From Quarries to Rock-cut Sites

The archaeological study of quarries focuses mainly on the reconstruction of the extraction process, while rock-hewn spaces have often been approached from the point of view of architectural styles or art-history. Nevertheless, a holistic structural approach to the study of these spaces could allow a better understanding of the agency of those who carved the stone.

Stone quarries and rock-cut sites have rarely been included in global studies of historical landscapes and few are the forums dedicated to the theoretical and methodological debate over the importance that these sites have for the understanding of past societies. To fill the gap, the proceedings volume aims at providing new data on sites located in Africa (Ethiopia, and Egypt), Europe (France, Croatia, Italy, Spain) and Asia (Turkey, Saudi Arabia) studied with a diachronic approach, as well as new theoretical reflections for the international debate on the archaeological investigation of rock-cut spaces and stone quarries.

Two directions structure this volume: the analysis of the individual rock walls, considering the study of tool traces as a proxy for understanding the carving phases, as well as the analysis of the structure (site/quarry) as a whole, by contextualizing the results of the study of the single walls.

The volume mainly targets researchers who are willing to discover quarries and rock-cut sites as aspects of the same mining phenomenon: places in which specific empirical and handcrafting knowledge related to stone working is expressed and conveyed, but also a wider audience that is interested in these peculiar and impressive sites.

Contents

Foreword

Gabriele Gattiglia

I. THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES IN THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF QUARRIES AND ROCK-CUT SITES

Savoir-faire and Technical Environment: Rethinking the Emergence of Rock-cut Tombs in the Neolithic Mediterranean

Marie-Elise Porqueddu

What to Expect when you¿re Documenting and Excavating a Roman Quarry ¿ Monte del Vescovo, Istria, Croatia

Katarina ¿prem

Theorising Ancient Quarries: How Far Have We Come?

Christopher J. Lyes

When Quarry Waste Explains Tool Marks

Daniel Morleghem

The Hand, the Stone and the Mind: Exploring the Agency of Rocks in Quarrying Techniques

Claudia Sciuto

II. CARVED SITES AND CARVED LANDSCAPES

How do Rock-cut Architectures Interact with the Landscape? The Example of Prehistoric Rock-cut Tombs in Ossi, Sardinia (Italy)

Guillaume Robin

A Study of Quartzite (Silicified Sandstone) Quarries in Egypt

Daniela Galazzo

First Reflections on the Structural Analysis of Rock-hewn Caves in Lalibeläs Landscape, Ethiopia

Manon Routhiau

Quarrying, Carving and Shaping the Landscape. Stone Working at Dadan, Northwest Arabia, in the First Millennium BCE and Beyond

Thierry Grégor, Jérôme Rohmer and Abdulrahman Alsuhaibani

Underground and Open-pit Quarries in Polignano a Mare (Italy): a Preliminary Investigation

Germano Germanö

III. ROCK-CUT SITES AND QUARRIES: CRAFTS AND SOCIETIES

The Left-handed and the Ambidextrous: Methodological Considerations by Way of the Excavation of Rock-cut Churches Over the Long Term

Anaïs Lamesa

Qualifications of Craftsmen Who Dug Souterrains in France (10th-15th centuries) ¿ Preliminary Results

Luc Stevens

The Technique of Extracting Building Stone by ¿Stone-walling and Back-filling¿ in Paris: an Innovation of the Late Middle Ages

Jean-Pierre Gély and Marc Viré