STONEZINE 12 THE DIGITAL COUNTERPART TO STONEXUS MAGAZINE STONEZINE 1 1 STONEZINE 12 IN THIS EDITION: THE DIGITAL COUNTERPART EVENTS TO STONEXUS MAGAZINE LITHIKOS GALLERY editor: Tomas Lipps Greece and Spain ENIGMATIC BA’AL BEK by Vince Lee SCAVENGING REVERSED in the Golan Heights MISCELLANAE This, like all editions of STONEZINE, can be printed on 8.5 x 14 paper. Cover photo: Kastro Larmena, Island of Euboea, Greece. photo: ? ? The Temple of Jupiter, Baalbek photo: Dibyendu Banerjee CALENDAR OF EVENTS Fall 2017 DRY STONE FESTIVAL 2017, September 29-Oct 1 THE CARVING STUDIO AND SCULPTURE CENTER Presented by Dry Stone Canada is holding several Stone Carving and Sculpture Workshops St. Mark’s Anglican Church, village of Barriefield (Kingston, Ontario) throughout the summer and fall in West Rutland VT. http://drystonecanada.com/2017-festival-st-marks-barriefield-ontario/ OPEN STUDIO A/ALUMNI WEEK, September 11-15 INTRODUCTORY STONECARVING, October 7-8 MALLORCAN DRY STONE WALLING WORKSHOP October 23-26 +29 https://carvingstudio.org/events/category/workshops/ and the FIRST MEDSTONE CONGRESS October 26-29 Village of Deia, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain THE STONE TRUST of Vermont has held several workshops over http://www.medstonecongress.com/ the summer.. There are still two more on its schedule: Site Prep Workshop, October 6, DRY STONE WALLING COMPETITION, October 21, 2017 Two Day Workshop: Level 1 & 2, October 7-8 The Robert M. Brewer National Dry Stone Walling Competition https://thestonetrust.org/workshop/upcoming-workshops/ Novice, Intermediate and Professional Classes – trophies, ribbons, tools and cash prizes. Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, near Harrodsburg, Kentucky. ALSO: INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP, September 23-24 (Sat-Sun) INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP, October 6-7 CERTIFICATION PREP WORKSHOP, October 18-19 Certification Exams,October 20 & 22 https://www.drystone.org/ lithikos gallery STONEWORK GREECE & SPAIN photos: TOMAS LIPPS Delos, Cycladic Islands, Greece STONEZINE 1 2 lithikos Delphi, Greece Paros, Cycladic Islands, Greece STONEZINE 1 2 Paros, Cycladic Islands, Greece lithikos Sifnos, Cycladic Islands, Greece lithikos Delos, Cycladic Islands, Greece STONEZINE 1 2 pavement, the Parthenon, Athens, Greece STONEZINE 1 2 Tarragona, Spain STONEZINE 1 2 Zaragoza province, Spain STONEZINE 1 2 lithikos Deia, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain lithikos Deia, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain Deia, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain STONEZINE 1 2 lithikos Barcelona, Spain, Gaudi’s La Pedrera lithikos Barcelona, Spain Barcelelona, Spain STONEZINE 1 2 Barcelona, Spain REVERSE SCAVENGING When, in the 1967 Six-Day War, the Israel Defence Forces stormed and took the Golan Heights from an unprepared Syrian military, they were closely followed another army—one comprised of Israeli archaeologists eager to discover the history of this pocket of land in the Upper Galilee that had been Jewish territory in bibli- cal times. The fortunes of the Golan waxed and waned as a succession of cultures achieved, and lost, domi- nance. There was a short-lived resurgence of Jewish settlement around the turn of the 19th.20th centuries. This village (I don’t know its name) was one of the few sites I was able to visit on the single afternoon I spent on the Golan Heights with my friend and guide, Dutch/Israeli geologist/historian, Ithamar Perath. According to Ithamar, archaeologists noted the presence of dressed basalt bocks in the in the fabric of various houses in the village.Thereupon a survey was carried out and the placement of each block registered on a map. A more or less concentric array was revealed and when the archaeologists excavated at the center of that array they discovered the foundations of a synagogue. Accordingly the blocks were ‘removed’ from the houses and brought to the center where they were used to rebuild the synagogue to the extent that you see in these photos. External walls are shown in the photo at the left and some interior walls below. (Not a place you’d like to be during an earthquake). T L STONEZINE 1 2 In the resurrected synagogue portrayed on the previous page there was no architectural stone carving to be seen. This may be an anomaly as there is ample evidence of skilled carving in the twenty or so synagogues identified in that area. In researching this article an interesting pa- per came to light: Style as a Chronical Indicator on the Relative Dating of the Golan Synagogues by Roni Amir. As this paper makes clear, the Golan-centric, Jewish communities in the 4th century CE had the will, the wit and the craft to produce architectural stone carvings of quality. The double column pictured here is a well- crafted oddity. Note the merging of the square and round columns worked out via the stepped geometric motif; the rustic Corinthian capital complete with