Author Archives: Per Storemyr

About Per Storemyr

I work with the archaeology of old stone quarries, monuments and rock art. And try to figure out how they can be preserved. For us - and those after us. For the joy of old stone!

Experimental archaeology: Building a “classic”, intermittent limekiln and burning marble at Millstone Park, Hyllestad, Western Norway

Posted on July 13, 2017

It took us about six months: Building a cylindrical limekiln of the classic Roman/Medieval type with local materials only – stone rubble and clay. In June this year, we built the firing chamber and filled the kiln with 2.5 tons of local marble, covered the kiln with clay on a layer of spruce branches and started burning. Five days and five nights with much of the local community involved! Here’s an extended photo story of the project – the first of its kind in Norway. The quicklime (burnt marble) will be tested at Selja medieval monastery and other restoration projects in Norway. Thanks to all paid and volunteers and support from The ruin restoration programme of the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage, as well as Hyllestad Municipality! The project was carried out by The Norwegian Millstone Centre/The Museums in Sogn og Fjordane County. Continue reading →

Posted in Marble, Monument conservation, New projects, Norway | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Update after long absence – follow on facebook

Posted on June 28, 2017

Over the last six months I’ve been immersed in practical and scientific works and so I’ve been unable to write sensible blog posts on this website. I guess most bloggers experience something similar once in a while. If you want … Continue reading →

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Happy New Year from the most beautiful old quarry in Western Norway!

Posted on December 31, 2016

With a picture – taken today – of a most beautiful little, old quarry in Western Norway, I wish all my clients, partners, colleagues and followers of my website a Happy New Year!

I’ve been up and down Norway many times in 2016: Special thanks to my clients! Those who have actually made the world go round for my company and my family: first of all Archaeological Museum at the University of Stavanger, but also Tromsø University Museum, the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage and Selje Municipality, Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage Research, the Restoration Workshop of Nidaros Cathedral and Akasia Bergen, as well as Statsbygg and Forsvarsbygg.

Also thanks to institutions that I have cooperated much with in 2016, in particular Bergen University Museum, Geological Survey of Norway and The Wadi el-Hudi Expedition (Egypt/US).

The photo above was taken in the afternoon today, on New Year’s Eve. It shows a tiny part of the grand Viking Age and Medieval millstone quarry landscape in Hyllestad. In my world it is the most beautiful quarry in Western Norway, a quarry taken over by a creek in the rainy midwinter season. But no wonder why I think it is a beauty: it is located in my backyard.

Thus, also thanks for 2016 to Norwegian Millstone Centre/The Museums in Sogn og Fjordane County, that are responsible for this largest Viking Age and Medieval quarry landscape in Northern Europe. This is where I work part-time and the reason why my family and I settled at the Atlantic coast a couple of years ago.

All the best for 2017! Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Norway, Old quarries | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Geoarchaeology of the famous ancient amethyst mines in Wadi el-Hudi, Egypt: Desert heritage at risk

Posted on December 29, 2016

This fall I joined the Wadi el-Hudi expedition to the famous Middle Kingdom amethyst gemstone mines in the Eastern Desert south-east of Aswan. The expedition is led by Dr. Kate Liszka of California State University San Bernardino (US), and over the last few seasons it has excavated and documented the ancient mining settlements in very high detail. My task was to take a closer look at the geoarchaeology – to try and understand relationships between geology and mining. It is hugely important to document what is left, for the ancient mining area is now at high risk from looting, modern gold mining and stone quarrying. Continue reading →

Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Heritage destruction, New projects, Old mines, Ruins | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Fra Aswan til Hyllestad. Hva er et steinbruddlandskap?

Posted on May 16, 2016

Menneskene har brutt stein til alle mulige formål siden tidenes morgen. Men hva er et steinbruddlandskap? Hva kan vi si om alle de millioner av steder der folk har tatt ut stein? Fra den tidligste steinalder til i dag? Det var temaet jeg fikk til et foredrag på det 14. Hyllestadseminaret i slutten av april 2016, i regi av Norsk Kvernsteinsenter. Dessuten skulle jeg snakke om hvordan steinbruddlandskap kan formidles. Jeg innså raskt at oppgaven var helt umulig. Continue reading →

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Gneiss for the Pharaoh: Geology of the Third Millennium BCE Chephren’s Quarries in Southern Egypt

