In the Steps of William the Conqueror: Neutron Activation Analysis of Caen Stone*

Quarries in the Bathonian stone formation surrounding Caen produced high‐quality limestone for medieval churches in northern France and southern England and for their sculptural decoration. To investigate compositional differences among proximate stone sources, 103 samples collected from five separate quarries were analysed by NAA. The results show Caen stone to be essentially pure calcite and relatively homogeneous, but distinction among quarries is possible by discriminant analysis. Comparing compositions of quarry samples with data in the Brookhaven Limestone Database identified the origin of stone used in masonry and sculpture at Saint‐Étienne and La Trinité, Caen, and in several museum objects.     

Geochemical Analysis of Massif Armoricain (France) Sources for Neolithic Dolerite Axes

This study presents new geochemical data on dolerites from the Plussulien and Beulin Neolithic quarries in the Massif Armoricain (France) and for dolerite samples from their surrounding local regions. Using the major and trace element data obtained on these rocks, the two quarries and regional dolerite occurrences appear to be clearly distinct. Consequently, a set of chemical criteria is proposed to identify the dolerite axes produced uniquely at the Beulin quarry and to discriminate between the axes produced in the surrounding local region of Beulin, but outside the quarries, and those produced in the local region of Plussulien. These results could also be used, for example, to identify the existence of undiscovered quarries in the Beulin region. This work may provide the breakthrough needed to understand stone axe exchanges during the Neolithic times in north‐western France and beyond.     

Building and ornamental stones of the Awam (Mahram Bilqis) Temple in Marib, Yemen

One of the most famous monuments of the ancient Kingdom of Saba is the first-millennium BC Awam Temple in Marib, Yemen. Despite its fame, almost nothing has been published about the building and ornamental stones used in its construction, or the quarries that supplied these stones. This paper presents the results of the first geological study of the Awam Temple and its stone quarries.     

A Bronze Age Quarry in Eastern Crete

Abstract

The sandstone quarry at Mochlos is one of four major quarries in eastern Crete that were worked during the New Palace Period of Minoan civilization (ca. 1700–1450 B.C.) to produce large ashlar blocks for nearby Minoan sites. At that time sandstone, or ammoudha, as it is known locally, was especially valued as a building material, partly because of its distinctive color and texture, but mainly because of the ease with which it could be cut, and the stone was used extensively for exterior façades, for walls around interior courts, and for other architectural features of the more important buildings on these sites. This article describes the quarry at Mochlos in some detail, including the quarrying techniques employed, and argues that the destination of the stone from the Mochlos quarry was the Minoan palace at Gournia. The article ends with a comparison of the four ammoudha quarries in eastern Crete.     

COMPOSITIONAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FRENCH LIMESTONE: A NEW TOOL FOR ART HISTORIANS*

Limestone from quarries known to medieval craftsmen and from the monuments they built and embellished, as well as from carvings now in museum collections, has been characterized by neutron activation analysis. Specimens from 38 quarries in the Lutetian and Jurassic limestone formations of France and from sculptures in American and French museums have been tested, and the results have been compiled in a data base to which art historians may refer when attempting to determine provenance for sculptures. Multivariate statistical analysis of concentration data shows stone from a particular quarry in the Paris basin to be compositionally homogeneous and distinguishable from other quarries in the same formation. The same approach to data related to quarries near the Burgundian abbey of Cluny finds general agreement between classifications based on compositional and on petrographic data, but the number of samples available for analysis at the time of writing was insufficient to achieve the finer distinctions reported for the Paris basin.     

Sampling for Provenance: Tailings from Prehistoric Stone Quarries in the South Pacific

Stone is a principal component in archaeological assemblages across the Pacific. It provided a major element in architecture, used as trade goods, and was fashioned into implements and ornaments, monolithic monuments, statues, money, and emblematic symbols of victory, status and ethnicity. In short, stone is a pervasive element in the economic, social, and political fabric of Pacific cultural traditions. However, provenance of rock quarries, the source of this raw material, has received limited attention in Oceania. Provenance studies have been sidestepped or short-changed in the rush to analyse artifactual materials. Here we establish a foundation for more robust provenance studies and field sampling strategies through a discussion of (1) quarry identification and (2) sampling within prospective sources. A model of quarry identification, sampling, and characterization is drawn from work on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and the fundamental precepts are outlined for future sampling experiments and provenance work in stone quarries generally.     