acanthus leaves; the twisted rope moulding between the shaft and the capital of the round column; the diamond band in relief around the abacus. Next Page: While we’re in the Golan let’s look at this Chalcolithic (Copper Age 4500 to 3600 BC) ruin. It had been encased in the soil for several left: Double column, Synagogue Khorazim millennia—it is not a reconstruction, this is how it was built, by people above: Daniel in the lions’ den, relief from who knew what they were doing, perhaps 6,000 years ago. It had Synagogue ‘Ein Samsam. Floral motifs, lions and been recently excavated when the photo was taken in 1984. eagles figure prominently in Golan friezes. Its function is somewhat of a mystery. According to Ithamar there below that: frieze fron Synagogue Khorazim was no evidence that it had been used for either burials or habitation. STONEZINE 1 2 Chalcolithic (Copper Age) stonework: STONEZINE 1 2 miscellanae The Strangler Cairn by Andy Goldsworthy. An installation done in 2011 by the artist in Conon- dale National Park, Queensland, Australia. The rock cairn contains the seed of its own de- struction—actually a cutting from a fallen strangler fig tree. The strangler fig begins life when seeds, deposited by birds in crevasses in the tops of other trees, ger- minate. The roots grow downward, gradually en- veloping the host tree, or in this case, rock cairn— note the sprig emerging from the top of the cairn. The art work has engendered controversy, not least because of its cost: $700,000. photo: Melanie en Australie Here is a link to a video about the project is inter- esting, particularly when it is concerned with the work process: https://vimeo.com/40558291 STONEZINE 1 2 miscellanae DRY WALLING Pick and lift and fit and settle and chock all day. Not that there is a perfect fit: But heaving on the copings is play, Stone scritch-scratches the rough glove. Doubt comes with the compromises, A rejoicing that hardly tires, You invent descriptions for the stone you want: But endurance grows with the wall. However long it lasts. Thin in-squeezer; flat-long narrowy; square dumper By mid-stage, With a corner lifted like a curled lip. Footings long buried, A heap of stones is a feast of choices; First throughs a memory, —John Walker Stone running thin frays the temper. Top stones over the horizon yet, When three successive stones fly straight to their places, It’s in the blood. Things are in tune that day. You hear the chuckle of the hearting trickling in, And, travelling home, feel more tired To see miles of walls on the moors, Some broken down. STONEZINE 1 2 enigmatic ba’al bek by Vincent R. Lee, architect Nestled at the base of the western flank of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains along that coun- try’s eastern boundary with Syria is perhaps the most perplexing, little-known and mysteri- ous megalithic archaeological site on Earth. Located at an elevation of 3700 feet (1128m) near the headwaters of both the Orontes and Leontes Rivers, the two great spring-fed streams that nourish the region’s famously fertile Bekaa Valley, Baalbek has been revered as a sacred place for millennia. No one knows who first memorialized its spiritual power with monumental architecture, but in biblical times the Bekaa was known as the ‘Valley of Lebanon,’ and Early Bronze Age remains have been recovered from the bottom of a fifty-meter-deep crevice beneath the present-day ruins. Archaeologists believe this natural feature was the ancient centerpiece of a sanctuary dedicated to the Canaanite-Phoenician god Baal, from which the name Baalbek derives. All traces of this very early temple, if any, remain deeply buried beneath the work of subsequent cultures Before 300 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the entire region and his successors, the Ptolemies and later, the Seleucids, ruled the area until the arrival of the Romans in the time of Anthony and Cleopatra. The Greeks called the modest town that had grown around the site Heliopolis, City of the Sun. Octavian, soon to be Caesar Augustus, retained the name after his overthrow of Anthony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE Under Augustus, the city began its rise to become one of the most important colonies in the Roman province of Syria. Located at the intersection of the main north-south and east-west roads that crisscrossed the region, Heliopolis soon became a strategic and com- mercial center as well as a spiritual power-place. The surrounding Bekaa valley was known as the ‘breadbasket of Rome’ due to its prodigious output of grains and other agricultural produce. In recognition of these virtues, Augustus early in his reign began construction there of what would become the largest temple complex in the Roman world, a work con- tinued by all of his successors until the Christianization of the empire under Constantine in 313 CE. This much we know, but amazingly, the classical documents say little else about this gar- gantuan and spectacularly elaborate project.