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A mudbrick is a firefree brick
Brick

A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using mortar ....
 made of clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
, or mud mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw.

In warm regions with very little timber available to fuel a kiln
Kiln

Kilns are thermally insulated chambers, or ovens, in which controlled temperature regimes are produced. They are used to harden, burn or dry materials....
, bricks were generally sun dried. This had the result that their useful lifespan is reduced to around thirty years.






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Choghazanbil2


A mudbrick is a firefree brick
Brick

A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using mortar ....
 made of clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
, or mud mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw.

In warm regions with very little timber available to fuel a kiln
Kiln

Kilns are thermally insulated chambers, or ovens, in which controlled temperature regimes are produced. They are used to harden, burn or dry materials....
, bricks were generally sun dried. This had the result that their useful lifespan is reduced to around thirty years. Once a building collapsed, new bricks would have to be made and the new structure rebuilt on top of the rubble of the decayed old brick. This phenomenon is the primary factor behind the mounds or tell
Tell

Tell, tel , meaning "hill" or "mound", is a type of archaeology site in the form of an earthen mound that results from the accumulation and subsequent erosion of material deposited by long human occupation....
s on which many ancient cities stand.

Adobe
Adobe

Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, and water, with some kind of fibrous or organic material , which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun....
 is a type of mudbrick also used today to save energy and is an environmentally safe way to insulate a house.

The Great Mosque of Djenné
Great Mosque of Djenné

The Great Mosque of Djenn? is the largest mud brick or adobe building in the world and is considered by many architects to be the greatest achievement of the Sudano-Sahelian architectural style, albeit with definite Islamic architecture influences....
, in central Mali
Mali

Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked nation in West Africa. Mali is the seventh largest country in Africa, bordering Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the C?te d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west....
, is the world's largest mudbrick structure.

Ancient world

The South Asia
South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east....
n inhabitants of Mehrgarh
Mehrgarh

Mehrgarh, one of the most important Neolithic sites in archaeology, lies on what is now the "Kachi plain" of today's Balochistan , Pakistan. It is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in South Asia."...
 constructed, and lived in, mud brick houses between 7000–3300 BCE. Mudbricks were in use in the Near East
Near East

Near East today is an ambiguous term that covers different countries for archeologists and historians, on one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other....
 during the aceramic
Aceramic

Aceramic is a classification of certain early human civilisations, implying the culture has not yet produced pottery.The attribute is often associated with the early phase of Neolithic cultures....
 Neolithic B period. The Sumer
Sumer

Sumer was a civilization and a historical region located in Southern Iraq , known as the Cradle of civilization. It lasted from the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period through the Uruk period and the Dynastic periods until the rise of Babylon in the early 2nd millennium BC....
ians used sun-dried bricks in their city construction; typically these bricks were flat on the plano-convex mudbricks. Some bricks were formed in a square mould and rounded so that the middle was thicker than the ends.

In Minoan
Minoan civilization

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization which arose on the island of Crete. The Minoan culture flourished from approximately 27th century BC to 1450 BC; afterwards, Mycenaean Greece culture became dominant at Minoan sites in Crete....
 Crete
Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
 at the Knossos
Knossos

Knossos , also known as the Knossos Palace is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan civilization and culture....
 site there is archaeological evidence that sun-dried bricks were used in the Neolithic
Neolithic

The Neolithic period was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 Before the Christian Era in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age....
 period (e.g. prior to 3400 BC).

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

See also

  • Rammed earth
    Rammed earth

    Rammed earth, also known as pis? de terre or simply pis?, is a type of construction material. It is an age-old construction method that has seen a revival in recent years as people seek more sustainability building materials and natural building methods....


External links

  • , website whose focus is contemporary issues in earth architecture.
  • , 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.
  • , mud brick building and biolytic sewerage in South Africa.