Editing Sculpture (section)

===Stone===
[[File:Istanbul - Museo archeologico - Mostra sul colore nell'antichità 08 - Foto G. Dall'Orto 28-5-2006.jpg|thumb|Modern plaster recreation of the original painted appearance of a Late Archaic Greek marble figure from the [[Temple of Aphaea]], based on analysis of pigment traces,<ref>Part of the [[Gods in Color]] exhibition. [http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/exhibitions/past/gods-color-painted-sculpture-classical-antiquity Harvard exhibition] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006044401/http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/exhibitions/past/gods-color-painted-sculpture-classical-antiquity |date=2014-10-06 }}</ref> {{Circa|500 BCE}}]]
[[Stone sculpture]] is an ancient activity where pieces of rough natural [[Rock (geology)|stone]] are shaped by the [[Stone carving|controlled removal of stone]]. Owing to the permanence of the material, evidence can be found that even the earliest societies indulged in some form of stone work, though not all areas of the world have such abundance of good stone for carving as Egypt, Greece, India and most of Europe. [[Petroglyph]]s (also called rock engravings) are perhaps the earliest form: images created by removing part of a rock surface which remains ''in situ'', by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading. [[Monumental sculpture]] covers large works, and [[architectural sculpture]], which is attached to buildings. [[Hardstone carving]] is the carving for artistic purposes of [[semi-precious]] stones such as [[jade]], [[agate]], [[onyx]], [[rock crystal]], [[sard]] or [[carnelian]], and a general term for an object made in this way. [[Alabaster]] or mineral [[gypsum]] is a soft mineral that is easy to carve for smaller works and still relatively durable. [[Engraved gems]] are small carved gems, including [[cameo (carving)|cameos]], originally used as [[seal ring]]s.

The copying of an original statue in stone, which was very important for ancient Greek statues, which are nearly all known from copies, was traditionally achieved by "[[Pointing machine|pointing]]", along with more freehand methods. Pointing involved setting up a grid of string squares on a wooden frame surrounding the original, and then measuring the position on the grid and the distance between grid and statue of a series of individual points, and then using this information to carve into the block from which the copy is made.<ref>Cook, 147; he notes that ancient Greek copyists seem to have used many fewer points than some later ones, and copies often vary considerably in the composition as well as the finish.</ref>