The archaeology of quarries and rock-cut sites

To fully appreciate the contributions of archaeological studies devoted to the understanding of quarries and rock-cut structures, it seems advisable to focus the attention over the human, geological and technical aspects that are common to this kind of sites. Such conceptual bonds became evident to archaeologists only recently, after a long theoretical and methodological development of research in the field. For a long time, studies of quarries and rock-cut monuments have been carried out independently, often underpinning different research goals. A brief overview of research approaches and bibliographical references on these specific subjects allows us to better appreciate the direction of the current investigations. This paper is divided into three sections: a general overview of the field of studies; a focus on quarries and, finally, the outline of recent advances in the study of rock-cut sites. Studies on ancient quarries are numerous and closely connected with the analysis of the nature of the stone itself whereas research on rock-cut sites remains somehow neglected and scattered, since it drew scholars’ attention only during the 21st century.