Documentary Of Marble Quarries Based In Greece (Marble Extraction And Processing)

Thanks @hollydolly , that is fascinating. I've always loved stone construction, and have several marble countertops in the house.

Lived in Cockeysville, Maryland once (just north of Baltimore). Home of one of the few marble quarries in the US. The quality is nothing like what you get in Greece or Italy, but the Washington Monument in DC was made from the Cockeysville marble. Most of the Cockeysville marble ends up as crushed marble - gravel.
 
Thanks @hollydolly , that is fascinating. I've always loved stone construction, and have several marble countertops in the house.

Lived in Cockeysville, Maryland once (just north of Baltimore). Home of one of the few marble quarries in the US. The quality is nothing like what you get in Greece or Italy, but the Washington Monument in DC was made from the Cockeysville marble. Most of the Cockeysville marble ends up as crushed marble - gravel.
Glad you enjoyed it Rob... it's really fascinating I find.. and somewhat akin to looking at gold being mined, in that marble is so beautiful and so expensive
 

Do you know that the word "sincere", comes from the Latin words "sine cera", meaning "without wax"?

Big blocks of marble and granite that had flaws and cracks in them could be made to look flawless by filing the cracks with a mixture of marble,/granite dust and wax. The sculptor couldn't detect the cracks until they had started to work on the marble.

Ancient reputable stone sellers would advertise their goods as "sine cera", thus assuring buyers that they were receiving quality stone, without cracks.

Of course, I'm pretty sure there were dishonest stone dealers long before there were dishonest used-car dealers....LOL.
 
Do you know that the word "sincere", comes from the Latin words "sine cera", meaning "without wax"?

Big blocks of marble and granite that had flaws and cracks in them could be made to look flawless by filing the cracks with a mixture of marble,/granite dust and wax. The sculptor couldn't detect the cracks until they had started to work on the marble.

Ancient reputable stone sellers would advertise their goods as "sine cera", thus assuring buyers that they were receiving quality stone, without cracks.

Of course, I'm pretty sure there were dishonest stone dealers long before there were dishonest used-car dealers....LOL.

In doing archaeology in Egypt they found hundreds of thousands of mummified birds. These were offerings at the temple. I think they were mummified ibis. But they also found chicken bones, wrapped like mummified ibis.

They also found clay tablets with inscriptions. Egypt had an elaborate bureaucracy and they found endless tablets.

One was from an official. He had received a complaint that scammers were selling wrapper chicken bones, instead of mummified ibis to religious pilgrims. The inscription he wrote read: "make sure there is a god in every pot."

(not making this up. I just Googled it to see if I could find the original source, but no luck so far)
 
Hall in Marble Palace in St Petersburg

saint-petersburg-russia-march-hall-marble-palace-marble-palace-one-first-neoclassical-palaces-st-petersburg-115501681.jpg
 

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