Living stones, dead stones. The rediscovery of the ancient quarries in Massa Lubrense as a contribution to the knowledge and the conservation of the terraced landscape in the Sorrento peninsula

Through the necessary reinterpretation of the cartographic, literary and archival sources, followed by the indispensable field survey, this research intends to lay the groundwork for the rediscovery of the ancient quarries in the Massa Lubrense territory, an extreme offshoot of the Sorrento peninsula characterized by a subsoil particularly rich in easy-to-extract and process raw materials. As well as representing, for ages, an important item in the local economy, the quarrying of limestone, sandstone, gray tuff, pumice and lapillus has incessantly subtracted material from the subsoil, to re-propose it in other forms and functions, and to contribute in a decisive way to the construction and the preservation of a very complex terraced landscape thanks to a well-structured network of boundary and containment walls