Introduction To The Art of Stone Carving (Sculpting) 🗿👩🏻‍🎨

Stone Engraving Techniques
There are two main methods for carving away excess parts of the stone. The oldest method involves sanding the surface of the stone. As the surface is gradually worn down, the desired image begins to appear. Through careful and repeated sanding and polishing, the final surface gains a unique quality. The surfaces created using this technique are visually and tactilely smooth and refined.

History
Stone carving in Iran began centuries before Christ, originally to create tools for hunting and daily life, and it gradually evolved into a flourishing art. Archaeological findings—such as objects unearthed in the Tepe Yahya site in Kerman—suggest that this craft dates back to 4500 BCE. The discovery of stone vessels from that time indicates that carving decorative and functional objects from green stone was widespread in the region. This stone is still extracted and sent to Mashhad today.
In ancient Iran, stone carving primarily focused on agricultural tools, hunting implements, and animal hide processing equipment. Stone tools found in the Kamarband or Huto caves near Behshahr, dating from 11,000 to 8,000 BCE, confirm this.
Stone also played a major role in constructing historic buildings and ancient monuments. Prominent examples include the palaces of the Achaemenid era, Sassanid reliefs, and more. Persepolis is a clear representation of Achaemenid stone craftsmanship. From the two treasury rooms of Persepolis excavated by the University of Chicago team, over 600 stone vessels—intact and broken—were discovered, including a stemmed stone goblet.

Stone Characteristics for Carving
Stones are extensively used in crafts due to their strength, resistance, durability, and natural availability. Iran offers a wide variety of stones, each suitable for specific applications depending on its shape and type. A stone’s quality is determined by its hardness, color, transparency, veining, and break pattern. Due to their composition, stones don’t absorb colors well—only their surface can be painted, and even that is temporary. Natural stone colors include black, white, cream, yellow, beige, gray, pink, purple, maroon, garnet, turquoise, green, lapis, brown, jade, and brick-red.

Stone Carving Tools
Common tools in stone carving include:

• Moj and Darz chisels (for trimming and cutting),

• Fine naqari chisels (for lines and fine details),

• Toothed chisels (for removing surface excess),

• Keshow chisels (for polishing and background engraving),

• Hole chisels, and

Various hammers and picks (such as single- and double-toothed hammers for roughening surfaces, and the double-ended kampressi pickaxe).

The Stone Carving Process
To begin, stone slabs extracted from mines are cut into three or four parts depending on workshop needs. These initial pieces, called angareh, are roughly shaped with pickaxes into the desired vessel form—then called chalvar, kalangi, or qolouveh.
The next stages are done by hand or machine. In manual work, the chalvar is hollowed out with thick nails and rods, then its outer surface is first rasped and then smoothed with a cloth-based sandpaper.
In machine carving, the kamaneh (a bow strung with cord wound around a wooden axis and fixed to the stone with tar) is used. The carver moves the bow back and forth with one hand while cutting the stone with a hooked tool in the other. This device is essentially a primitive version of a powered lathe. In recent years, motorized machines—especially in Qom—have replaced traditional stone carving equipment.

Final Word
Today, Qom and Mashhad are Iran’s two main centers for stone carving. In these cities, many artisans are involved in the various stages of stone extraction, carving, and engraving.