Per Storemyr Archaeology & Conservation

Some of the limekiln-builders. From left to right: project leader Per Storemyr, Leif Akse, Terje Berner, Franziska Rüttimann, Jakob Solheim, Chris Pennock, Ann Meeks, George Murphy, Kjell Magnar Myklebust and Bjørn Idland.

Last year we built a limekiln at Millstone Park in Hyllestad, Western Norway, reported on this website. The kiln was built in a traditional fashion, following Roman and Medieval principles. Experimental archaeology! After one burn, which gave excellent quicklime, the kiln was, unfortunately, badly damaged. Cracks in the masonry! So we had to rebuild the kiln to be able to produce more quicklime! Over the last few months a team of professional, Norwegian masons and local volunteers, 15 people altogether, has undertaken the task: Just a little more work to be done, and soon we’ll have two(!) limekilns, one big and one small – for producing “historic” quicklime in the years to come. For restoring old stone buildings.

Below, you will find a report of the rebuilding, written in Norwegian. Use Google Translate if you are not familiar with the language. The report is written by me and was first published on the website of Millstone Park (kvernsteinsparken.no) a couple of days ago. I work part-time as an Associate Professor for Millstone Park and I am project leader and responsible for building, rebuilding and running the limekiln. Great combination of craft and theory, experimental archaeology! But I’m also involved, privately and through my company, Archaeology & Conservation Services, as a local volunteer. Building and running a historic limekiln is a very big task, many months of work for many people! And though the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage is a generous sponsor of the project, voluntary work is indispensable. Thank you all! And here’s the report, with many videos and photos: Continue reading →