Mud-brick Walls Research Articles

Minoan Master Builders?

This paper investigates sun‑dried mudbrick architecture in the Minoan Palace at Malia on the north coast of Crete (Greece), excavated and studied by the French School at Athens since the beginning of the 20th century. Macroscopic study of the standing architectural remains is combined with geochemical (pXRF and XRD) and petrographic analyses of a selection of mudbrick samples in order to explore patterns and variations in bricklaying, mudbrick recipes, manufacturing practices and mudbrick performance throughout the Pre‑, Proto‑ and Neopalatial periods (2450-1430 BCE). The microscopic composition of the mudbricks highlights the consistent procurement of local raw materials, despite marked differences in macroscopic composition related to varying manufacturing processes that impacted mudbrick performance. This diversity is important enough to indicate the completion of the Neopalatial building project by separate teams of builders, whose skills seem to have varied markedly. The participation in the Neopalatial building project of specialised mudbrick ‘master’ builders is attested but the workforce was also drawn from the site’s inhabitants who had the requisite knowledge to produce standing, though significantly less‑well performing, mudbrick walls.

UBC Excavations of the Roman Villa at Gerace, Sicily: Results of the 2017 Season

A fourth season of excavation at the late Roman rural estate of Gerace (Enna province, Sicily) took place in 2017. Two areas of kilns were investigated. In one, fragmentary evidence for six kilns was found, of which the latest was constructed of bricks bearing the monogram of the estate owner, Philippianus. In its back-fill were wasters of two roof-tile types stamped Philippiani, confirming that these were an estate production. A substantial rectangular kiln was also found 40 m to the east, with exterior stone walls but internal structures which appear to have been built of mud brick, hardened only by successive firings. This kiln too produced roof tiles (unstamped), probably in the fifth century. A smaller kiln was inserted within it in a secondary period. Later still, vertical shafts were, extraordinarily, hacked through the thickness of parts of the mud-brick walls in order to make rudimentary furnaces for an unknown purpose; this occurred in the sixth century, as shown by radiocarbon analysis of a burnt sample. In the bath-house of ca. 380 ad up the slope, the rest of the tepidarium partly investigated in 2016 was excavated, as well as a second, smaller tepidarium adjacent. The geometric mosaics of both rooms had been smashed to retrieve the bricks from the hypocausts below when the baths were decommissioned, but enough survived for the floor patterns of both to be reconstructed. Fragmentary wall veneer included coloured marbles imported from Greece, Turkey and Tunisia. Part of the frigidarium was also identified and a cold pool, one of two, was completely excavated. It had a marble floor except for one slab of sandstone, possibly a non-slip device. A fissure in the pool’s back wall suggests that an earthquake was responsible for the building’s abandonment, sometime in the second half of the fifth century. One wall of the frigidarium used pisé, highly unusual in a bath-house. The room’s floor mosaic was partly uncovered; it appears to have an inscription on all four sides, possibly uniquely so in the Roman Empire. One roundel nearer the centre of the floor was also exposed; it bears the name of Philippianus in monogram form. Study of the animal bones revealed an unusually high number of horse bones; this together with the discovery of foal bones and an equine milk tooth suggests the possible presence of a stud at Gerace.

Current Research of the Leiden-Turin Archaeological Mission in Saqqara. A Preliminary Report on the 2018 Season

