.com/Copper-Ancient-Egypt-Pyramid-Culture/dp/9004524088

Sources:
Odler, Martin, and Jiří Kmošek. ‘The Earliest Metal Drill of Naqada IID Dating’. Ägypten Und Levante 35 (2025): 289–306. https://doi.org/10.1553/AEundL35s289.

Middle Kingdom: papyrus Reisner II, published in Simpson, William Kelly. Papyrus Reisner II: Accounts of the Dockyard Workshop at This in the Reign of Sesostris I. Transcription and Commentary. Museum of Fine Arts, 1965.

New Kingdom: notebook of Dhutmose, published in Hölzl, Regina, Michael Neumann, and Robert J. Demarée. The notebook of Dhutmose: p. Vienna ÄS 10321. Probleme der Ägyptologie 37. Brill, 2018.

Odler, Martin, and Jiří Kmošek. Invisible Connections: An Archaeometallurgical Analysis of the Bronze Age Metalwork from the Egyptian Museum of the University of Leipzig. With Chapters by Katarína Arias, Veronika Dulíková, Lucie Jirásková. Archaeopress Egyptology 31. Archaeopress, 2020.

Odler, Martin, Marie Peterková Hlouchová, Katarína Arias Kytnarová, and Petra Havelková. ‘New Egyptian Tomb Type Found at Abusir South? Report on the Excavations of Mud Brick Complex AS 103’. Prague Egyptological Studies, no. XXI (2018): 27–34.

Odler, Martin, Marie Peterková Hlouchová, and Veronika Dulíková. ‘A Unique Piece of Old Kingdom Art: The Funerary Stela of Sekhemka and Henutsen from Abusir South’. Ägypten Und Levante XXXI (2021): 403–24. https://doi.org/10.1553/AEundL31s403.

Odler, Martin, Katharina Uhlir, Marie Jentsch, Martina Griesser, Regina Hölzl, and Irene Engelhardt. ‘Between Centre and Periphery: Early Egyptian and Nubian Copper Alloy Artefacts in the Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna (KHM)’. Ägypten Und Levante 28 (2018): 419–56. https://doi.org/10.1553/AEundL28s419.

Odler, Martin. ‘Dispelling the Myths about Ancient Egyptian Copper Tools’. Egyptian Archaeology 64 (2024): 9–14.