Original DocumentsRemarks on the Contract for Building Catterick Bridge

This paper summarises the results of two excavations which were carried out as part of a survey of the area around Beer Head. Sectioning a dry valley to the north of the modem settlement revealed one of the oldest, deepest and most artefactually rich colluvial deposits to have been excavated to date. Less than one kilometre to the south-west, the excavation of an artefact concentration identified by fieldwalking revealed subsoil features in which a variety of local and imported stone types had been placed.     

Preliminary geochemical assessment of limestone resources and stone use at Maya sites in the Three Rivers Region,Belize

The carbonate bedrock of northwestern Belize is poorly understood from the standpoint of both geochemistry and the use of stone in prehispanic Maya sites for buildings and monuments. The friable nature of the rock in this topographically rugged area makes it especially difficult to distinguish monuments from bedrock spall, as little carving, if any, survives, and identification rests on location and positioning. The research presented here analyzed 63 limestone samples collected from two sites in the Three Rivers Region of Belize. ICP-MS and ICP-AES were used to characterize the major, minor, and trace element chemistry of the limestone bedrock of the region and determine the amount of geochemical variability. Another important objective was attempting to trace the movement of monument stone and determining whether it was imported from outside of the sites. Bedrock, quarries, and possible monuments were all sampled for these purposes. Bedrock proved to be similar across wide areas. However, at Chawak But'o'ob, along the flank of the Rio Bravo, changes downslope in Mg concentration suggest a leaching of the bedrock by meteoric waters based on differences in porosity. At Maax Na, a hilltop site, in contrast, such leaching is not as apparent. Many monuments at both sites were found to be composed of stone similar in chemistry to the local bedrock, including several of the identifiable stelae. However, our analyses also revealed that a few monuments at Maax Na were made of material with a different chemical composition, apparently from stone imported to the site. These results suggest that the Maya deliberately selected certain types of limestone for certain purposes, and may even have traded in non-local rock. Overall, the methods used in this pilot study indicate there is real potential in more intensive, regional assessments of the materials used at archaeological sites, even in areas where the local stone does not have a distinctive geochemical signature.     

Forty-Fourth Annual Congress,Liverpool, 1887

Abstract

The limestone quarried on Ham Hill near Yeovil in Somerset is very distinctive and readily identifiable. It was used extensively throughout the medieval period for a great variety of purposes. Whole buildings were constructed using it from floor to roof and it was also employed for decorative work and sculpture. A large group of church monuments was carved in Ham Hill stone, especially effigies and cross slabs. Monument production can be appreciated in the context of a much larger industry and analysis of the figures has revealed that the clients were predominantly the local gentry. Consequently, there are significantly more male civilian and female effigies than are typically found elsewhere, such as in Devon and Yorkshire. There is evidence of an awareness of the products from other stone centres in the south-west, which the carvers of Ham Hill stone were willing to imitate in order to satisfy customer requirements.     

Weathering of Calcarenite Monuments at Roman and Byzantine Archaeological Sites at Sabratha,Northwestern Libya: A Pilot Study

The Roman and Byzantine monuments at Sabratha in northwest Libya represent cultural heritage of remarkable global significance. This report describes the weathering damage of calcarenites, the most dominant stone type used in the construction of monuments in the ancient city of Sabratha. Stone loss, particularly alveolar weathering, notching and breakout of compact stone fragments, dominates deterioration phenomena. Other weathering forms include stone detachment (granular disintegration into sand) and fractures. Most of the studied monuments are also severely affected by biodeterioration, due to microorganism colonization that appears as biofilm. Both the low durability of the calcarenites and the marine environment with characteristic humidity and salt-rich marine spray are the important factors contributing to stone weathering. The results obtained in this pilot study may be used as a guideline for future restoration works.     

The Smiling Abbot: Rediscovering a Unique Medieval Effigial Slab

The article reports on a newly re-discovered fragment of a recumbent effigial slab commemorating Abbot Hywel (‘Howel’), most likely an abbot of the Cistercian house of Valle Crucis, near Llangollen (Denbighs.). The slab was probably carved very early in the fourteenth century, and could have covered the abbot’s burial place. The stone was dislocated and fragmented at an unknown point in the abbey’s history, and most likely removed from the site during the nineteenth-century clearance of the abbey ruins. It was briefly reported on in 1895 and has been lost to scholarship subsequently.

If indeed from Valle Crucis, the stone is the only known effigial slab commemorating a Cistercian abbot from Wales, and a rare example from Britain. Given that few similar Cistercian abbatial monuments have been identified from elsewhere, the ‘Smiling Abbot’, although only a fragment, is a significant addition to the known corpus of later medieval mortuary monuments. The article discusses the provenance, dating, identification and significance of the monument, including the abbot’s distinctive smile. The stone sheds new light on mortuary and commemorative practice at Valle Crucis Abbey in the early fourteenth century.     