In 2015, the Museo Egizio in Turin joined the Leiden expedition to Saqqara, in the area south of the Unas causeway. This report presents the expedition’s new approach as well as some first results of this new cooperation. In the 2018 season, the Leiden-Turin expedition worked in the northern sector of its concession, covering an area of ca. 250 sqm just north of the tomb of Maya. Here Late Antique layers overlie a wind-blown deposit containing some simple burials and numerous “embalmers’ caches”, some of which yielded marl clay cups with hieratic labels. An overview of both the pottery and the human remains found during this season is provided in the present report. Below the wind-blown deposit is a level with Ramesside funerary chapels and shafts. One of them has a remarkable decoration including six small-format figures carved in high relief in the middle of its back wall. The shaft of another chapel was also excavated, revealing several plundered chambers which yielded only scanty finds. A large mud-brick wall exposed during the previous season turned out to belong to the outer wall and pylon entrance of a monumental tomb, whose owner’s name has not been found yet. A photogrammetric survey by a team of the Politecnico di Milano yielded a 3D model of the dig (included in the web version of this report), as well as several 3D models of the monumental tombs (completed or in the making). During the season, conservation work was carried out on several tombs and on the newly discovered Ramesside chapel. ملخص البحث: شارك المتحف المصري بتورينو في عام 2015 مع بعثة لايدن فى سقارة، في المنطقة الواقعة جنوب طريق أوناس الصاعد. يُبرز هذا التقرير الأسلوب الجديد للبعثة وكذلك بعض النتائج الأولية لهذا التعاون الجديد. في موسم 2018، عملت بعثة "لايدن – تورينو" في القطاع الشمالي من الامتياز الممنوح لهم، وهو ما يغطي مساحة حوالى 250 متر مربع شمالي مقبرة مايا. تكسو طبقات العصور القديمة المتأخرة في هذه المنطقة رواسب محمولة بالرياح، وتحتوي على بعض المدافن البسيطة والعديد من "مقتنيات المحنطين"، بعضها اشتمل على أكواب طينية من الطين الكلسي بعلامات مكتوبة بالخط الهيراطيقي. يوفر هذا التقرير لمحة عامة عن كل من الفخار والبقايا البشرية التي عُثر عليها خلال هذا العام. أسفل الرواسب المحمولة بالرياح يوجد مستوى مكون من الأماكن المخصصة للصلاة وتقديم القرابين وأكثر من بئر كلها تعود إلى حقبة الرعامسة. أحدها يحتوي على زخارف رائعة بما في ذلك ستة أشكال صغيرة الحجم منحوتة نحتًا يبرز معالمها في منتصف الجدار الخلفي. بالإضافة إلى اكتشاف عامود معبد آخر والكشف عن حجرات منهوبة عديدة أدت إلى اكتشافات ضئيلة. كما تبين أن جدارًا كبيرًا من الطوب اللبن، كان قد تم اكتشافه خلال الموسم الماضي، ينتمي إلى الجدار الخارجي ومدخل صرح مقبرة ضخمة لم يتم تحديد اسم مالكها بعد. أسفر مسح تصويري قام به فريق من مدرسة الفنون التطبيقية للمهندسين في ميلانو "Politecnico di Milano" عن تقديم نموذج ثلاثي الأبعاد لموقع التنقيب (يوجد في النسخة الالكترونية من التقرير على الموقع الالكتروني)، بالإضافة إلى العديد من النماذج ثلاثية الأبعاد للمقابر الأثرية (التي تم إعدادها أو قيد الإعداد). خلال الموسم، تم القيام بأعمال صيانة وترميم للعديد من المقابر وكذلك مكان الصلاة المكتشف حديثًا العائد إلى حقبة الرعامسة.

Spatial analysis and heritage conservation: Leveraging 3-D data and GIS for monitoring earthen architecture

Abstract This paper discusses new advances in heritage site monitoring using a geo-spatial method for assessing the state of preservation of earthen architecture overtime as a preventive conservation measure. The proposed method leverages a comprehensive (quantitative–qualitative) approach that gathers multi-temporal data including environmental information collected by means of environmental loggers, qualitative vulnerability assessment of mud-brick walls, and surface change detection information obtained by comparing terrestrial laser scanning point cloud capturing the decay of building's wall features over time. Producing a detailed spatial understanding of the conservation issues that affect mud-brick walls in large earthen sites, this method can be used by conservators to rapidly identify which buildings require immediate intervention and lay the basis for future evaluation of the conservation actions undertaken. To test the effectiveness of the proposed geospatial model in producing a comprehensive view of the environmental risk and pattern of decay that affect mudbrick structures, this paper presents analyses and results obtained in a six-year study at Catalhoyuk, Turkey. Our results corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed method and prove that it can be successfully employed to create preventive conservation measures at other earthen sites inside and outside the Near East.

A new double foundation deposit in the Hathor Shrine of Tuthmosis III at Deir el-Bahari

A double foundation deposit was found in the souteastern part of the Tuthmosis III Hathor shrine at Deir el-Bahari. The architectural features, a pit with a niche at the bottom, confirm the dating of both of these deposits to the times of Tuthmosis III. An original feature of the southeastern one is the initial circular cavity changed into a semicircular one by the building of a mud-brick wall in the east. Several courses of mud bricks built up the rim of the pit above the rock-carved cavity. The whole structure was plastered inside with mud plaster. The bricks were mostly reused from the Middle Kingdom structure of Mentuhotep II. The content, although disturbed, still consists of organic offerings as well as ceramics, but no inscribed material.

