Natural stones are integral part of the architectonic heritage built over the centuries and thus reflect close cultural affiliation with society. Our session deals with Heritage Stones defined explicitly by the IUGS Sub Commission on Heritage Stones (HSS). We promote recognition of natural stones that have achieved an important and significant use in human culture. The session is open to discuss the use of heritage stones in different civilizations over the period of time, their impact on human culture, geoheritage, geoarchaeology and architectonic relevance. The session is also open to discuss current scenario on status of the architectonic heritage in terms of their deterioration and steps to reinforce restoration of the same, in addition to aspects such as historical quarries, quarry landscape and trade of these heritage stones etc.
Global Heritage Stones constitute a resource of great social and economic relevance that attracts cultural tourism, and form an important link to understand the geology and history of a region. Global Heritage Stone recognition will promote public and policy-maker interest in stonebuilt heritage, encourage the use of natural stones and ensure the availability of stones required for maintenance and restoration of built heritage. It will also assist in forming a broader understanding of how the usage of the most traditional building material has evolved over centuries to the present-day application. As factory produced building materials took over in the last two centuries or so, architects seem to be re-evaluating their choices and there is a reawakened interest in the usage of stone as a contemporary building material.
This session is promoted by the Heritage Stones Subcommission (HSS), an IUGS subcommission within the International Commission on Geoheritage (ICG). The proposed session encourages contributions related to above sub themes from all over the world.
Selected contributions from our previous EGU sessions are published in high impact factor journals, such as: Geological Society of London Special Publications (SP407: Global Heritage Stone: Towards International Recognition of Building and Ornamental Stones), Episodes Special Issue on Heritage Stones (volume 38-2, June 2015), Geoscience Canada (volume 43(1), March 2016), Geoheritage (2018), Episodes (in process of publication by 2020). Selected contributions of EGU 2020 will be considered for publication in a special issue of a well rated journal.