Visit FABRICA’s website!
Popular right now
Find posts by Google Maps
Follow on:
SOAPSTONE! Book on its archaeology and history!
Book: The Stones of Nidaros Cathedral
Book: QuarryScapes
Author Archives: Per Storemyr
Happy New Year from Hyllestad! With a mountain and a fjord from summer to winter
With a cavalcade of 22 photos I wish you all a Happy New Year! And thanks a lot for following my blog in 2014! All the pictures have been taken from the balcony of our new home at Hyllestad in Western Norway. From August through the fall and into December. I cannot get enough of the stunning views of Åfjorden, the striking mountain Lihesten and the prominent hill Alden far out towards the sea. And of how the weather rapidly changes where fjords and mountains meet the Atlantic. A place to hopefully write many more blog posts in 2015… Continue reading
Marmoren i Gildeskål gamle kirke i Nordland – grubling om en middelalderkirke langs nordvegen
Sommeren 2013 møttes en tverrfaglig gjeng forskere til “Grubleseminar” om Gildeskål gamle kirke i Nordland. Her var det samlet arkeologer, kunsthistorikere, bygningshistorikere og ellers alle med et ønske om å finne ut mer om den lille marmorkirken langt mot nord. Og en geoarkeolog som grublet på hva steinene i kirken kunne fortelle om historien. Nå er boken fra seminaret publisert! “Gildeskål gamle kirke: marmorkirka ved nordvegen” er redigert av Morten Stige og Øystein Ekroll, gitt ut på Fagbokforlaget og har bidrag som spenner fra landskapsanalyse til kirkeinteriør. Den blir lansert i Gildeskål om et par dager, søndag 23. november. Her er mer om boken og mitt eget bidrag om steinene i kirken. Continue reading
Posted in New publications, Norway, Old quarries
Tagged Gildeskål, marble, Middle Ages, Norway
1 Comment
The ancient stone quarries in Egypt as a new, serial World Heritage Site?
Stone quarries were extremely important in ancient cultures, yet they are hardly represented on the World Heritage List. This might be due to misconceptions of the nature of such sites, as producers of raw materials “only”. But in reality many … Continue reading
A Palaeolithic, life-size Nubian ibex carved on rock: Adel Kelany with new discoveries in Wadi Abu Subeira, Upper Egypt
Archaeologist Adel Kelany of MSA Aswan recently published a key paper on the Late Palaeolithic rock art in Wadi Abu Subeira, Upper Egypt. The paper reports findings from the site CAS-13, which features a true rock art masterpiece: a life-size, almost two metres long Nubian ibex, accompanied by large-scale images of aurochs. The findings tie in with previously reported Late Palaeolithic rock art in Subeira, a wadi north of Aswan. It is also similar to the now famous Late Palaeolithic rock art analysed by Dirk Huyge and team at Qurta near Gebel el-Silsila and at el-Hosh further downstream of the Nile river. This is rock art dating 15-20.000 years back in time and similar to the grand European Late Palaeolithic rock art traditions. Read on for link to Adel’s paper and more information. Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Heritage destruction, Rock art
Tagged Ancient Egypt, Aswan, conservation, Qurta, rock art, Wadi Abu Subeira
4 Comments
The first reported prehistoric grinding stone quarry in the Egyptian Sahara (new paper)
Some time ago I wrote about the discovery of a prehistoric grinding stone quarry in the Egyptian Sahara. Now the discovery is duly published! It was presented at the conference “Seen through a Millstone” in Bergen, Norway, in 2011. Recently, … Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, New publications, Old quarries
Tagged Ancient Egypt, ancient egyptian quarries, grinding stone, Kharga
3 Comments
Jakten på steinbruddene til middelalderens kirke og kloster på Hovedøya ved Oslo
I et aldeles praktfullt sensommervær var jeg siste uke Riksantikvarens utskremte på jakt etter de gamle steinbruddene som ble brukt til å bygge Edmundskirken og cistercienserklosteret på Hovedøya i Oslofjorden. Flere har gjort det samme før meg, men nå var … Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, New projects, Norway, Old quarries, Ruins
Tagged Cultural heritage, Hovedøya, Norway, quarry, sandstone
2 Comments
Moving to work with the Norwegian Millstone Centre at Hyllestad in West Norway
Suddenly it reached the local press, and so the news became very official: Our family will move from Switzerland to Hyllestad in West Norway by the end of July this year. This is not a move to just any kind … Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, Norway, Old quarries
Tagged grinding stone, Hyllestad, Kvernsteinsparken, Norway, quarry
6 Comments
New paper: Ancient desert and quarry roads at Aswan
The long-awaited book on Desert Road Archaeology in Ancient Egypt and Beyond finally seems to be here! Edited by Frank Förster and Heiko Riemer of Cologne University, and with 25 individual contributions, it is the yet most complete survey of ancient desert roads in Egypt. My own contribution to the book is written with Elizabeth Bloxam, Tom Heldal and Adel Kelany; a chapter on the amazing ancient roads at the west bank of the Nile at Aswan, in the First Cataract region. We review the area’s complex network of long-distance Pharaonic and Roman roads, more recent camel trails, and not least the best-preserved quarry roads in Egypt; the 20 km paved and cleared network from the “quartzite” quarries at Gebel Gulab and Gebel Tingar. Read extended abstract, see maps and view slide show! Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, New publications, Old quarries
Tagged Ancient Egypt, ancient egyptian quarries, Aswan, desert roads, Gharb Aswan, Nubia, Roman roads
2 Comments
Happy New Year with a cavalcade of stone images from 2013
I want to thank my readers for following my blog in 2013. Happy New Year to you all!
I really do appreciate your loyalty and I hope to be able to write more articles for you about stone – about quarries, monuments and rock art – in 2014 than I did in 2013. In the year that is soon coming to an end I had to focus on various projects and writing for other media than the internet. Many of the great places that I visited and worked at in 2013 may certainly turn up in future blog posts, so I hope you will continue to follow my writings in 2014. As for now, here’s a cavalcade of images from some of the quarries, monuments and rock art sites that touched me over the past twelve months. They span all of history from the Mesolithic to the Early Modern era. Enjoy the slide show! Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Norway, Old quarries, Rock art, Switzerland
Tagged Ancient Egypt, Cultural heritage, Norway, quarry, rock art, Switzerland
4 Comments
Per Storemyr Geoarchaeology & Conservation 