Understanding conflagration of one-story mud-brick structures: an experimental approach

Many Near Eastern destruction layers are characterized by burnt, partially collapsed, mud-brick structures. Despite the prominence of these layers in archaeological field research, the processes that generated these layers are little understood. In order to explain field observations and identify patterns that may be useful for archaeological interpretation, experimental burning of miniature single-story mud-brick structures was conducted. Two types of structures—covered by vegetal roofs or by mud-plastered roofs—were conducted. Each experiment was duplicated. Temperatures in chambers, walls, roofs, and floors were recorded continuously. Bricks, floor, and roof sediments were sampled and analyzed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy after the burned structures cooled down. The results showed that ignition of vegetal roofs does not produce a pattern recognizable in Near Eastern destruction layers, while chamber ignition within mud-plastered roofed structures produces patterns that most resemble field evidence. These include (a) upper portions of walls and mud roofs witness temperatures above 500 °C resulting in a mineralogical change that is identifiable by FTIR, (b) no significant heat in floor deposits, (c) higher temperatures in upper parts than the bottom portions of walls, (d) external walls experience heat diffusion to the outside environment and do not burn through, and (e) internal walls can burn through. The directly measured temperatures correlate with reconstructed temperatures via FTIR and with brick color patterns. Future field research should explore color patterns in cross-sections of mud-brick walls and apply FTIR spectroscopy to reconstruct distribution of heat across destruction levels.

Tell el-Murra (Northeastern Nile Delta Survey): preliminary excavation report for the 2014 and 2015 seasons

The paper deals with the results of excavation in 2014 and 2015 at the Tell el-Murra site in the northeastern part of the Nile Delta. The investigations covered a settlement mostly from the Old Kingdom period found in trench T5; more specifically, the investigated features seem primarily connected with food production. Settlement remains from the Naqada III–possibly Early Dynastic and Protodynastic(?) periods were also explored in trench S3B. Continued research on the Early Dynastic cemetery in trench S3 yielded 16 more graves, including simple pit burials and chamber graves. In several cases bodies had been placed in pottery coffins. The presence of several mud-brick walls, possibly associated with older settlement structures, was also confirmed within the lattermost trench. Altogether the research provided new data on the settlement architecture, site development processes and burial customs invoked in the beginnings of the Egyptian state.

Study of Various Glass Window and Building Wall Materials in Different Climatic Zones of India for Energy Efficient Building Construction

The commercial and residential buildings consume about 33% of energy for cooling and day lighting in India. This paper aims to present thermal performance of buildings constructed with various building and window glass materials in five different climatic zones of India. The climates considered include: hot and dry (Ahmedabad), moderate (Bangalore), cold (Guwahati), warm and humid (Madras), and composite (New Delhi). In this study, four building materials such as laterite stone, dense concrete, burnt brick, and mud brick were selected and four glasses such as clear, bronze, green, and bronze-reflective glasses were used for windows. Spectral characteristics of four glasses were measured experimentally by using Perkin-Elmer lambda 950spectrophotometer in the wavelength range of 300 -2500 nm as per ASTM standards. A mat lab code was developed to compute the solar optical properties such as transmittance and reflectance of glasses as per European standards in entire solar spectrum region. The building models were designed in Design builder 4.3.0.039 and thermal analysis was carried out in Energy plus 8.1.0.009. The solar heat gain in buildings was investigated. The results revealed that the mud brick wall building with south bronze-reflective glass window as energy saving from the least heat gain point of view among eighty building models studied. The results also showed that the mud brick wall building with bronze, green and bronze reflective window glasses reduces heat gain through wall by 2.52%, 3.83%, and 6.46% as compared to the mud brick wall building with clear glass window. The results helps in selecting energy saving combination of wall envelope and window glass materials for reducing air-conditioning loads in residential and commercial buildings of five different climatic zones of India.

