Quarry tooling
A working face in the Silsila sandstone quarries shows the horizontal borders between different layers of extracted blocks, as well the widths of some individual blocks – which were small units for ashlar masonry. The diagonal channels are from the trenches cut behind each line of blocks in order to separate them from the bedrock. With soft stones like the sandstone here, this is usually done with a pointed chisel and mallet. The rough channels on the stones could be reduced afterward with a drove (a large flat chisel for coarse finishing).
Gebel el-Silsila quarries: 18th Dynasty, 14th century BC
Quarry tooling
A working face in the Silsila sandstone quarries shows the horizontal borders between different layers of extracted blocks, as well the widths of some individual blocks – which were small units for ashlar masonry. The diagonal channels are from the trenches cut behind each line of blocks in order to separate them from the bedrock. With soft stones like the sandstone here, this is usually done with a pointed chisel and mallet. The rough channels on the stones could be reduced afterward with a drove (a large flat chisel for coarse finishing).
Gebel el-Silsila quarries: 18th Dynasty, 14th century BC