MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

Rest 553: Materials of Construction and Ornament in Anatolian Architecture I

Fall 2010-11

Prepared By: HATEM HADIA

Brick, Stone and Clay Materials

Brick, stone and clay are the most important materials used in construction during the ancient
times and extending to our time. These materials have many important characteristics that
contributed to their use as a significant material used in the construction process by the
ancients. Therefore, this study addresses in brief the classification of both of these important
materials in construction since the existence of its appearance as material used in
construction, properties and in particular the overall methods used in construction.
Historically, settled communities first came into being a s a necessary result of the transition
from a food-gathering to a food-producing economy, and the impulse to build resulted from
the absence of shelter in the most productive areas. It seemed that during the fifth millennium
that the early traces of settlement development begun, particularly in the fertile countries
surrounding the Arabian desert. The reflection of their local peculiarities of environment was
finally rejected the earlier Nomadic forms of shelter. Briefly, the hard conditions of life led
the early communities develop better socially and technically. The following is a brief
classification and characteristics of Brick, Stone and Clay Materials used through antiquity:
 Period Type of Usage Technique size Notes
material
 Stone is
very finely
dressed and
Fired-brick
Stone laid without
Roman Asia was used only
(limestone / mortar or The average size
Minor as a facing for
Cut-stone / clamps of the bricks 29 Brick was thought to be more
concrete not
1st Century Fired brick /  Vaulting x 6 cm and prestigious material because it
as a single
A.D / 2nd Mortared  Pitched 0.03m is the was an Italian material
building
century B.C rubble / brick mortar thickness
material and
Timber) method
for vaulting.
 Horizontal
brick
bonding
 The
invention
of mould-
made
brick / with
normal
rectangular
mould.  In Iraq no stones were
 The mould found and also wood with
is often difficulty.
filled and  Bricks of clay and vault
 Sun-dried the surplus  Mud brick
 For have always been preferred
brick OR mud is size 20 x 40 x
Mesopotami Sheltering in Iraq
Mud Brick smoothed 3-4 cm
a and Egypt from sun  Building stone was
 Reeds off with  Cones used
5th and wind. preferred in the Nile Valley
hand, then for decorative
plastered  Stones  Solid mud-brick became
millennium with mud. the surfaces
hardly the characteristic of
B.C / 2800- moulded usually 7-8 cm
 Stone occur Mesopotamian religious
3200-3500 bricks are long up to 20
 Clay except for architecture (Ziggurats).
B.C left to dry cm mosaic
 Rammed decorative
according cones set in  The remarable advance
clay(pise) elements. was in the decoration of
to the heat bitumen
of the sun. wall-faces (an ornamental
mosaic was used/ terracotta
 Mud brick
pointed into soft mud-
structures
plaster cones
were built
and
reinforced
with
wooden
beams on a
stone
foundation
Kiln-baked  New
bricks mould-
Bitumen- made shape
Sumerian covered brick emerged
and Wooden (plano-  A double cube
 A notable changed in the
Akkadian column  The convex). about 20 cm
shape and method of laying
supremacy Mosaic materials  The fabric long.
bricks.
Black shale adorned the of the mud-  Kiln-bricks
2300-2800  The wooden mould
Red religious brick in were 30cm
B.C completely discarded.
limestone centres of all interrupted square and
Terracotta  True arches appear for the
cities. at interval 8cm deep
cones 1st time
of five
The use of courses by
reeds as a deep layer
binding of reed-
material matting.
Assyrian Stone  A 40-cm  The blocks
 bed of
concrete
Solid Mud-
was floated measure 2 x 2
supremacy brick
in bitumen x 2.75m / ech
Chalky
539-612-722- to a depth weigh 23
limestone
705 B.C of 3-cm, 000kg.
Gypsum
and upon it  50 x 50 x
Glazed bricks
a stone 65cm
in colour
pavement
was laid.
Standard
Reeds material for
Walls of mud-
Sun-dried building Brick-kilns were unknown in
In Egypt bricks temples,
brick about 1m
Egypt
thick
Mud-brick palaces and
tombs

From the previously mentioned classification and characteristics it would be therefore clearly
be impracticable to treat the ancient world as a single unite. Additionally, in terms of when
clay artefacts make their appearance in Anatolia, and how and why clay was suddenly used in
great quantity in Anatolia, none of which could be specifically answered due to the lake of
information concerning the period extending between the X and VIII Millennium B.C.
nevertheless, a study on the evolution of the use of clay in Anatolia was made by Denise
Schandt-Besserat that he divided the use of clay in Anatolia into three phases:

I. Prior to 7500 B.C., adaption state, yet unknown.

II. 7500-6800 B.C., featuring a wide use of clay for geometric objects, figuring,
containers, architecture, heating and storage units.
III. 6800-5800 B.C., exhibiting improvements and increases in the use of the previous
technologies, the appearance of stamp seals, wall reliefs and household furnishing. It
is during this phase that clay is generally adopted in all sites.

And thus, the reason for the adoption of the use of clay as a raw material may correspond to
the forsaking of nomadic life as stated above, for which it was not suitable. It may have a
major role in the adoption of sedentariness as a way of life.