5. Definition of terms

Blank: a worked piece of stone having the rough shape and size of a finished object. “Blank” and “rough-out” are often used about similar objects, the latter maybe the less finished.

Block reduction: the process of reducing the size of a stone block, and in most cases also shaping it, into a core

Block: an angular stone block, irregular or regular in shape

Boulder: a rounded block of stone, in most cases shaped by geological processes

Building stone: stone used for construction of buildings, monumental or not.

Chips: in quarries meaning small fragments of rock leftovers from hewing, carving and dressing

Core: a reduced and often shaped stone block from which the final product can be made

Decorative stone: stone used for decoration (similar to ornamental stone)

Deposit: the known part of the usable (or rather desired) part of a rock unit

Dressing: the process of the final shaping of a stone block to desired size/measurements and evening the surfaces of it

Extraction: in quarries, meaning removing pices of rock from the bedrock

Finishing: the final work on an object before it is finished. Regarding stone objects, includes fine hammering, fine carving and honing/polishing

Grinding stone: stone used for grinding implements (primarily for grinding grain, but also for other purposes, such as grinding other vegetable matter, pigments and minerals). Some use "quernstone" and "millstone".

Hammerstone (stone hammer): piece of stone, often rounded, used for splitting rock. The division between pounder and hammerstone may be blurred, and the same stone tools can be used for both splitting and dressing.

Hard stone: rocks in which the majority of the minerals have hardness larger than steel, including most feltspathic and quartz-rich rocks.

Masonry stone: building stone used for masonry

Mine: a production site for specific minerals that need to be extracted from the rock, including metallic ore, industrial minerals, flint and gemstone.

Natural stone: term used for describing stone resources that are exploited for extracting and shaping blocks of stone.

Ornamental stone: stone predominantly aimed for use as statues, obelisks, decoration or other elite type products.

Pounder: piece of stone, often rounded, used for dressing of stone surfaces. The division between pounder and hammerstone may be blurred, and the same stone tools can be used for both splitting and dressing.

Quarry: 1) place where rocks are being or have been extracted. In most traditions, the term is used in the context of exploitation of whole rock (and not only components within it) such as stone blocks and aggregate production. 2) a stone production unit, limited and connected in space (but not necessarily in time), or a group of overlapping units which cannot be separated. A quarry consists of e.g. extraction sites (where the stone actually has been removed from an outcrop, bedrock or boulder), work areas (where secondary production took place), spoil heaps (left over debitage from quarrying) and other features directly related to the stone production.

Quarry area: a limited geographic area containing a group of quarries

Quarry complex: a collection of quarries related to each other in time, space and/or function, including associated infrastructure and material culture

Quarry landscape: 1) a ‘cultural landscape’ shaped by stone quarrying, consisting of groups of quarries/quarry areas but also associated infrastructure and other elements of material culture related to the exploitation of stone resources; may also be defined as a landscape containing one or several quarry complexes. 2) a perception (or perspective) of landscapes where stone quarrying activities were important

Resource (stone): the usable (or rather desired) part of a rock unit

Roughout: a worked piece of stone having the rough shape and size of a finished object. “Blank” and “rough-out” are often used about similar objects, the latter maybe the less finished.

Soft stone: rocks in which the majority of the minerals have hardness less than steel, including limestone, marble and soapstone. May also include rocks containing harder minerals that appear “soft” when worked, due to high porosity.

Spoil: leftover rock material from quarrying activities.

Stone (commodity): sometimes used in the same way as “natural stone”.

Utilitarian stone: non-elite stone production for manufacturing of everyday products, such as tools.