Soft Stones and Other Carvable Materials

Abstract

Humans have been carving stone since the Paleolithic. Figure 6.1 shows a famous early example. Throughout the Mediterranean world, the carving of stone vessels dates from the Neolithic period and continued through the Greco-Roman era. However, the apex of carving was reached in the late Predynastic periods of Egypt and Mesopotamia and in the Early Bronze Age of Greece. Various soft stones were employed, the most popular being limestone, basalt, alabaster, serpentine, marble, slate, chlorite, selenite, steatite, and gypsum. The repertory of shapes and sizes was enormous. Professional carvers produced everything from huge amphorae to small, delicate alabaster and amulets. At times the selection of lithologies for the manufacture of a class of objects is puzzling. Heizer (1956) reports that the inhabitants of Kodiak Island, Alaska, from 500 to 1750 ACE, used local diorite and granite for lamps rather than the available softer soapstone, slate, and limestone.