Category Archives: Ancient Egypt

Egyptian archaeology: Chephren’s Quarry now largely destroyed by the Toshka Megaproject

Posted on November 30, 2023 by Per Storemyr

Over the last two years Chephren’s Quarry in the Western Egyptian Desert has been largely destroyed by the Toshka Megaproject. Providing tens of thousands of fine, bluish hardstone vessels and superb statuary almost 5000 years ago, the quarry is among … Continue reading →

Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Heritage destruction, Old quarries | Tagged Ancient Egypt, ancient stone quarrying, Chephren's quarry, Cultural heritage, hertiage destruction, quarry, Toshka project | Leave a comment

Nidarosdomens grunnfjell. Nå tilgjengelig som digibok i Nasjonalbiblioteket

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Per Storemyr

Selvsagt ønsker jeg at folk skal kjøpe boken jeg ga ut i 2015. Men mest av alt ønsker jeg at folk skal lese den! Derfor er jeg glad for at «Nidarosdomens grunnfjell» nå er fritt tilgjengelig som digibok på Nasjonalbibliotekets nettsider. Continue reading →

Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, lime burning, Marble, Monument conservation, Norway, Old quarries | Tagged ancient stone quarrying, building stone, marble, Nidaros Cathedral, Nidarosdomen, Nidarosdomens grunnfjell, quarry, sandstone, soapstone, Trondheim | Leave a comment

New paper in new book: The ancient game traps across Lower Nubia

Posted on March 19, 2022 by Per Storemyr

A much awaited book, “The Gazelle’s Dream: Game Drives of the Old and New Worlds”, edited by Alison Betts and W. Paul van Pelt, was published a few months ago. The book is the first dealing with, on a global … Continue reading →

Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, New publications | Tagged Ancient Egypt, Ancient Nubia, game drives, gazelle, hunting, Lower Nubia | 1 Comment

Tjenester for kulturminnevernet: Hva gjør en geoarkeolog for steinbygninger, steinbrudd og bergkunst?

Posted on August 17, 2018 by Per Storemyr

Mange spør meg: Hva driver du med? Hvilke tjenester tilbyr du? Jeg er geoarkeolog og jobber med rådgivning og forskning knyttet til gamle steinbygninger, steinbrudd og bergkunst, svært ofte i forbindelse med restaurering, konservering og arkeologiske utgravninger. Under skal jeg … Continue reading →

Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Heritage destruction, Monument conservation, Norway, Old quarries, Rock art | Tagged bergkunst, conservation science, forskning, georkeologi, konservering, kulturminnevern, rådgivning, restaurering, steinbrudd, steinbygninger, tjenester | Leave a comment

Was Nidaros Cathedral built from stone extracted in a large underground Medieval quarry?

Posted on October 9, 2017 by Per Storemyr

Ancient underground building stone quarries are rather common. They are known since at least the Old Kingdom in Egypt, some 6 500 years ago, when fine limestone was quarried underground close to Cairo (Tura) in order to provide casing stones to the Giza pyramids. But underground quarries are, interestingly, quite rare in the European Middle Ages. Apparently, there was no need to start difficult, large-scale underground operations to build churches, monasteries and cathedrals until the Late Middle Ages, when, for example, the underground limestone quarries in Paris and Caen in France started to become developed toward the gigantic network of tunnels and galleries we know today. Thus, it is remarkable that a huge underground quarry may have been opened around AD 1200 in Trondheim, Norway, in order to provide soapstone for Nidaros Cathedral, the northernmost of Europe’s great medieval cathedrals. Why? Continue reading →

Posted in Ancient Egypt, New publications, Norway, Old quarries | Tagged ancient stone quarrying, Bakkaunet, Kleberstein, Nidaros Cathedral, Nidarosdomen, quarry, soapstone, Trondheim, underground quarry | 2 Comments

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

Posted on December 29, 2016 by Per Storemyr

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 Amethyst, Ancient mining, Egypt, Middle Kingdom, Wadi el-Hudi | 4 Comments

Fra Aswan til Hyllestad. Hva er et steinbruddlandskap?

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Per Storemyr

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 →

Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, New publications, Norway, Old quarries | Tagged Aswan, Cultural heritage, Hyllestad, quarry, quarry landscape | Leave a comment

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

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Per Storemyr

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 →

Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, New publications, Old quarries | Tagged Ancient Egypt, Chephren's quarry, quarry | Leave a comment

Happy New Year! With a cavalcade of images from 2015

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Per Storemyr

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 cavalcade 2015 | Leave a comment

Beautiful Neolithic and Iron Age querns from Norway. On the history of grinding grain

Posted on December 13, 2015 by Per Storemyr

The basement of the Archaeological Museum at Stavanger University holds the largest collection of grinding stones and querns found at archaeological excavations in of Norway. Dating from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages, they show the development from saddle querns to standardised rotary hand querns. The finest querns are on display in the museum, and together with the magazine objects they particularly show the early development of the rotary hand quern in Norway: From 1800 year-old, very diverse specimens to the standardised, transportable rotary quern that we know so well from the Viking Age and later, and which became an important commercial trade good. Continue reading →