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A remarkable campaign of decorative stone quarrying took place in the southwestern Egyptian desert almost 5000 years ago. The target for quarrying was Precambrian plagioclase−hornblende gneiss, from which several life-sized statues of King Chephren (or Khafra) and thousands of funerary vessels were produced. The former inspired George Murray in 1939 to name the ancient quarry site 'Chephren's Quarries.' Almost 700 individual extraction pits are found in the area, in which free-standing boulders formed by spheroidal weathering were worked by stone tools made from local rocks and fashioned into rough-outs for the production of vessels and statues. These were transported over large distances across Egypt to Nile Valley workshops for finishing. Although some of these workshop locations remain unknown, there is evidence to suggest that, during the Predynastic to Early Dynastic period, the permanent settlement at Hierakonpolis (Upper Egypt) could have been one destination, and during the Old Kingdom, another may have been located at pyramid construction sites such as the Giza Plateau (Lower Egypt). Chephren's Quarries remains one of the earliest examples of how the combined aesthetic appearance and supreme technical quality of a rock made humans go to extreme efforts to obtain and transport this raw material on an ‘industrial’ scale from a remote source. The quarries were abandoned about 4500 years ago, leaving a rare and well-preserved insight into ancient stone quarrying technologies. RESUMEUne remarquable campagne d’extraction de pierres decorative a ete mene dans le sud-ouest du desert egyptien il y a pres de 5000 ans. La roche cible etait un gneiss a plagioclase–hornblende, de laquelle ont ete tire plusieurs statues grandeur nature du roi Khephren (ou Khâef Re) et des milliers de vases funeraires. C’est pourquoi George Murray, en 1939, a donne au site de l’ancienne carriere le nom de 'Chephren’s Quarries.' On peut trouver pres de 700 fosses d’extraction sur le site, renfermant des blocs de roches formes par alteration spheroidale qui ont ete degrossis avec des outils de pierre pour la production de vases et de statues. Puis ils ont ete transportes a travers l’Egypte jusqu’aux ateliers de finition de la vallee du Nil. Bien que la localisation de certains de ces ateliers demeure inconnue, certains indices permettent de penser que, de la periode predynastique jusqu’a la periode dynastique precoce, l’etablissement permanent a Hierakonpolis (Haute Egypte) aurait pu etre l’une de ces destinations; durant l’Ancien empire une autre destination aurait pu etre situee aux sites de construction de pyramides comme le Plateau de Giza (Basse Egypte). Les Chephren’s Quarries l’une des plus anciennes exemples montrant comment la combinaison des qualites esthetiques et techniques remarquables de la roche ont incite les humains a consentir de si grands efforts pour extraire et transporter ce materiau brute a une echelle industrielle d’un site eloigne. Les carrieres ont ete abandonnees il y a environ 4500 ans, nous laissant une fenetre rare et bien conserve sur des technologies anciennes d’extraction de pierre de taille.Traduit par le Traducteur

Heritage Stone 6. Gneiss for the Pharaoh: Geology of the Third Millennium BCE Chephren's Quarries in Southern Egypt