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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. For the joy of old stone! Per Storemyr
Visit FABRICA’s website!
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Recent posts
- Soapstone in the Far South of Norway (II): The Østre Vimme Multiperiod Quarry With Very Soft Soapstone
- Soapstone in the Far South of Norway (I): The Sparsås Iron Age Quarry
- Tafoni-forvitring i larvikitt på Rakke ved Stavern
- Bioerosion of shells on the beach – and in old Norwegian lime mortars
- Madam Jørgensens 230 år gamle feltspatgruve i Narestø
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SOAPSTONE! Book on its archaeology and history!
Book: The Stones of Nidaros Cathedral
Book: QuarryScapes
Category Archives: Old quarries
The first reported prehistoric grinding stone quarry in the Egyptian Sahara (new paper)
Some time ago I wrote about the discovery of a prehistoric grinding stone quarry in the Egyptian Sahara. Now the discovery is duly published! It was presented at the conference “Seen through a Millstone” in Bergen, Norway, in 2011. Recently, … Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, New publications, Old quarries
Tagged Ancient Egypt, ancient egyptian quarries, grinding stone, Kharga
3 Comments
Jakten på steinbruddene til middelalderens kirke og kloster på Hovedøya ved Oslo
I et aldeles praktfullt sensommervær var jeg siste uke Riksantikvarens utskremte på jakt etter de gamle steinbruddene som ble brukt til å bygge Edmundskirken og cistercienserklosteret på Hovedøya i Oslofjorden. Flere har gjort det samme før meg, men nå var … Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, New projects, Norway, Old quarries, Ruins
Tagged Cultural heritage, Hovedøya, Norway, quarry, sandstone
2 Comments
Moving to work with the Norwegian Millstone Centre at Hyllestad in West Norway
Suddenly it reached the local press, and so the news became very official: Our family will move from Switzerland to Hyllestad in West Norway by the end of July this year. This is not a move to just any kind … Continue reading
Posted in Archaeology, Norway, Old quarries
Tagged grinding stone, Hyllestad, Kvernsteinsparken, Norway, quarry
6 Comments
New paper: Ancient desert and quarry roads at Aswan
The long-awaited book on Desert Road Archaeology in Ancient Egypt and Beyond finally seems to be here! Edited by Frank Förster and Heiko Riemer of Cologne University, and with 25 individual contributions, it is the yet most complete survey of ancient desert roads in Egypt. My own contribution to the book is written with Elizabeth Bloxam, Tom Heldal and Adel Kelany; a chapter on the amazing ancient roads at the west bank of the Nile at Aswan, in the First Cataract region. We review the area’s complex network of long-distance Pharaonic and Roman roads, more recent camel trails, and not least the best-preserved quarry roads in Egypt; the 20 km paved and cleared network from the “quartzite” quarries at Gebel Gulab and Gebel Tingar. Read extended abstract, see maps and view slide show! Continue reading
Posted in Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, New publications, Old quarries
Tagged Ancient Egypt, ancient egyptian quarries, Aswan, desert roads, Gharb Aswan, Nubia, Roman roads
2 Comments
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
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
Per Storemyr Geoarchaeology & Conservation 