Mudbrick

New, unlaid mudbricks in the Jordan Valley, West Bank (2011)

Mudbrick was used for the construction of Elamite ziggurats—some of the world's largest and oldest constructions. Choqa Zanbil, a 13th-century BC ziggurat in Iran, is similarly constructed from clay bricks combined with burnt bricks.^[1]

A mudbrick is a brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw.

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 with stucco.

Banco

The Great Mosque of Djenné is a well-known Mosque located in Djenné, Mali, and the largest mudbrick structure in the world.

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: 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.^[2]

Ancient world

The South Asian inhabitants of Mehrgarh constructed, and lived in, mud brick houses between 7000–3300 BCE.^[3] Mud bricks used at more than 15 reported sites in 3rd millennium BC are attributed as major cultural trait in the ancient Indus valley civilization.^[4] Mudbricks were in use in the Middle East during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. The Mesopotamians used sun-dried bricks in their city construction;^[5] typically these bricks were flat on the bottom and curved on the top, called plano-convex mudbricks. Some bricks were formed in a square mould and rounded so that the middle was thicker than the ends. In Ancient Egypt, workers gathered mud from the Nile river, and then dug a pit and poured the mud into the pit. Workers then tramped on the mud while straw was added to solidify the mold. In Minoan Crete at the Knossos site there is archaeological evidence that sun-dried bricks were used in the Neolithic period (e.g. prior to 3400 BC).^[6]

Mudbricks were used to some extent in pre-Roman Egypt, and mudbrick use increased at the time of Roman influence.^[7]

Mudbrick architecture worldwide

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  Production of mudbricks for construction in Niger, 2007.

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  Mudbrick is still used today, as seen here in the Romania Danube River Delta.

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  The "Old Town" area of Zinder, Niger, with traditional painted mudbrick buildings.

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  A Punjabi mudbrick home in Pakistan.

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  Mudbrick high-rises in Shibam, Yemen.

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  Making mudbricks near Cooktown, Australia

See also

• Adobe – Often used in the making of mudbricks.
• Cob
• Earth structure
• Loam
• Rammed earth

Notes

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