The Finishing Technique of the Stone Monuments of Persepolis: Further Studies and New Findings Through the Use of Non‐Destructive Analytical Techniques

The studies on the finishing technique of the stone monuments in Persepolis (Iran) are part of the archaeological project jointly launched in 2008 by Iran and Italy, named ‘From Palace to Town’. The first experimental results, obtained on a very limited number of samples, revealed that the Achaemenid builders and sculptors used a white pigment, a kind of bone white, calcium fluorapatite, obtained by burning animal bones, to hide the dark grey colour of the stone. In order to verify these unexpected results, a new campaign was implemented to analyse a much larger number of samples. XRF spectrometry, a non‐destructive technique, was used and the experimental results were further elaborated by PCA. The presence of a white superficial layer was confirmed, and the use of fluorapatite was confirmed as well, but only on monuments attributed to the Xerxes period or later, while in the earlier monuments the white layer was obtained using gypsum.     

Structural Integrity of Stone Blocks From Charles Bridge in Prague

The Charles Bridge is the oldest, still-standing gothic bridge that crosses the Vltava River in Prague and up to now has belonged among the most sought-after historical monuments in the Czech Republic. The bridge has been repeatedly damaged due to floods and has been repaired several times. In the reconstructions, damaged sandstone blocks were substituted in facing. This experimental study focused on nonlinear ultrasonic spectroscopy for testing stone blocks that were extracted from the historical bridge structure. The objective of these experiments was verifying whether the methods can be applied to evaluating the internal structure of blocks, which are built-in in the structure in situ. Intact-structure blocks, blocks that had been repaired in the past, and damaged-structure blocks were measured. Two methods of nonlinear ultrasonic spectroscopy were applied—the method with single harmonic ultrasonic signal and with two harmonic ultrasonic signals. Measurement results of both applied methods proved resulting parameters correlation with block structure integrity quality.     

文物岩石材料劣化形态分类研究及应用

为了弥补我国在文物岩石材料劣化形态分类研究的空白,本工作系统地研究了目前国际上文物岩石材料劣化勘察领域关于劣化形态分类的主要研究成果,在此基础上,通过对我国二十余处石质文物的调查和实践提出了一个既与国际研究成果接轨又与中国实际情况相结合的三级分类结构。该研究成果可为中国石质文物保护技术人员的工程实践提供参考。     

德国多孔隙石质古迹化学增强保护新材料和新施工工艺

介绍了20世纪90年代德国石质古迹化学增强保护的新材料和新的施工工艺,提出呈皮壳状风化石雕保护的建议。     

Landscapes of Stone: Contextualizing Greenstone Working and Lithics from Clodgy Moor,West Penwith,Cornwall

Between 2004 and 2011 Graham Hill and Dave Edwards plotted nearly eight thousand prehistoric artefacts from ploughed fields across the Clodgy Moor area of West Penwith. In 2011 a project was carried out by the Historic Environment Service Projects team, Cornwall Council, the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the Cornwall Archaeological Society to catalogue and digitize all the finds recorded from the fieldwalking.

The project demonstrated that some places within the project area were persistent locales which were occupied throughout the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. The results were particularly significant because they shed light on the context of the production of greenstone axes, widely exchanged around Britain and across the Irish Sea during the Neolithic, and suggest why, despite large numbers of artefacts, no greenstone ‘axe factory’ site has been found close to the potential sources of the greenstone before.     

西安地区出土的北朝隋唐石刻造像塔

佛塔源于印度,因用于藏舍利而被神化,受到佛教信徒的虔诚礼拜,多于其外刻浮雕。大塔一般露天建造,称露塔,小塔则在庙内供奉,称堂塔或塔庙。本文所论及的只是小型石刻佛塔。     

MEGALITHIC MADNESS AND MEASUREMENT. OR HOW MANY OLIVES COULD AN OLIVE PRESS PRESS?

Summary. Nineteenth century explorers and travellers in north-west Libya were intrigued by the hundreds of well-preserved stone structures which they took to be prehistoric megaliths of ritual significance. H.S. Cowper made a particular study of them in this belief, measuring, sketching and photographing quite a number of the monuments. The admirably meticulous character of his work was undone by his fanciful interpretation and it was soon revealed that the stone structures were, in fact, parts of Roman olive presses.
This article, however, considers the lasting importance of Cowper's work in the context of a detailed discussion of the processing capacity of ancient olive presses (that is what quantity of olives comprised a single press load and how much olive oil was likely to be yielded). Comparison with literary and ethnographic evidence suggests that the Tripolitanian presses had a large potential capacity. An order of magnitude figure of c. 9–10,000 kg is proposed for the annual output of olive oil from one of these large presses.     

