The Medieval Stone Revolution Reflected in Hebrew Inscriptions from Worms and Mainz

In medieval Europe, erecting a religious building made of stone was about more than walling off a space for prayer and ritual. The efforts involved in quarrying, carrying, and constructing with stone, particularly finely cut (ashlar) stone, were extensive.¹ Yet despite the enormous expenditure of effort and resources it demanded, by the eleventh century stone architecture for religious buildings had become the norm. The French monk and chronicler Ralf (Rodulf) Glaber succinctly described in real time what historians later noted regarding the High Middle Ages—a surge in building that seemed to be disconnected from practical necessity.² St. Odilo, the