Product Overview
From Follett
Includes bibliographical references (pages 100-108).;Abstract -- Sharpening stones -- Typology, description, manufacture -- Whetstones from the brownstones (Lower Devonian) -- Whetstones of upper old red sandstone (Upper Devonian) -- Whetstones of Pennant sandstone (Late Upper Carboniferous) -- Whetstones from the Portland Group (Upper Jurassic) -- Whetstones from the Weald clay formation (Early Lower Cretaceous) -- Whetstones of greensand (Lower Cretaceous) -- Whetstones of sarsen (Cenozoic) -- Whetstones of ironstone (Cenozoic) -- Whetstones from miscellaneous geological sources -- Whetstones from other sites at Silchester -- Whetstone supply and use at Insula IX -- References -- Appendix 1. Gazeteer of whetstones from published Roman sites in southern Britain.
From the Publisher
The five-hundred year occupation of Insula IX at Silchester has yielded a sequence of 87 whetstones, mostly tabular but some bar- or rod-shaped. These are described, illustrated and characterized with the help of thin-section microscopic petrography. The whetstones originated in many geological sources, not all of which can at present be identified. Whetstones from the earliest levels at Silchester are comparatively local in origin (sarsen, ironstone) or were made from discarded, imported milling stones (Quartz Conglomerate, Upper Old Red Sandstone). During the first and second centuries AD substantial numbers of bar-shaped whetstones manufactured in the Wroxeter manner from sandstones in the Weald Clay Formation (earliest Cretaceous) were imported into Silchester. Almost all the whetstones of the later Roman period are secondary in character produced from discarded roofing tiles of Brownstones (Lower Old Red Sandstone) and Pennant sandstone (later Upper Carboniferous) imported from the West Country. Small numbers of whetstones can be traced to the Portland Group (Upper Jurassic) and to the Lower and Upper Greensand Groups (Lower Cretaceous). The provision of sharpening stones to Silchester as a whole is estimated to run into many thousands.