Editing Mudbrick (section)

==Ancient world==
[[File: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.jpg|thumb|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]]

The history of mudbrick production and construction in the [[southern Levant]] may be dated as far back to the [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]] (e.g., PPNA Jericho).<ref name="Rosenberg2020">{{cite journal |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Danny |last2=Love |first2=Serena |last3=Hubbard |first3=Emily |last4=Klimscha |first4=Florian |title=7,200 years old constructions and mudbrick technology: The evidence from Tel Tsaf, Jordan Valley, Israel |journal=PLOS ONE |date=22 January 2020 |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=e0227288 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0227288 |pmid=31968007 |pmc=6975557 |bibcode=2020PLoSO..1527288R |issn=1932-6203|doi-access=free }}</ref> These sun dried mudbricks, also known as adobe or just mudbrick, were made from a mixture of sand, clay, water and frequently tempered (e.g. chopped straw and chaff branches), and were the most common method/material for constructing earthen buildings throughout the ancient Near East for millennia.<ref name="Rosenberg2020"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hasel |first1=Michael G. |editor1-last=Freedman |editor1-first=David Noel |title=Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible |date=2019 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |isbn=978-1-4674-6046-0 |pages=246–247? |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fq7qDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT246 |chapter=Architecture |access-date=2023-03-23 |archive-date=2023-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924173123/https://books.google.com/books?id=Fq7qDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT246 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Morgenstein1998">{{cite journal |last1=Morgenstein |first1=Maury E. |last2=Redmount |first2=Carol A. |title=Mudbrick Typology, Sources, and Sedimentological Composition: A Case Study from Tell el-Muqdam, Egyptian Delta |journal=Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt |date=1998 |volume=35 |pages=129–146 |doi=10.2307/40000466 |jstor=40000466 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000466 |issn=0065-9991 |access-date=2021-04-23 |archive-date=2023-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230923195348/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000466 |url-status=live }}</ref> Unfired mud-brick is still made throughout the world today, using both modern and traditional methods.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Littman |first1=Robert |last2=Lorenzon |first2=Marta |last3=Silverstein |first3=Jay |title=With & without straw: How Israelite slaves made bricks |journal=Biblical Archaeology Review |date=2014 |volume=40 |issue=2 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287786412 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Emery |first1=Virginia L. |title=Mud-Brick |journal=UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology |date=2009 |volume=1 |issue=1 |url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt7v84d6rh/qt7v84d6rh.pdf |access-date=2021-04-23 |archive-date=2023-09-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924082904/https://escholarship.org/content/qt7v84d6rh/qt7v84d6rh.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

The 9000 BCE dwellings of [[Jericho]] were constructed from mudbricks,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tellier|first=Luc-Normand|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cXuCjDbxC1YC&q=jericho+9000+bc+bricks&pg=PA37|title=Urban World History: An Economic and Geographical Perspective|date=2009|publisher=PUQ|isbn=978-2-7605-2209-1|language=en}}</ref> affixed with mud, as were those at  numerous sites across the [[Levant]] over the following millennia. Well-preserved mudbricks from a site at [[Tel Tsaf]], in the Jordan Valley, have been dated to 5200 BCE,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Rosenberg|first1=Danny|last2=Love|first2=Serena|last3=Hubbard|first3=Emily|last4=Klimscha|first4=Florian|date=2020-01-22|title=7,200 years old constructions and mudbrick technology: The evidence from Tel Tsaf, Jordan Valley, Israel|journal=PLOS ONE|language=en|volume=15|issue=1|pages=e0227288|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0227288|issn=1932-6203|pmc=6975557|pmid=31968007|bibcode=2020PLoSO..1527288R|doi-access=free}}</ref> though there is no evidence that either site was the first to use the technology. Evidence suggests that the mudbrick composition at Tel Tsaf was stable for at least 500 years, throughout the middle [[Chalcolithic]] period.<ref name="Rosenberg2020"/>

