An Exceptional Lower Carboniferous Historical Heritage Stone from Belgium, the ‘Pierre de Meuse’.

Autor: Dreesen, Roland, Poty, Edouard, Mottequin, Bernard, Marion, Jean-Marc, Denayer, Julien
Zdroj: Geoheritage; Dec2021, Vol. 13 Issue 4, p1-16, 16p
Abstrakt: Among the many reputed Belgian historical heritage stones, the Dinantian (Lower Carboniferous) ‘Pierre de Meuse’ is certainly one of the most important. The ‘Pierre de Meuse’ sensu stricto is a limestone of middle Viséan age (Lower Carboniferous) that is particularly well exposed and well accessible in the Meuse valley, downstream of the city of Namur. The Romans were first to make a wide use of this limestone, both as a building and a decorative stone. Furthermore, during medieval times, it has become the hallmark of Romanesque religious and public buildings, funerary monuments, floor tiles and tombstones. Detailed in situ investigations of historical monuments allowed to define five different macroscopic lithofacies within the ‘Pierre de Meuse’. The latter lithofacies or varieties of the ’Pierre de Meuse’ have all been successively used as building and/or decorative stone during different time intervals. Their main macroscopic and microscopic (paleontological and petrographical) characteristics are here briefly described and illustrated, as well as their characteristic microfacies and index microfossils. Some of the finest and most famous Belgian black marbles, the ‘Marbre noir de Namur’, has been derived from particular thinly bedded, black-coloured micritic limestones within the same Lives Formation: its unique chroma and quality have been appreciated at least since Roman times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Databáze: Complementary Index