Posted on April 18, 2016

Chephren’s Quarry. A name imbued with splendour. It was not the first quarry from which stone vessels and sculpture were provided in Ancient Egypt, but it was definitely the most spectaular one. Work started here, far south in the Western Desert of Egypt, already by the Predynastic period or earlier. By the Old Kingdom, 4500 years ago, it was a huge work site, comprising 700 quarry pits in the flat desert, covering an area of some 50 square kilometres. With Tom Heldal as the lead author, Ian Shaw, Elizabeth Bloxam and I have now written an account of how geology shaped Chephren’s Quarry. It is a story spanning millions of years, explaining the beauty of this hard, bluish stone – and how it could be exploited. Continue reading →

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Gamle steinbrudd som UNESCO-verdensarv? En analyse

Posted on March 13, 2016

Det er nesten ingen gamle steinbrudd på UNESCOs verdensarvliste. Det er ikke bra, for steinbruddene var helt sentrale produksjonssteder for verktøy, husgeråd, våpen, boliger, kunst, monumenter – arkitektur – kort sagt en vesentlig del av hva som var viktig i gamle samfunn – og i dag: Store deler av verdens kulturarv er jo basert på brytning av stein. Spørsmålet er: Hvor går veien videre for gamle steinbrudd som verdensarvsteder? Kanskje Norge burde fremme en egen steinbruddsnominasjon? Eller kanskje dette rike landet burde hjelpe mindre bemidlede nasjoner med å få eldgamle steinbrudd inn på verdensarvlisten? Man kunne jo starte i Egypt, landet med den største konsentrasjonen av gamle steinbrudd i verden. Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Old quarries | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Også et stykke verneverdig Norge: De 60 steinbruddene ved middelalderens klosterruiner på Selja, Hovedøya og Rein

Posted on January 25, 2016

Riksantikvarens bevaringsprogram for middelalderruiner dreier seg ikke bare om istandsettelse av ruinene. Det dreier seg også om forskning for å forstå hvordan bygging av klostre, kirker og borger foregikk. Geologi og steinbrudd er en naturlig del av dette temaet. Nå foreligger det en omfattende rapport om steinbrudd ved tre av Norges mest kjente middelalderklostre: Selja i Sogn og Fjordane, Rein i Sør-Trøndelag og Hovedøya ved Oslo. Det er funnet ikke mindre enn 60 steinbrudd. Men langt fra alle ble brukt til klosterbyggingen. For landskapene var lokale ressurssentra for stein nesten opp til våre dager. Hvordan registrerer og bevarer vi slike steinbruddslandskap? Det er også et av temaene i rapporten. Den er utarbeidet av Per Storemyr i samarbeid med Riksantikvaren og de respektive fylkeskommuner og er tilgjengelig i Riksantikvarens Vitenarkiv. Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, New projects, New reports, Norway, Old quarries | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Happy New Year! With a cavalcade of images from 2015

Posted on January 4, 2016

I wish to thank my clients, partners, colleagues and followers of my website for a fine year! The very best to you all for 2016! With a cavalcade of images, I would like to recapitulate a few 2015 events. First of all, I was finally able to finish my book on the history of stone quarries, which was published jointly by The Restoration Workshop of Nidaros Cathedral and the Geological Survey of Norway. But my work took me to many parts of Norway, from a Mesolithic quartz quarry near Arendal, deep down south, to the fascinating rock art at Alta, far in the north. Though I was not able to visit Egypt last year, I’m still publishing papers on the geoarchaeology of desert quarries down there, together with good colleagues. Read on! Continue reading →

Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Monument conservation, Norway, Old quarries, Rock art, Ruins | Tagged | Leave a comment

Madammen som rodde langs Sørlandskysten og startet et mineraleventyr på 1700-tallet. Var det sånn i steinalderen også?

Posted on December 23, 2015

Sist sommer var jeg invitert av Kulturhistorisk museum (UiO) for å undersøke et lite kvartsbrudd fra steinalderen på Kvastad mellom Arendal og Tvedestrand. Anledningen var de arkeologiske undersøkelsene som foregår i forkant av ny E18-utbygging. Det ble nok brutt litt kvarts til redskaper på Kvastad, men det ble det sikkert også i flere forekomster langs Sørlandskysten – en region svært rik på god kvarts. Hvordan fant steinalderfolket disse forekomstene? Det slo meg at Madam Jørgensen kunne være et godt bilde på tidlig mineralleting: Hun rodde langs kysten på slutten av 1700-tallet – på let etter kvarts og feltspat. Og dermed startet et lite mineraleventyr. Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, New projects, New reports, Norway, Old mines, Old quarries | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment