In building the tower of Habel we are told ' lliey had brick for stone, and bitumen had they for mortar' (Gn 11'). Herodotus says (i. 179), in regard to the walls of Babylon, ' As they dug the ditches they converted the excavated earth into bricks, and when they had enough they burnt them in the kilns. Finally, for mortar they used hot bitumen, and at every thirty courses of bricks they put a layer of reeils interlaced.' There are many bituminous fountains still to be found spring- ing through the soil between Mosul and Baghdad (Layard, Nineveh, ii. 40). See BITUMEN. In spite of the abundance of stone In Egypt, crude brick was extensively used, and the captives taken in war were forced to undertake the erection of public granaries and other buildings in that material ior the Egyptian monarch. Wilkinson (i. 60)
refers to the buildings of great size and solidity, found in various parts of the country, of crude brick. At Thebes these buildings consist of walls enclosing sacred monuments and tombs, and some are made with and others without straw.
In Palestine all the earliest remains that have been recovered are of crude brick ; and even in the ruins in the mountains, where stone was Iilentiful, there are no stone remains attributed to an earlier time than that of king Solomon. At Tell el-IIesy (Lachish) at least eight ruined cities have been brought to light, one lying over the other, the earliest being attributed to 1700 years li.C, the latest to 500 years B.C. The houses are of crude brick, similar to those of the coimtry at the present day. No indications were obtained whether the roots were vaulted or supported by beams ; probably the Latter, judf'in" by the thick- ness of the walls (Bliss, Mound of Man>i Cities). At Tell es-SOfi recent excavations of FEF have exposed a wall of defence of stone earlier than the times of the Crusades, but the date is not yet approximated to. The stones are roughly squared rubble, laid in mud and straw, and the interstices tilled with mud and small stones from the lields : height of courses 1' 5" to 2'. A few drafted stones occur. Part of the wall is plastered with dark mud and straw, over which is a layer of white mud and straws, made by mixing a powder of unburnt limestone with water. This kind of plaster is used in the Lebanon to-day (PEFSt, 1899, 195).
Foundations of a city in Egypt. — When a new district was to be added to a city, the ground was prepared by building with crude brick a number of long and thick walls parallel to one another ; then cross walls at right angles with the first, che.ss-board fasliion. The square pits tlius con- structed were tilled with eartli, broken stone, or anything else witliin reach. The foundations of the future city were laid upon the mass thus obtained, and they profited by the operation both in health and amenity. The cities of Memphis and Thebes both seem to have been built in this manner (Edouard Mariette, p. 1.39). Diodorus (i. 45. 4) says there were houses of four and live storeys at Thebes, and attributes them to the time of the fabulous monarch Busires. As a rule we find a ground floor, one floor above that, and a covered flat roof on the top.
Egyptian houses were built of crude brick made of loam mixed with chopijcd straw. These bricks are usually a foot long and 6 inches wide. The ceilings of the larger rooms were of indigenous or foreign wood, the smaller rooms were often vaulted: the walls of the houses were coated with stucco, and painted with religious and domestic scenes. The galleries and columns of the porch were coloured in imitation of stone, or painted. The ceilings were covered with arabesques and interlacing ornaments of all kinds, wliUe the floors were strewn >vith net* woven of many coloured reeds (M. Gailhabaud's Monuments ancicns et mudcrns).
Wilkinson (Anc. Egyp. iii. 316) states that tho brick arch was used 1540 years B.C., and the sto.ne arch GUO B.C. in Egypt, and suggests that it came into use owing to the small quantity of wood in Egypt, and considers that the invention of the arch tliere may date as far back as 2020 years B.C.* Ho gives instances of stone monoliths of over 290 tons weight being dragged by manual labour over 500 miles from the quarries : the power to move the mass was the same, whatever might bo the dis- tance. They simply put on a sulhcient number
* In all probability thin dat« should be carried much further tm'-k, for recent excavations at Nippur liovo shown that in Babylonia the arch of burnt brick was employed prior to b.c 4000. See Babylonia in vol. L p. 1W>.
of men to move the stone by hauling it along on a sledge. One case he mentions of a sinj;le block, 587 tons weight, bein" transported 138 laiies.
The walls of temples and the fortihuations of cities required to be of a verj' soliil descrii)tion, on account of the battering-ram (which see) ; and as the latter became more scientilically constructed, and other arts of war came into existence, the walls had to be made more and more solid, and the foun- dations extended deep into the soil or to the solid rock (Lk 6*).