This is a abstract for a paper presented at the 2018 European Association of Archaeologists conference (Barcelona). The session title was ‘Archaeology of rock-hewn sites and quarries: people, stones and landscapes’, and aimed to investigate theoretical and methodological issues of rock-cut sites, and quarries. The paper was a chance for me to make a brief review of the main issues in a work-in-progress which involves archive research and fieldwork carried out during 2018.