The [[South Asia]]n inhabitants of [[Mehrgarh]] constructed and lived in mud-brick houses between 7000–3300 BCE.<ref name="Possehl">Possehl, Gregory L. (1996)</ref> Mud bricks were used at more than 15 reported sites attributed to the 3rd millennium BCE in the ancient [[Indus Valley civilization]]. In the [[Mature Harappan]] phase fired bricks were used.<ref name="Bricks and Urbanism in Indus Valley">[https://www.academia.edu/1285495/Bricks_and_urbanism_in_the_Indus_Valley_rise_and_decline Bricks and urbanism in the Indus Valley rise and decline] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190517180023/https://www.academia.edu/1285495/Bricks_and_urbanism_in_the_Indus_Valley_rise_and_decline |date=2019-05-17 }}, bricks in antiquity</ref>

The [[Mesopotamia]]ns used sun-dried bricks in their city construction;<ref>Mogens Herman Hansen, ''A Comparative Study of Six City-state Cultures'', Københavns universitet Polis centret (2002) Videnskabernes Selskab, 144 pages {{ISBN|87-7876-316-9}}</ref> 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.  Some walls had a few courses of fired bricks from their bases up to the splash line to extend the life of the building.
[[File:SudanKhartoum-TutiIsland-BrickmakingCorinthia RomanDeckert20160207.jpg|thumb|Traditional brickyard on [[Tuti Island]] in [[Sudan]].]]
In [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] [[Crete]], at the [[Knossos]] site, there is [[archaeological]] evidence that sun-dried bricks were used in the [[Neolithic]] period (prior to 3400 BCE).<ref>C. Michael Hogan, [http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/10854/knossos.html#fieldnotes ''Knossos fieldnotes'', Modern Antiquarian (2007)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108021923/http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/10854/knossos.html#fieldnotes |date=2017-11-08 }}</ref>

Sun dried mudbrick was the most common construction material employed in [[ancient Egypt]] during pharaonic times and were made in pretty much the same way for millennia. Mud from some locations required sand, chopped straw or other binders such as animal dung to be mixed in with the mud to increase durability and plasticity.<ref name="Morgenstein1998"/> 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.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}} The mudbricks were chemically suitable as [[Sebakh|fertilizer]], leading to the destruction of many ancient Egyptian ruins, such as at [[Edfu]]. A well-preserved site is [[Amarna]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Hawkes|first=Jacquetta|author-link=Jacquetta Hawkes|title=Atlas of Ancient Archaeology|year=1974|publisher=[[McGraw-Hill Education|McGraw-Hill Book Company]]|isbn=0-07-027293-X|page=[https://archive.org/details/atlasofancientar00hawk/page/146 146]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/atlasofancientar00hawk/page/146}}</ref> Mudbrick use increased at the time of [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] influence.<ref>[[Kathryn A. Bard]] and Steven Blake Shubert, eds., ''Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt'', 1999, Routledge, 938 pages  {{ISBN|0-415-18589-0}}</ref>

In the [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek]] world, mudbrick was commonly used for the building of walls, fortifications and citadels, such as the walls of the Citadel of [[Troy]] (Troy II).<ref>[[Richard T. Neer|Neer, Richard. T]]., ''Art & archaeology of the Greek world: a new history, c. 2500-c.150 BCE,'' Second edition, Thames and Hudson, London, 2019, pp.23</ref> These mudbricks were often made with straw or dried vegetable matter.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Birge |first1=Darice Elizabeth |last2=Miller |first2=Stephen Gaylord |last3=Kraynak |first3=Lynn Harriett |last4=Miller |first4=S. G. |title=Excavations at Nemea. |date=1992–2018 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-07027-1 |page=113n345 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ojTPxLcWGTwC&pg=PA113 |quote=Adding straw or dried vegetable matter to the clay of mudbricks was a common practice |access-date=2023-03-23 |archive-date=2023-06-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630161019/https://books.google.com/books?id=ojTPxLcWGTwC&pg=PA113 |url-status=live }}</ref>