An Overview on Ancient Quarries of Southeastern Attica. The Ancient Quarries of Hymettus Revisited

Περίληψη

Based upon the information about the quarries of southeastern Attica presented in Kokkorou-Alevras et al. (2014), the research group of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens has tried to throw light on the quarrying activity, that took place in these quarries during the antiquity and to update, to a certain degree, the data from past publications. New investigations were conducted in areas where ancient quarries had been located in the past (e.g. in Rhamnous, Marathon, Brauron, etc.) and important knowledge has been added about the quarrying activity of that region in antiquity. Our research focused on the Hymmetus marble quarries and was based upon both a new systematic investigation of the ancient quarry-faces on mount Hymettus and a search for possible unknown and smaller quarries on the mountain. Our work led us to a re-evaluation of the attested quarry-marks and the quarrying techniques on the extensive working-faces, as well as to a better understanding of the actual scale of the extraction and thus to a re-estimation of the bulk of the extracted blocks. Furthermore, we came to new conclusions about the scale of stone extraction during the Archaic period, judging from the distinctive technical features observed on the quarried rock.