Mudbrick

A mudbrick or mud-brick is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud,

sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Though
mudbricks are known from 7000-6000 BCE, since 4000 BC, bricks have also been
fired, to increase their strength and durability
.

In warm regions with very little timber available to fuel a kiln, bricks were generally
sun dried. In some cases, brickmakers extended the life of mud bricks by putting
fired bricks on top or covering them withstucco.

New, unlaid mudbricks in theJordan

Valley, West Bank (2011)
Contents
Ancient world
Adobe
Banco
Mudbrick architecture worldwide
See also
Notes
References
External links Mudbrick was used for the
construction of Elamite ziggurats—
some of the world's largest and
oldest constructions. Choqa Zanbil, a
Ancient world 13th-century BC ziggurat in Iran, is
similarly constructed from clay bricks
The South Asian inhabitants of Mehrgarh constructed and lived in mud-brick houses
combined with burnt bricks.[1]
between 7000–3300 BC.[2] Mud bricks were used at more than 15 reported sites
attributed to the 3rd millennium BC in the ancient Indus Valley Civilization. In the
Mature Harappan phase fired bricks were used.[3]

Mudbricks were adopted in the Middle East from Indus Valley Cities during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. The Mesopotamians
used sun-dried bricks in their city construction; [4] typically these bricks were flat on the bottom and curved on the top, called plano-
convex mud bricks. Some were formed in a square mould and rounded so that the middle was thicker than the ends.

In Minoan Crete, at the Knossos site, there is archaeological evidence that sun-dried bricks were used in the Neolithic period (prior to
3400 BC).[5]

In Ancient Egypt, workers gathered mud from the Nile river and poured it into a pit. Workers then tramped on the mud while straw
was added to solidify the mold. The mudbricks were chemically suitable as fertilizer, leading to the destruction of many ancient
Egyptian ruins, such as atEdfu. A well-preserved site isAmarna.[6] Mudbrick use increased at the time ofRoman influence.[7]

Adobe
In areas of Spanish influence, mud-brick construction is called adobe, and developed over time into a complete system of wall
protection, flat roofing and finishes which in modern English usage is often referred to as adobe style, regardless of the construction
method.
Banco
The Great Mosque of Djenné, in central Mali, is the world's largest mudbrick
structure. It, like much Sahelian architecture, is built with a mudbrick called
Banco,[8] a recipe of mud and grain husks, fermented, and either formed into bricks
or applied on surfaces as a plaster like paste in broad strokes. This plaster must be
reapplied annually.[9]

Mudbrick architecture worldwide

Mud-brick stamped with seal

impression of raised relief of the
Treasury of the Vizier. From Lahun,
Fayum, Egypt. 12th Dynasty. The
Petrie Museum of Egyptian
Archaeology, London
Production of mudbricks Mudbrick is still used
for construction in Niger, today, as seen here in
2007. the Romania Danube
River Delta.

The Great Mosque of Djenné is a

well-known Mosque located in
Djenné, Mali, and the largest
The "Old Town" area of A Punjabi mudbrick mudbrick structure in the world.
Zinder, Niger, with home in Pakistan.
traditional painted
mudbrick buildings.

Mudbrick high-rises in Making mudbricks near

Shibam, Yemen. Cooktown, Australia

See also
Cob – Building material made from subsoil, water
, and fibrous organic material
 Cob – Building material made from subsoil, water , and fibrous organic material
Earth structure – A building or other structure made largely from soil.
Loam – Soil composed of similar proportions of sand and silt, and somewhat less clay
Rammed earth
Sod house

Notes
1. Roman Ghirshman, La ziggourat de T choga-Zanbil (Susiane), Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, vol. 98 lien Issue 2, pp. 233-238, 1954
2. Possehl, Gregory L. (1996)
3. Bricks and urbanism in the Indus Valley rise and decline (https://www.academia.edu/1285495/Bricks_and_urbanism_
in_the_Indus_Valley_rise_and_decline), bricks in antiquity
4. Mogens Herman Hansen,A Comparative Study of Six City-state Cultures
, Københavns universitet Polis centret
(2002) Videnskabernes Selskab, 144 pagesISBN 87-7876-316-9
5. C. Michael Hogan, Knossos fieldnotes, Modern Antiquarian (2007)(http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/1085
4/knossos.html#fieldnotes)
6. Hawkes, Jacquetta (1974). Atlas of Ancient Archaeology. McGraw-Hill Book Company. p. 146. ISBN 0-07-027293-X.
7. Kathryn A. Bard and Steven Blake Shubert,Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt
, 1999, Routledge,
938 pages ISBN 0-415-18589-0
8. SACKO, Oussouby (15 November 2015)."Issues of Cultural Conservation and T ourism Development in the Process
of World Heritage Preservation"(http://www.kyoto-seika.ac.jp/researchlab/wp/wp-content/uploads/kiyo/pdf-data/no4
1/oussouby_sacko.pdf)(PDF). Area Studies. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
9. Bradbury, Dominic (30 October 2008)."Timbuktu: Mud, mud, glorious mud"(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3
562677/Timbuktu-Mud-mud-glorious-mud.html). The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 February 2012.

References
Possehl, Gregory L. (1996).Mehrgarh in Oxford Companion to Archaeology, edited by Brian Fagan. Oxford
University Press.

External links
Earth Architecture, website whose focus is contemporary issues in earth architecture.
EARTHA: Earth Architecture and Conservation in East Anglia , British organisation that focuses on the proper
maintenance and conservation of earth buildings in a region of the UK that has a long history of building with mud.
Very experienced experts are contactable and there are regular demonstrations in the area.
Video showing mud brick making, mud brick building and biolytic sewerage in South Africa.
CRAterre: Centre de recherche architectural en terre, French university research organisation dedicated to unfired
earth construction

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mudbrick&oldid=877627452

"

This page was last edited on 9 January 2019, at 21:35(UTC).

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of theWikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.