Seen from Saqqara towards the pyramids at Dashur
As mass protests continue in Egypt, the situation for the cultural heritage of the country is getting somewhat clearer. This short post is just intended to inform that the heritage situation is monitored at several websites.
Over the last couple of years a wealth of new studies on Ancient Egyptian quarries has been published. There are overviews, investigations about technology and social organisation, case studies with a view to landscape archaeology and papers highlighting the acute conservation problems at many quarry sites. Here’s a very long update from 2007-2008 till today! Continue reading
The current south face of the NY obelisk in Alexandria in the 1870s and in Central Park in 2008. Very little weathering has taken place over these c. 140 years. Note that the current west face is more weathered. Images are enhanced. Sources: Flickr (Brooklyn Museum) and Wikipedia
A few days ago Secretary General Zahi Hawass of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities expressed grave concern about the condition of Cleopatra’s Needle of NYC and even threatened to take the obelisk back to Egypt if care is not taken to conserve it. This has triggered much discussion. Here’s an update after my recent post on the obelisk’s weathering.
In a blog entry on DrHawass.com, Zahi Hawass states his dismay “at the lack of care” and implies that damage to the obelisk has happened since it arrived in Central Park more than a hundred years ago. Famous for his efforts to repatriate Egyptian monuments that went abroad in the colonial era, Dr. Hawass challenges the US authorities to restore the obelisk or he “will take the necessary steps to bring this precious artifact home and save it from ruin”. Continue reading
Grünenfels 30 December 2010
Switzerland has a wealth of medieval castle ruins. In the Canton of Graübunden they are particularly numerous with, for example, the valley of Vorderrheintal (Surselva) displaying no less than about 50 ruins. Some are almost gone, others are kept in good repair and a few impressive structures are left to the elements.
Since ten years I have monitored some ruins and as 2010 is drawing to an end, the question is whether a “pinnacle” or Mauerzahn at Grünenfels by Waltensburg will survive 2011? Continue reading
The New York obelisk at Alexandria in the late 1850s. Source: PPOC
Historic photos are essential for research on monument weathering. With free internet access to archives, such photos are now easier to find than previously. Below, I will show the case of Cleopatra’s Needle, a famous Ancient Egyptian obelisk transferred to New York in 1880. Its severe weathering occupied Erhard Winkler, a pioneer on the history of monument weathering. But Winkler overlooked a key photo that would have seriously altered his interpretations. Continue reading
Selja abbey ruins during heavy rain in November 2010
As probably one of only very few monuments globally, the ruined Selja medieval abbey off the westernmost coast of Norway is built from a metamorphic olivine stone (dunite) rich in talc. The combination of a hard olivine matrix and soft talc veins makes the stone weather in a peculiar way – and it’s not the soft mineral that disappears, but the hard one! Continue reading
"Tüfels Chilen" - a reamarkable calcareaous tuff quarry in Switzerland
Quarrying in the old days was often carried out at astonishing places, leaving very special formations – and legends – behind. The “Devil’s Church” or Tüfels Chilen in the Canton of Zurich is such a remarkable, combined work of nature and man.
But why a church – and why does the devil appear?
Small stones with great significance: Grinding stone was procured at Gharb Aswan since the Late Palaeolithic period
The region around the old border- and trading town of Aswan in Upper Egypt features one of the world’s most prominent ancient quarry landscapes. It covers an area of some 100 square kilometres on both banks of the Nile from the Old Aswan Dam in the south to Wadi Kubbaniya in the north.
Within this region are the famous Aswan granite quarries, less well-known ornamental silicified sandstone quarries, recently discovered extensive grinding stone quarries and Palaeolithic tool quarries, as well as building stone quarries in Nubian sandstone. I have recently updated my website to include information about a very significant part of this quarry landscape; at Gharb Aswan just across the Nile from modern Aswan. Information not only includes ancient quarries, but also a range of other exciting archaeological sites and features. Please see Gharb Aswan archaeology.
Marble under the moss
This summer Tom Heldal (Geological Survey of Norway) and I went on one of our occasional trips to look for old quarries. The aim was to find a marble quarry by the farms Lenn and Fröset in Sparbu close to Steinkjer in Central Norway that allegedly had been used for Nidaros Cathedral in the Middle Ages (AD 1000-1537). Continue reading
Though published some months ago, I would like to briefly present four of my most recent publications. Two derives from the EU QuarryScapes project, two from a conference last year in Trondheim about new research at Nidaros Cathedral. Continue reading
Per Storemyr Geoarchaeology & Conservation 