BRICK-MAKING IN MEDIEVAL LIVONIA – THE ESTONIAN EXAMPLE

Abstract

Introduction In the area that makes up modern-day Estonia, medieval brick buildings have been found in several different towns. Despite this fact, medieval brick-making has still not yet been specifically studied. As the production of bricks as a field of research on its own has been somewhat neglected, even less attention has been given to its different aspects, which bear witness to brick-making, such as for example the waste-bricks. Through archaeology, we can detect a revival of brick production in Lombardy, northern Italy, shortly before the middle of the 12th century. In the middle of the 12th century the use of this technique spread to northern Europe, to both Germany and Denmark (Kristensen 2007, 230). During the late 12th and the first half of 13th century the use of brick technology spread quickly over the territories of Poland, Pomerania and Prussia (Herrmann 2012, 266), and to many other parts of Europe, particularly to places which lacked good building stone (Kristensen 2007, 230). The brick building has been noted to arrive in the present day Swedish and Baltic region in the 13 th century (Ratilainen 2012a, 15 f., and references therein). In the northern Baltic, masonry skills along with brick building supposedly arrived in Finland in the late 13 th century (Drake 2007, 115; see also Harjula & Immonen 2012, 184). From the 13 th century, brick became prevalent in ambitious architecture in Pomerania (Biermann 2012, 266). The most important creators of early brick architecture in these regions were monastic orders and orders of knights (Herrmann 2012, 266). The oldest brickyards in Prussia, which belonged to the Dominican Order, emerged in Kulm and in Elbing. Whether they provided the material only for the construction of the respective monasteries or also for the other urban construction companies is uncertain (Torbus 1998, 316). It is worth mentioning that many of the earliest examples of brick buildings represent the highest quality of brick production and building techniques (Herrmann 2012, 266). Brick-making (Fig. 1) was one of the prerequisites for the implementation of various construction projects which were run by noblemen. Aristocracy was responsible for remodelling the landscape in addition to creating designed landscapes. Noblemen were involved in planning and re-planning villages and open fields, markets and boroughs, in founding and remodelling churches and monasteries, and so on (Hansson 2006, 20). The creation of monuments was thus a way for local communities to gain prestige, but also a way of showing a new attitude towards nature. Castles, churches, monasteries, towns and manors all gave the places where they were situated a special meaning in the local society, often of different kinds of power (op. cit., 39). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Brick-making strongly depends on the availability of clay. Once appropriate clay is located to make brick, there are six basic steps in brick-making: (1) mining, or winning; (2) preparation; (3) moulding, or forming; (4) drying; (5) firing, or burning; and (6) grading, or sorting of finished products for sale (Peres & Connaster 2008, 106; see also Smith 2004, 259 f.; 1985). The bricks were produced by pressing well-kneaded clay, sand and water into a form and thus, with the removal of surplus clay, a regular block was produced. Afterwards a raw brick was knocked out of the form and transported to a drying ground, where they hardened ready for firing (Kristensen 2007, 231). In the cities of Prussia several brickyards usually existed, which satisfied the demand of different builders. These brickyards were probably operated by different organizations. There were municipal, private, as well as specific church buildingoriented brickyards. The urban brickyards were usually under the control of the town councils, which could operate it themselves or lease it to different people. In smaller towns, the number of brickyards was much lower (Herrmann 2007, 136 f. …