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SOAPSTONE! New book on its archaeology and history!
Book: The Stones of Nidaros Cathedral
Book: QuarryScapes
Visit Millstone Park in Hyllestad, Norway
Get informed! State of the Art on natural stone today:
Category Archives: Old quarries
Happy New Year to clients, partners and followers! With photos from work and excursions in 2018
I wish clients, partners and followers of my website a Happy and Prosperous New Year! I am glad for the trust you have shown my little company and me in 2018. And I look forward to aid in conservation and archaeological work at monuments, old stone quarries and rock art sites in 2019. Below is a gallery of photos from some of the sites I worked at and visited on excursions last year. Also, a list of reports, publications and web-articles finalised in 2018 is attached. They give a glimpse of activities, many of which will continue. See you in the new year! Continue reading
Posted in Monument conservation, New projects, New publications, New reports, Norway, Old quarries, Rock art
Tagged conservation, Italy, Norway, Romania
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Tjenester for kulturminnevernet: Hva gjør en geoarkeolog for steinbygninger, steinbrudd og bergkunst?
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
Historien om et saghus i Gudbrandsdalen: Produksjon av kleberstein som ildfaststein til smelteovner
Bergverkshistorien er full av særegne beretninger. Hva med Einar Sagflaten? Han startet som kleberarbeider som 15-åring og holdt det gående i 43 år i et helt spesielt saghus for stein: Det fortsatt velbevarte saghuset på Sagflaten ved Sel i Gudbrandsdalen. Einar drev på i kulda og kleberføyka til helsa sa stopp og saghuset ble flyttet i 1982. Da hadde han skåret tusenvis av kleberblokker som skulle ut på lange reiser verden over, til Bilbao og Calcutta og Marokko. Der skulle blokkene brukes til å lage smelteovner for celluloseindustrien. Det handler om kleber som ildfaststein. Bli med på en reise gjennom enorme forandringer i steinindustrien – i løpet av bare 40 år. Det blir også en svipptur til kleberindustrien USA og ikke minst til de gamle jernverkenes masovner. For også her trengtes det ildfaststein. Continue reading
Posted in Norway, Old quarries
Tagged furnace, ildfaststein, industrial history, industrihistorie, Kleberstein, Otta, refractory, Sagflaten, smelteovn, soapstone
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The world’s northernmost medieval marble church
The small, Romanesque Gildeskål church is one of the most complete marble churches in Norway. It resides at the magnificent coast along the Atlantic Ocean far up north, in Nordland county. And it is, presumably, the northernmost marble building in the world. Together with Giske church further south, it is part of outstanding, but little known, medieval marble architecture in Norway, of which Nidaros Cathedral, with thousands of marble columns, is the most spectacular example. Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, Marble, New publications, Norway, Old quarries
Tagged Cultural heritage, Gildeskål, marble, Middle Ages, North Atlantic, Norway, old quarries, quarry
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Burning the beaches. Happy New Year from the Faroe Islands!
The Faroe Islands, in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. Basalt and other volcanic stone everywhere! Yet, many buildings on the islands were erected by the use of lime mortar, from the Middle Ages on. There is absolutely no limestone on the Faroes. Thus, lime mortar had to be produced by “burning the beaches” – collecting shells from beach deposits, stacking the shells above a fire in a field kiln – and let it happen: Hold the temperature at some 900 degrees centigrade for a couple of days, and out comes quicklime to be mixed with water and beach sand for the mortar. Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, New projects, Old quarries
Tagged Faroe islands, lime burning, lime mortar, limekiln
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Værnes: Norges mest komplette sandsteinskirke fra middelalderen
Den er dekorert med elementer av kleberstein og klorittskifer, men ellers er det sandstein så langt øyet kan se: Værnes er Norges mest komplette sandsteinskirke fra middelalderen! Den rager i størrelse og volum av brukt sandstein langt over middelalderbyggverk i tilsvarende stein i andre deler av landet! Her er et sammendrag av min artikkel til boken «Værnes kirke – en kulturskatt i stein og tre» som ble utgitt for et par uker siden (november 2016). Det er Grubleseminaret som står bak, med Morten Stige og Kjell Erik Pettersson som fantastiske redaktører av boken! Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, New publications, Norway, Old quarries
Tagged chlorite schist, Norway, quarry, sandstone, soapstone, Værnes kirke
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Tusen år med brytning av kleberstein tok nettopp slutt. En historie om mekanisering og globalisering. Og om å gjenoppdage gammelt håndverk
Det er ytterst vanskelig å skaffe kleberstein til restaurering av Norges middelalderkirker. Til og med avisene har fått det med seg. Ved Nidarosdomen, Stavanger domkirke og i Bergen klør man seg i hodet: Det finnes ingen kleberbrudd i drift i Norge! De har blitt offer for globalisering. Hva er redningen? Kan man lære av hvordan kleberstein ble tatt ut manuelt i gamle dager? Kan man låne kunnskap fra et tilgrensende fagområde, nemlig bruk av kalkmørtel? De gamle bygningene trenger også sårt til god kalkmørtel! Problemet har vært at kunnskap om gammel kalkproduksjon har lagt nede i mer enn 50 år. Men nå produseres det brent kalk som aldri før i små «middelalderovner». Håndverket har blitt aktivt vekket til live gjennom eksperimentell virksomhet. Støttet av kulturminnevernet. Kan vi også vekke det gamle steinbryterhåndverket til live igjen? Til glede for restaurering? Continue reading
New open-access book: Soapstone in the North. Quarries, Products and People. 7000 BC – AD 1700
NEW BOOK: Hansen, G. & Storemyr, P. (eds.) 2017. Soapstone in the North: Quarries, Products and People. 7000 BC – AD 1700. UBAS University of Bergen Archaeological Series, 9, 408 p. Abstract: “Soapstone is a remarkable rock. While it is soft and very workable, it is also durable and heat-resistant, and with a high heat-storage capacity. These properties have been recognised and valued around the world since prehistoric times, and soapstone has been used for a multitude of purposes, ranging from everyday household utensils to prestigious monuments and buildings. This book addresses soapstone use in Norway and the North Atlantic region, including Greenland. Although the majority of the papers deal with the Iron Age and Middle Ages, the book spans the Mesolithic to the early modern era. It deals with themes related to quarries, products and associated people and institutions in a broad context. Recent years have seen a revival of basic archaeological and geological research into the procurement and use of stone resources. With its authors drawn from the fields of archaeology, geosciences and traditional crafts, the anthology reflects cross-disciplinary work born of this revival.” Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, New publications, Norway, Old quarries
Tagged artefacts, Greenland, Iron Age, Kleberstein, Mesolithic, Middle Ages, North Atlantic, Norway, old quarries, provenance, soapstone
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Happy New Year from the most beautiful old quarry in Western Norway!
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
