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Factfile: Stonemasonry
The craft of stonemasonry has existed since the dawn of civilisation – creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth.
The craft of stonemasonry has existed since the dawn of civilisation – creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth.These materials have been used toconstruct many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, artefacts, cathedrals, and cities in a wide variety of cultures. Famous products of stonemasonry include the Taj Mahal, Cusco's
Incan Wall, Easter Island's statues, the Egyptian Pyramids, Angkor Wat, Tihua- naco, Tenochtitlan the Iranian Persepolis, the Greek Parthenon and Stonehenge.
Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping rough pieces of rock into accurate geo- metrical shapes, mostly simple, but some of considerable complexity, and then arranging the resulting stones, often together with mortar , to form structures.
They use all types of natural stone including igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary and although they used to rely on mallets and chisels to shape the stone, today power tools such as com- pressed-air chisels, abrasive spinners and angle grinders are used to save time and money.
Related feature:
Tara Dundon meets Stonemason Jeffery Weatherington, who has reglazed all of Peterborough Cathedral's windows at least once, is celebrating a 50-year career. 3 March 2009
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