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Category Archives: Archaeology
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
Burning rock! An update for German-speaking readers
Recently I posted a preliminary report on our successful experiments with fire setting in the Melsvik Stone Age chert quarries in Northern Norway. For some curious reason German-speaking readers were not able to watch the attached video of the experiments, perhaps due to country-specific copyright infringements related to the music following the video. “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash is, sadly, obviously not for all! In this post there is a link to another version of the video, this time without good old Johnny. And there is more for my German-speaking readers; link to a recent article in Spiegel Online, based on my original story. The fire setting experiments were carried out within the Melsvik archaeological rescue project/excavations, headed by Anja Roth Niemi of the University Museum at Tromsø Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, New projects, Norway, Old quarries
Tagged Alta, chert, experimental archaeology, firesetting, Melsvik, Norway, quarry
2 Comments
Burning rock! Experiments with fire setting at the Stone Age Melsvik chert quarries in Northern Norway
In the Melsvik Stone Age chert quarries near Alta in Northern Norway there are dozens of extraction marks that are difficult to explain by other ancient techniques than fire setting. Hence within the Melsvik archaeological project, run by the University Museum of Tromsø, last week we experimented with fire in order to substantiate that it actually formed an important method of breaking loose small and big pieces of stone. The idea was that it is not necessary with big fires and high temperatures, but that small, controlled “bonfires” are enough to create high shear stress and cracking. In this way high temperatures greatly reducing the quality of the chert for tool making are avoided. It works! Here’s a preliminary report with video. Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, New projects, Norway, Old quarries
Tagged Alta, chert, experimental archaeology, firesetting, Melsvik, Norway, quarry
21 Comments
New paper on the unique Epipalaeolithic geometric rock art at el-Hosh, Upper Egypt
A year ago Dirk Huyge and I published a paper in the Sahara journal on a unique rock art “masterpiece” found among the Epipalaeolithic “geometric” (c. 5-9000 BC) assemblage at el-Hosh in Upper Egypt. Recently, we published another version of … Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, New publications, Rock art
Tagged Ancient Egypt, el-Hosh, rock art
3 Comments
Would you have liked to live here, at Kropfenstein medieval cave castle?
Switzerland is renowned for its castles and castle ruins, remnants of the feudal Middle Ages. A time when we may not have wanted to live! At least not as common people. But sometimes we may question whether life was much better for the nobility, for society’s elite. Take a look at the remains of Kropfenstein castle, pinned to a vertical cliff in Surselva (Grisons), hardly accessible, away from the nearest village. Great place for a special holiday, you might think – but would you have liked to reside here, year in, year out? – With photo gallery. Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, Ruins, Switzerland
Tagged castle, cave castle, Graubünden, Kropfenstein, life in the middle ages, ruin, Surselva, Switzerland
3 Comments
The little-known archaeology of Gharb Aswan, Upper Egypt
Gharb Aswan – or West Aswan – is the home to some 50.000 Nubian peoples on the west bank of the Nile, by the first cataract opposite the city of Aswan. Among archaeologists and tourists the area is renowned for the “Tombs of the Nobles” at Qubbet el-Hawa and the Coptic St. Simeon’s monastery, both on the UNESCO World Heritage List. But Gharb Aswan is much more than this, for here it is possible to follow human interaction with the landscape for millennia, almost throughout the history of humankind. With a focus on the unique stone working traditions, here’s a synopsis of the “unknown” archaeology of this beautiful desert area – with slideshow, map, bibliography and an overview of missions that have worked here. Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Old quarries, Rock art
Tagged Ancient Egypt, Gharb Aswan, hunting, quarry, rock art
10 Comments
The old quarry that was reused as a beer brewery
Working with the Berne Minster Workshop on mapping the quarries used for the cathedral, I visited the Wabern quarry just outside the city centre yesterday. Though it is unclear to what extent it was employed for the cathedral in the Middle Ages, it is a most remarkable quarry: For it was reused as a brewery for “Gurten Beer” from the 1860s on. Since I have noted the link between stone extraction and beer drinking through history (see last part of this story), I thought I ought to post the photo above of a wonderful old horse cart with a beer barrel remaining in the quarries. Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, New projects, Old quarries, Switzerland
Tagged Bern, Berner Sandstein, Cultural heritage, quarry, sandstone, Wabern
2 Comments
Ten quarries of Ancient Egypt: Series summary
Egypt is world-renowned for its ancient quarries. Without them civilisation as we know it along the Nile would not have been possible. There are many spectacular quarries, popular way beyond the archaeological community. But there is also an enormous amount of quarries that rarely get the headlines. In the series Ten quarries of Ancient Egypt I have tried to highlight a few of those “unknowns”. They were the ones that particularly touched me during many seasons of walking the deserts bordering the Nile. Continue reading
Ten quarries of Ancient Egypt: 10 – Firework!
It’s New Year’s Eve. Happy New Year to you all! What could be better than to end this little series on Ancient Egyptian quarries with firework! It was Reginald Engelbach that first suggested the use of fire for stone quarrying … Continue reading
Per Storemyr Geoarchaeology & Conservation 