Today, carved into some 4,000 carefully labeled pieces, it sits in a warehouse not far from the Cook County jail.

Pendarric, the last of their kings, hacked a section from it and used that one broken piece to carve an empire.

Today, the stoneyard is silent, some pieces carved into Gothic spires, others still in raw form.

A piece of bone, carved in the shape of a beast.

In fact, the capstone is one single piece, weighing 15 to 20 tons, carved to give the appearance of three layers.

It was like shaking a piece of wood carved to look like a man.

He had heard of and seen many other pieces of the Low Country carved up and recreated as havens for the rich.

A magnificent chess set, the pieces carved of bone tipped with silver and set on a polished wooden board.

It was ivory, the pieces beautifully carved, each with a tiny emerald, sapphire or ruby in an apppropriate and sometimes not so appropriate place.

A piece of lavender jade carved in the shape of the hindquarters of a tiger.