by
Wallace McLeod
(1931 - 2020)
One of the main symbols of the degree of
Mark Master is the mason’s mark. It is a
type of identifying device that goes back long before the invention of
writing. In many societies a craftsman
would set his mark on his handiwork to identify it as his production; this was
done not just by stonecutters, but also by other artisans, such as pottery
makers. Thirty-five years ago I had the
opportunity to do some archeological work in Greece, and I can testify that
potters 5000 years ago, in the Late Stone Age, used to put marks on the vessels
they had cast. This is more than a thousand
years before real writing reached that part of the world.
It doesn’t seem likely that such marks were actually on building stones
until considerably later, and probably not at the time of King Solomon’s Temple. But if you look at the great stone-built
cathedrals of Europe, you will find that many of the individual stones do have
marks inscribed on them. They are
usually simple, being composed of straight lines, and sometimes including
squares, angles, and triangles. These
are masons’ marks.