That's probably it.  On Joe Zias's website..there is a link to an article
on the Absalom tomb....and it describes how they made a cast of the carved
stone.  I suppose as a last resort one could use such methods....but you
sure wouldnt want a lot of people making casts of the same stone...over and
over.  Bad idea.

http://www.stevequayle.com/Giants/Ancient.Civ_Technol/030707.John.Baptist.dads.html

At 09:13 PM 4/8/04 -0400, geoff carver  wrote:
>If it was "squeezing" I thought that was done with a fairly pulpy paper that
>you got wet, pressed onto the surface, then let dry (collecting the imprint)
>-
>Not papier mache, cuz that would stick, but something with the consistency
>of cardboard egg cartons, which you could stack -
>One of the best examples I know is of some big trilingual inscription on the
>side of some mountain in afghanistan or syria that someone spent about 10
>years sqeezing back in the 19th century