First, let me remind you about examples from China, article:
Another cave with traces of mining equipment was found in China - as in the Longyu grottoes
and in Japan: Traces of mining equipment on the walls of an ancient alpine quarry in Japan
I invite all readers who are not familiar with these objects to look at the traces left on the walls of these ancient grottoes and quarries and then proceed, in fact, to the topic of this article - the ancient Roman quarry of Bidemus (Carrières_de_Bibémus), according to the French Wikipedia. The quarry is located in a nature reserve near Aix-en-Provence in southern France.
What do we see in the photo? A large stone mass in the form of a pillar has been left on the left and parallel grooves are visible on all vertical surfaces. But not continuous, from top to bottom, but in segments, layers. In one layer - directed at one angle, in the second - at another. There are caverns in the stone, which indicates the heterogeneity of the rock.
Promotional video:
These parallel furrows are there throughout on vertical and inclined surfaces. These are not picks or chisels. If used, the tracks would be chaotic. The system is traced here, as in the operation of a mechanism.
Why they left these stone masses, why they cut the rock selectively - is not clear.
The French Wikipedia page (link: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrières_de_Bibémus… has some interesting facts. I will briefly list them:
Caverns in rock are pockets of sand. It is believed to be the bottom of an ancient sea. And maybe the exits of mud masses from the bowels
Rock extraction technology. The ancients made a stone staircase from the extracted blocks and carved the next ledge along it with certain peaks, separating the edge of the block. These peaks left furrows, sometimes up to eight (!) Centimeters wide
Can you imagine a type of scraper that will leave a furrow several centimeters wide in one pass in hard rock? If only the rock was loose, like dry clay. Maybe it was such a rock that turned to stone after extraction? And the secrets of free masons (masons) are the secrets of the extraction and processing of such rocks, which turned into stone. They knew where to get them, how and how to process them. In other words, they were monopolists for building materials.
Here is a modern tool for rock drills and hammers that splits and processes rocks:
Blade, chisel and lance.
It is such a tool that leaves furrows in the hard rock. But not a manual pick.
Another explanation
The quarry existed until 1885, and at the end of the 19th century. there were already pneumatic drills. It is possible that these furrows were left by mechanized labor (peak + pneumatic drill). If so, now it is difficult to judge: where exactly is the ancient mining, and where from the 19th century.
A few more photos of these furrows:
In the next article, we will consider another, even larger-scale object of ancient stone mining in France - Carrières du Val d'Enfer:
