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Welcome!
I work with the geoarchaeology of old stone: quarries, monuments, rock art. And I try to figure out about their weathering, and conservation using traditional crafts. I also burn lime the traditional way. Many of my domestic services are managed through FABRICA, a registered Norwegian company established with good partners. On this website I publish articles on geology and cultural heritage. I don't use AI for text or images. For the joy of old stone! Per Storemyr
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Recent posts
- The Côa Late Palaeolithic rock art in Portugal. A brief comparison with petroglyphs of similar age in Egypt
- Observations of tafoni at Costa Vicentina (Portugal)
- Tafoni in Tertiary shale at 2700 m in the Swiss Alps (Brigels, Graubünden)
- Kalkbrenning i Guédelon. Kalk til bygging av ny middelalderborg i Frankrike
- Tafoni-forvitring på holmer og skjær utenfor Tvedestrand
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SOAPSTONE! Book on its archaeology and history!
Book: The Stones of Nidaros Cathedral
Book: QuarryScapes
Author Archives: Per Storemyr
Ancient Egyptian quarries: A literature update 2007-2010
Over the last couple of years a wealth of new studies on Ancient Egyptian quarries has been published. There are overviews, investigations about technology and social organisation, case studies with a view to landscape archaeology and papers highlighting the acute … Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, New publications, Old quarries
Tagged Ancient Egypt, ancient egyptian quarries, quarry
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Cleopatra’s Needle: Egyptian concern about the NYC obelisk
A few days ago Secretary General Zahi Hawass of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities expressed grave concern about the condition of Cleopatra’s Needle of NYC and even threatened to take the obelisk back to Egypt if care is not … Continue reading
A Mauerzahn at Grünenfels castle ruin (CH): Surviving 2011?
Switzerland has a wealth of medieval castle ruins. In the Canton of Graübunden they are particularly numerous with, for example, the valley of Vorderrheintal (Surselva) displaying no less than about 50 ruins. Some are almost gone, others are kept in … Continue reading
Posted in Ruins, Switzerland, Weathering history
Tagged Graubünden, Grünenfels, historic photos, ruin, Surselva, Switzerland, weathering
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Cleopatra’s Needle: Tracing obelisk weathering with old photos
Historic photos are essential for research on monument weathering. With free internet access to archives, such photos are now easier to find than previously. Below, I will show the case of Cleopatra’s Needle, a famous Ancient Egyptian obelisk transferred to … Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Monument conservation, Weathering history
Tagged Alexandria, Ancient Egypt, Aswan, Cleopatra's Needle, granite, Heliopolis, historic photos, London, Luxor, New York, obelisk, Paris, weathering
11 Comments
Stone weathering at the westernmost coast of Norway
As probably one of only very few monuments globally, the ruined Selja medieval abbey off the westernmost coast of Norway is built from a metamorphic olivine stone (dunite) rich in talc. The combination of a hard olivine matrix and soft … Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, Monument conservation, New projects, Norway, Ruins, Weathering history
Tagged conservation, historic photos, Norway, olivine, salt, Selja, weathering
2 Comments
Tüfels Chilen: Quarrying in the Church of the Devil
Quarrying in the old days was often carried out at astonishing places, leaving very special formations – and legends – behind. The “Devil’s Church” or Tüfels Chilen in the Canton of Zurich is such a remarkable, combined work of nature … Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, Old quarries, Switzerland
Tagged quarry, Switzerland, Tüfel's Chilen, tufa
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Ancient quarries and other archaeology at Gharb Aswan, Egypt
The region around the old border- and trading town of Aswan in Upper Egypt features one of the world’s most prominent ancient quarry landscapes. It covers an area of some 100 square kilometres on both banks of the Nile from … Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Old quarries, Rock art
Tagged Aswan, Gharb Aswan, grinding stone, Nubia, quarry, rock art
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New quarries discovered in Central Norway
This summer Tom Heldal (Geological Survey of Norway) and I went on one of our occasional trips to look for old quarries. The aim was to find a marble quarry by the farms Lenn and Fröset in Sparbu close to … Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, Norway, Old quarries
Tagged grinding stone, marble, Nidaros Cathedral, Nidarosdomen, Norway, quarry, soapstone, Sparbu
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New publications 2009-2010
Though published some months ago, I would like to briefly present four of my most recent publications. Two derives from the EU QuarryScapes project, two from a conference last year in Trondheim about new research at Nidaros Cathedral.
Cooperation with CSC Conservation Science Consulting, Fribourg
From 2008 to August 2010 I worked for CSC Conservation Science Consulting in Fribourg (CH), which is run by Christine Bläuer and Bénédicte Rousset. We undertook several exciting projects together, for example mapping the building stones – the Pierre jaune … Continue reading
Posted in Monument conservation, New projects, Switzerland
Tagged conservation, Switzerland, weathering
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