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QuarryScapes guide to ancient stone quarry landscapes

 

QuarryScapes Atlas

 

 

Quarry landscape
of the month

August 2008

June 2008

April 2008

December 2007

May 2007

February 2007

December 2006

November 2006

September 2006

August 2006

June 2006

May 2006

April 2006

March 2006


Googlesearch in Quarryscapes

 

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Second Aswan field season

The second QuarryScapes fieldwork season in Aswan took place through November 2006. The work concentrated on the West Bank quarries, more specifically on the prehistoric antecedents to the large-scale Pharaonic quarrying of silicified sandstone in the area.

Several prehistoric silicified sandstone tool and grinding stone quarries/workshop were located and described. In-depth analyses of the findings are pending, but it would seem that there is now ample evidence to characterise the Aswan West Bank quarries as the most long-lived quarry landscape in the world. It has been in use for tools, grinding stones, statuary and building stone for more than 20.000 years since at some stage in the Palaeolithic, through the whole Pharaonic period and well into the Roman period.

Other features making up the archaeological landscape were also described and fed into the comprehensive databases developed for the West Bank. Such features include rock-art and inscriptions, stone alignments and different types of stone structures. Moreover, risks to this outstanding archaeological landscape were assessed and communicated to the responsible authorities; the SCA regional office in Aswan.

Fieldwork will continue at the West Bank, but a comprehensive QuarryScapes report/monograph will be produced already during the coming winter, to be published in early summer 2007.

Text by Per Storemyr

A glimpse at the prehistoric tool and grinding stone quarries at the West Bank. The raw material for production was small boulders/pebbles of silicified sandstone. Photo: Per Storemyr.

 

Recording of a small grinding stone quarry in silicified sandstone. Photo: Per Storemyr.

 

SCA-Inspector Wafaa Mohamed with the axe/sledgehammer in silicfied sandstone she found in one of the West Bank grinding stone quarries. Photo: Per Storemyr.

 

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NEWS
December 2009
New book: a special volume with papers from the QuarryScapes project soon printed.
November 2008
Final workshop: the third QuarryScapes workshop was held in Aswan 12. - 15. October
June 2008
Final Reports: available for download
June 2008
More Palaeolithic quarries in Aswan Recent visits to the Aswan West Bank in Egypt have added new discoveries...

April 2008
QuarryScapes third workshop Aswan, October 12-15 2008

April 2008
Rescue of an obelisk top in Egypt Aswan, March 2008

December 2007
Second QuarryScapes Workshop 18-21 October 2007, Petra, Jordan

December 2007
Final Reports: Aswan West Bank Ancient Quarry Landscape

March 2007
New Aswan City: Rescue survey in progress

March 2007
QuarryScapes fieldwork in Egypt: The final season of survey at the Aswan silicified sandstone quarries revealed previously undocumented ancient paved roads

December 2006
Second Aswan field season The second QuarryScapes fieldwork season in Aswan took place through November 2006.

November 2006
First symposium
The first QuarryScapes symposium took place at Divan Talya hotel in Antalya (Turkey) 15-17 October 2006.
More news
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Coordinator: NGU - Geological survey of Norway, Tom Heldal. Tlf: +47 73 90 40 00 . Partners. Layout: Lisa Løseth, NGU.