An ancient quarry near Drama

On the South slope of a hill called Stenokoryphi, not far from Drama, numerous veins of clear grey, small-grained, dolomitic marble Outcrop over an area of about 19000 m(2) amongst dense vegetation. Apart from a vertical quarry face associated with the working of marble in the 1950s, when attempts were made to extract it at depth with the aid of a pneumatic drill, there are only oblique quarry faces (following the slope), involving surface extraction. Since the veins have a homogeneous, compact mass, traces of extraction are visible; some of them (canals, {emboitures}, cuttings for corners, negatives of blocks quarried), are in keeping with those of the extraction techniques used in the Roman period, while other {enfoncures} are evidence of the extraction technique of the Early Byzantine period. Lime kilns were identified, one from the Early Byzantine period and the other contemporary with modern working, which produced the few abandoned blocks.