Proterozoic Slates from Chamba and Kangra: a Heritage Stone Resource from Himachal Pradesh, India
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Proterozoic Slates from Chamba and Kangra: a Heritage Stone Resource from Himachal Pradesh, India Gurmeet Kaur 1 & Om N. Bhargava 1 & Vicente G. Ruiz de Argandoña 2 & Som Nath Thakur 3 & Amritpaul Singh 1 & Jaspreet Saini 1 & Parminder Kaur 1 & Uday Sharma 1 & Sanchit Garg 1 & Jeesu Jaskanwar Singh 4 & Víctor Cárdenes 2 Received: 13 February 2020 / Accepted: 24 June 2020 # The European Association for Conservation of the Geological Heritage 2020
Abstract The Heritage Stone Subcommission (HSS), under the aegis of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), accords “Global Heritage Stone Resource” status to stones used in architectural heritage sites that are particularly important for local cultures and traditions. The Proterozoic slates of Himachal Pradesh have been used extensively in the architectural heritage of the Himalayan region of India. The deposits, occurring in Himachal Pradesh’s Chamba, Kangra, Mandi, Kullu, Shimla, Sirmaur, Kinnuar, and Solan districts, have been quarried as a building material since the distant past for use in roofing, paving, fencing, and flooring. It can be found in prominent historic buildings such as the Shimla Town Hall Building, the Gaiety Theatre, and the Bandstand (Shimla); the Sarahan Palace and Bhimakali Temple (Sarahan); and the Pragpur heritage village and the temples of Champavati and Laxmi Narayan (Chamba), to name just a few. The crudely foliated varieties are employed locally as masonry in traditional Kath-Khuni architecture (cator-and-cribbage buildings using stone and local wood). Keywords Slate . Stone heritage . Himachal Pradesh . Dimension stone
Introduction The Heritage Stone Subcommission (HSS), a global body under the aegis of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), compiles information on heritage stone resources from various continents, and can recommend them to IUGS-Executive Committee,
* Víctor Cárdenes [email protected] 1
Department of Geology, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
2
Department of Geology, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain
3
Department of Geography, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
4
University School of Open Learning, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India
which has the authority to designate a stone as a Global Heritage Stone Resource (GHSR) based on certain parameters (http://globalheritagestone.com/reportsand-documents/terms-of-reference/; Cooper 2010). The most important criterion is the utilization of a given natural stone in particularly significant architectural heritage structures. The Subcommission also promotes the preservation of the historical quarries and mines that have provided natural stones for architectural heritage. The designation of GHSR boosts study, preservation, and protection of stones that were utilized in the cultural and architectural heritage. So far, up to 22 stones have achieved the GHSR designation (http://globalheritagestone.com/otherprojects/ghsr/designations/). The Indian subcontinent is endowed with a vast variety of di
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