Mudbrick or mud-brick , also known as unfired brick, is an air-dried brick , made of a mixture of mud (containing loam , clay , sand and water ) mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw . Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE.
16-573: Zinder Mosque was a mudbrick mosque in Zinder , Niger . Located in the Birni neighborhood of Zinder, it was one of Niger's oldest mosques and a significant cultural and religious site in Zinder. The mosque was destroyed on 3 September 2024, due to severe flooding in the central-eastern region of Niger. Constructed in the mid-19th century, Zinder Mosque was an iconic structure for the local community. It
32-448: A kiln , mudbricks continued to be in use. Even today, mudbricks are the standard of vernacular architecture in some warmer regions- mainly in parts of Africa and western Asia . In the 20th century, the compressed earth block was developed using high pressure as a cheap and eco-friendly alternative to obtain non-fired bricks with more strength than the simpler air-dried mudbricks. The history of mudbrick production and construction in
48-460: A fuel for fires. Most sebakh consists of ancient, deteriorated mudbrick, a primary building material in ancient Egypt . This material is composed of ancient mud mixed with the nitrous compost of the hay and stubble that the bricks were originally formulated with to give added strength before being baked in the sun. A common practice in Egypt, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century,
64-478: Is often referred to as adobe style , regardless of the construction method. The Great Mosque of Djenné , in central Mali , is the world's largest mudbrick structure. It, like much of 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. In some cases, brickmakers extended
80-521: Is still made throughout the world today, using both modern and traditional methods. The 9000 BCE dwellings of Jericho were constructed from mudbricks, 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, though there is no evidence that either site
96-550: The 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). These mudbricks were often made with straw or dried vegetable matter. 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
112-479: The Mature Harappan phase fired bricks were used. The Mesopotamians used sun-dried bricks in their city construction; 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
128-495: The southern Levant may be dated as far back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (e.g., PPNA Jericho). 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. Unfired mud-brick
144-434: The discovery of archaeological finds that might otherwise have gone undetected. Sebakh is most commonly associated with the finding of the site of Amarna ( Arabic : العمارنة , romanized : al-ʿAmārna ). In 1887, a local inhabitant who was delving into sebakh deposits accidentally discovered more than 300 cuneiform tablets that turned out to be pharaonic records of correspondence. These tablet letters, known as
160-459: The life of mud bricks by putting fired bricks on top or covering them with stucco . Sebakh Sebakh ( Arabic : سباخ , romanized : sabākh , less commonly transliterated as sebbakh ) is an Arabic word that translates to "fertilizer". In English, the term is primarily used to describe decomposed mudbricks from archaeological sites, which is an organic material that can be employed both as an agricultural fertilizer and as
176-577: The life of the building. In Minoan Crete , at the Knossos site, there is archaeological evidence that sun-dried bricks were used in the Neolithic period (prior to 3400 BCE). 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
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#1732772506323192-475: The mud to increase durability and plasticity. 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 at Edfu . A well-preserved site is Amarna . Mudbrick use increased at the time of Roman influence. In
208-505: The rains," a local ministry official explained following the mosque's collapse. On 3 September 2024, intense rainfall caused the mosque to collapse. The region had been experiencing heavy rains for the past three months. Videos of the mosque's destruction were widely circulated on social media. Mudbrick From around 5000–4000 BCE, mudbricks evolved into fired bricks to increase strength and durability. Nevertheless, in some warm regions with very little timber available to fuel
224-504: Was built using banco , a traditional mixture of mud and straw . For centuries, worshippers from various regions journeyed to the mosque for Friday prayers and during Islamic holidays . According to Niger's Ministry of Tourism, the mosque was the second-most visited in Niger, following the UNESCO -listed Agadez Mosque . Cracks were reported in some areas, but we could not intervene due to
240-551: Was for farmers to obtain government permits to remove this material from ancient mounds; such farmers were known as sebakhin . Mounds indicating the location of ancient cities are also known as a tell , or tel . An archaeological site could provide an excellent source of sebakh because decomposed organic debris creates a soil very rich in nitrogen. Nitrogen is an essential component in fertilizers used for plant crops. Numerous potentially valuable archaeological finds were destroyed by farmers in this way. Sebakh digging also led to
256-425: 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. The South Asian inhabitants of Mehrgarh constructed and lived in mud-brick houses between 7000–3300 BCE. Mud bricks were used at more than 15 reported sites attributed to the 3rd millennium BCE in the ancient Indus Valley civilization . In
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