Turning Stone into Bread: The Millstone Quarries of Medieval and Post-medieval Ireland

This article has two components; a discussion of an Ireland-wide inventory of millstone quarries and a detailed regional case study in order to study the development of the millstone industry at both micro and macro levels. The first component highlights the use of certain stone types used in Ireland and also uniformity in methods to extract each specific type of bedrock. Factors determining the commercialisation of millstones are also addressed. This is followed by intensive field-based investigation focusing on millstone quarries in Waterford Harbour in the south-east of the country. Research questions concerning geology, transport, typology, what techniques were used to transform a ‘rough-out’ piece, and the role individual quarries and local people played in the overall industrialisation of millstone production are addressed.     

A case study on the revival of stone quarrying in the late eleventh century: St. Florent,Saumur and Notre-Dame,Noyers

One aspect of the late eleventh-century economic expansion in the west of France was that the abbeys of the region embarked upon an ambitious program of construction. Many houses decided to rebuild their abbey church, while the numerous small chapels and churches they received from the newly emerging class of castellans were rebuilt to serve as priories. All this required large amounts of building stone, which was difficult to obtain. For the abbeys of St. Florent, Saumur (Maine-et-Loire) and Notre-Dame, Noyers (Indre-et-Loire) texts survive that throw light on the intricate social and economic relationships that ultimately provided the abbeys with sources of building stone. One finds that the exploitation of quarries was intimately associated with the proliferation of towns and that the abbeys depended upon secular bequests of both towns and quarries to carry out their construction programs.     

THE SITING OF NEOLITHIC STONE QUARRIES—EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY AT GREAT LANGDALE, CUMBRIA

Summary. Although the general distributions of stone axes and their sources have been studied for many years, it is not clear whether the production of these artefacts was carried out by specialists. One way of resolving the problem may be to consider the efficiency with which raw material was extracted. This paper describes an attempt to assess the factors influencing the siting of the Group VI stone quarries at Great Langdale. It is concluded that there is only a limited relationship between the most suitable locations, as suggested by detailed sampling of the outcrop, and those sites where stone working actually took place. This suggests that some of those using such sites may have lacked a detailed knowledge of the area.     

A GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE ANCIENT QUARRIES OF SIDI GHEDAMSY ISLAND (MONASTIR,TUNISIA)

Amongst a large number of ancient quarries scattered along the North African coast, those at Sidi Ghedamsy (Monastir, Tunisia) have supplied building stones of Pliocene age. Two lithofacies have been distinguished in the quarry faces: (i) fine sandy limestone, which has been used in the construction of Roman and Arabic monuments; and (ii) porous and coarse limy sandstone, which is of bad quality for construction. Laboratory analysis results confirm that the exploitation of stone in antiquity was well focused on the levels containing the first type. This is confirmed by geotechnical tests, which show that the fine sandy limestone is harder and less porous than the coarse limy sandstone. Extraction of these stones began in the Roman period. The Romans exploited the quarries using steel tools that permitted the extraction of blocks from several levels. In the eighth century, Arabic quarry workers continued the stone extraction using the same technique, but they produced blocks of small and medium size. Statistical measurements have been done on the quarry faces and on the walls of the Ribat in order to understand the degree of conformity between the dimensions of the extracted blocks and those used for building, and ultimately to attempt to date the quarries and the construction of the Ribat.     

The earliest Sabaeans in the Jawf: A reconsideration

It appears that not all the Jawf was originally'Madhabian'and its territory included at least one Sabaean enclave at the very beginning of the Sayhadian civilisation. The site of Abu Thawr (MNHYT^m) may well have been the centre of the other such enclave. MNHYT^m situated in the centre of the earliest Sabaean settlements might have even performed the functions of'the second Sabaean capital'in the second half of the eighth century BC.     

The Late Saxon Town of Thetford: An Interim Report on the 1964–6 Excavations

Abstract

Reigate stone was one of the most important building stones used in London and along the Thames littoral in the Middle Ages but, despite this, its use has been largely ignored by archaeologists. This introductory essay attempts to look at both the geology and documented history of the stone quarries, and at the Battersea and other Thames-side sites from which the stone was distributed.     