THE TALAYOTIC MONUMENTS OF MALLORCA: FORMATION PROCESSES AND FUNCTION

Summary. Talayots are stone monuments which were constructed singly, or as part of fortified settlements, in the Balearic islands during the late second and first millennia bc. Along with comparable monuments in Sardinia ('nuraghi') and Corsica ('torri'), there has been debate over their function(s) within Bronze and Iron Age societies. In recent intra-site analyses, the material and faunal remains within such monuments have been contrasted with those found in surrounding, domestic structures. Interpretations of talayots as elite residences, or locations for ceremonial feasting, butchery and storage have been evaluated. Using data from talayot 4 at Son Ferrandell Oleza, the authors argue that an understanding of formation processes is an essential basis for any attempt to make such inferences about functional differentiation within Bronze and Iron Age settlements on West Mediterranean islands.     

THE NEOLITHIC of the AVEBURY AREA: SEQUENCE, ENVIRONMENT, SETTLEMENT and MONUMENTS

Summary: The implications are discussed of the first five seasons of a regional project to investigate the Neolithic sequence and environment, and the context in which monuments great and small were built, in the area around Avebury, north Wiltshire, England. A five-phase local sequence is proposed. There was a varying mosaic of clearances, and settlement density may have been low. the episodic character of monument building stands out. With the exception of Silbury Hill, none of the monuments need indicate significant social ranking, and more attention can be given to their sacred character and to the tradition which produced them.     

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.     

MEGALITH SIZE AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR OUR UNDERSTANDING OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY,WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO CUMBRIA,NORTH‐WEST ENGLAND

The possibility that a comparison of the size of all stones in megalithic monuments might contribute to an understanding of the societies which built them is explored. Although a number of interpretational problems are recognized, the results appear meaningful. They show that there is no simple relationship between the diameter of a stone circle and the numbers of people involved in its construction, and that larger numbers contributed to the erection of some individual standing stones. Previous suggestions that individual families consisted of four to five active adults are supported.     

Organizational principles of Khirigsuur monuments in the lower Egiin Gol valley,Mongolia

Khirigsuurs are the largest and most common archaeological monuments of the Mongolian Steppe in the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, a critical time for the spread of nomadic pastoralism and the emergence of a new social order during the Bronze Age in Inner Asia. Using data from a full coverage regional survey of the Lower Egiin Gol valley, this paper presents a system for studying the defining ground level features of Khirigsuurs to discover structural categories, organize sites, compare Khirigsuur monuments across regions and explore activities that may have gone on around the Khirigsuurs themselves as they were built and used. The primary methods used are a study of monumental scale and a typology of additive parts from which complex and comparable types emerge. Elaborate Khirigsuurs illustrate the use of Khirigsuurs as small monuments, stages for group activities, and are the persistent backdrop for social transformations during the spread of nomadic pastoralism. I suggest that the Khirigsuurs of the Lower Egiin Gol are monuments constructed with relatively regular frequency, by a consistently sized group, and used for group oriented activities rather than the memorialization of an elite. This is consistent with something one might see as part of a regular yearly nomadic round.     

The Archaeological Site of Persepolis (Iran): Study of the Finishing Technique of the Bas‐Reliefs and Architectural Surfaces

One of the aims of the 5‐year Iranian/Italian project for Persepolis, called ‘From Palace to Town’ was to contribute to the conservation of the stone monuments of the imperial site. As part of the activities dedicated to this purpose, a diagnostic study was carried out. Various aspects were considered: petrographic characterization of the stone, forms and factors of decay, and in situ testing of suitable conservation treatments. The present paper reports on the unexpected results of the study on the finishing of architectural surfaces. The results obtained on a limited, but nevertheless significant, number of samples collected from the monuments of the imperial Terrace, allow us to state that the dark grey limestone used for several (or many?) monuments was covered on purpose with a thin, fine whitish layer containing fluorapatite, as major component, and calcite. It is highly probable that the fluorapatite was obtained from calcined animal bones and that slaked lime was used as a binder. Further evidence for this is the discovery of a kiln with the remains of calcined bones and, nearby, a waste pit with animal bones containing fluorapatite. A second white layer, obtained with barium sulphate, was detected in one of the samples beneath the external, earthy encrustation. It could be perhaps interpreted as the remnants of a polychrome finishing.     

The Stone Tidal Fish Weirs of the Molène Archipelago,Iroise Sea,Brittany, Western France: a long‐term tradition with early megalithic origins

This reports on a project that combined evidence gleaned from aerial photographs, place‐names, interviews, topography, LIDAR data, and sonar bathymetry to locate stone tidal fish weirs in the Molène Archipelago. The results were verified by diver and pedestrian visual surveys. Models of Holocene sea‐level change allowed a group of possibly Late Mesolithic–Early Neolithic weirs to be recognized, with a second group broadly dated to the later Neolithic–Early Bronze Age. The construction of these long megalithic structures is compared to the funerary monuments for which the Molène Archipelago is well known, in terms of technique, cost, and societal organization.