Organizational structure at the Mauna Kea Adze quarry complex,Hawaii

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that it is possible to define the organizational structure at prehistoric stone quarries by examining two aspects of stone tool production: the spatial distribution of debitage, and differential stoneworking skill. Analyses of debitage collected from the Mauna Kea Adze Quarry in Hawaii will be compared with experimentally produced data to achieve the aim of the paper. The results of these analyses indicate that the labour forces at the Mauna Kea Adze Quarry were well organized. It is suggested that labour parties were organized into groups of two, with expert craftsmen working where material was abundant and novices or apprentices working where they could practise their craft without wasting important resources.     

Three unpublished collections of South Arabian coins

The author presents the South Arabian holdings of three museums in Israel, forty-eight coins in all. The coins comprise one Qatabanian coin and several coins each of three very common Himyarite and Sabaean types (two issues of 'Amdân Bayyin Yuhaqbid, kingdom of Saba' and dhû Raydân, and various coins of the Sabaean Bucranium series). The paper gives the opportunity to make some remarks on South Arabian Coinage.     

The coinage of ancient Hadramawt The Pre-Islamic coins in the al-Mukallâ Museum

The pre-Islamic coins in the al-Mukallâ Museum come principally from Shabwa, the capital of the kingdom of Hadramawt. The collection consists of 76 coins, three of which could not be identified because of their poor condition. Sixty-seven silver and bronze Hadrami coins; five silver and bronze Himyarite and Sabaean coins; and one gold Roman coin comprise the collection. This material provides a general overview of the coinage of the ancient Hadramawt, permitting us to distinguish the issues of certain individual Hadrami rulers.     

OPTICAL DATING OF GRANITIC STONE SURFACES*

A novel luminescence methodology for dating surfaces of granitoid rocks is presented, with encouraging results for archaeological stone structures. It is based on the zeroing of the latent signal of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) in feldspar and quartz grains of the stone surface during exposure to daylight. When after bleaching the surface is shielded from light, the OSL signal builds up again, such that its intensity provides an age for the event of the last exposure to light. This event could be the construction or the destruction of stone structures or, for example, sedimentary deposition of granitic boulders, such as in fan deposits. The experimental approach utilizes a high spatial resolution detection technique (HR‐OSL) for OSL of minerals that are left in their original petrological context; that is, without any mineral separation. With this approach, steep gradients in microdosimetry at the surface and at grain boundaries become important and are discussed in detail. The new dating technique is successfully applied to a stone wall of the medieval castle of Lindenfels in southwestern Germany and the pre‐Columbian Nasca lines (geoglyphs) around Palpa in southern Peru.     

Greenstone and diabase utilization in the stone age of western Norway: Technological and socio‐cultural aspects of axe and adze production and distribution

The subject of this article is the production and distribution of stone axes and adzes originating from two large Stone Age quarries in western Norway: the greenstone quarry on the small island of Hespriholmen, B?mlo kommune, Hordaland fylke, and the diabase quarry at Stakaneset, Flora kommune, Sogn og Fjordane Fylke. The identification of production sites and distributed products associated with these quarries is based on petrological investigations, both thin‐section and geochemical analyses. Radiocarbon and shoreline datings of debris assemblages and chronological grouping of the distributed artifacts have made it possible to gain control over the time depth and time consistency in the utilization of the two outcrops. Different technological aspects of the production process are discussed on the basis of finds and observations from the quarries and workshop sites. The distribution patterns will be examined with regard to their reflection on cultural continuity and change. Finally, some hypotheses on the social context of production and distribution will be put forward. These include the diffusion mechanisms responsible for the distribution and aspects concerning terri‐toriality and demography as reflected in the distribution patterns.

The results presented here are based on two theses for a master's degree in archaeology at the University of Bergen: ‘Bruk av diabas i vestnorsk steinalder’ (Asle Bruen Olsen 1981) and ‘B?mlo. Steinalderens råstoffsentrum på S?rvestlandet’ (Sigmund Alsaker 1982).