Domestic firing activities and fuel consumption in a Saharan oasis: Micromorphological and archaeobotanical evidence from the Garamantian site of Fewet (Central Sahara, SW Libya)

We describe a combined geoarchaeological and archaeobotanical approach applied to the study of firing activities that have been carried out at Fewet, a Garamantian compound in the Central Sahara (Libya), between the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD. The archaeological stratigraphy of the site has been sealed by several mud-brick wall collapses, preserving an interesting sequence of living floors, whose micromorphological study is unique for the Central Sahara. This investigation together with the mineralogical analysis of sediments, confirms the field attribution of archaeological features as domestic fireplaces, and identified the living floors as areas devoted to animal penning, probably subjected to periodical firing. The investigation also highlights an exceptional concentration of gypsum pedofeatures, presumably determined by the wood type selected for fuel. The archaeobotanical study identified a good quantity of charcoal and other plant remains in the same layers. Most of the charcoal has been identified as Central Tamarix, which is the most common tree living in the oasis today. This suggests that tamarisk wood was the most exploited tree for fuel, and its combustion led to the dispersion of gypsum from the plant tissue, later recrystallized in the shape of microcrystalline nodules, lenses, and euhedral crystals.

Dahschur, Ägypten: Die Arbeiten der Jahre 2014 und 2015

The necropolis of Dahshur is characterised by the building projects of King Snofru (about 2600 BC). He created a ritual landscape by altering considerable parts of the natural landscape and by building two giant pyramids – the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid – several temples, cemeteries and settlements. In 2014 the magnetometric survey to the north and to the south of the valley temple of the Bent Pyramid was continued. Furthermore a so far unknown and unique element of landscape architecture was identified. Directly to the north of the valley temple of the Bent Pyramid a large garden which was enclosed by a massive mudbrick wall could be recorded. In spring 2015 magnetic surveys were undertaken in the area of the workmen’s barracks in the vicinity of the Red Pyramid and the area of the so-called valley temple of the Bent Pyramid. Drill sondages in the valley to the east of the Bent Pyramid confirmed the existence of an eastern harbor wall. Drill sondages showed furthermore that a transport way of limestone blocks, which was used in the New Kingdom when the valley temple was dismantled, continues down the whole wadi. Like in the years before, several new relief fragments from the valley temple were discovered within this limestone way. The excavation of a miniature mastaba to the north-west of the pyramid of Amenemhat II revealed a burial with a broad collar from faience beads. The tomb dates to the late Old Kingdom or First Intermediate Period.

Rubbish or Technology? A Short Discussion

This short article presents a case of intentional use of a layer consisting of a large number of pottery sherds along with the more usual clean yellow sand in a shallow foundation trench under a fragmentary New Kingdom mudbrick wall encountered in Tell el-Retaba in the Wadi Tumilat. Various possible explanations for the use of these sherds as a part of an architectural feature are explored with the aim of drawing attention to a hitherto under-studied cultural practice in Egyptian New Kingdom settlement architecture.

3D visualization tools to explore ancient architectures in South America

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p>Chan Chan is a wide archaeological site located in Peru. Its knowledge is limited to the visit of Palacio Tschudi, the only restored up to now, whilst the majority of the site remains unknown to the visitors. The reasons are manifold. The site is very large and difficult to visit. Some well-conserved architectures, such as Huaca Arco Iris, are very far from the core centre. Furthermore, there are heavy factors of decay, mainly caused by illegal excavations, by marine salt and by the devastating phenomenon of El Niño. For these reasons, the majority of the decorative elements are protected by new mud brick walls. Finally, the vastness of the buildings makes difficult to understand their real value, even through a direct visit of the site. In order to overcome the aforesaid problems, we designed, developed and realized the museum exhibition presented in this paper. We named Esquina Multimedia an installation where every corner is aimed to solve a specific problem, providing the tourists with interactive and enjoyable applications. The virtual tour allows reaching also the unreachable areas. An Augmented Reality (AR) application has been developed in order to show ancient artefacts covered by the earth. A web-browser has been specifically designed to show bas-reliefs, with HD visualization, anaglyph stereoscopic view and a 3D virtual model of both the structures and the bas-reliefs. At the same time, a wall-mounted panel representing a metric 3D reconstruction of the building helps the user to find the artefact position. Descriptions of the hardware components and of the software details are presented, with particular focus regarding the implementation of the application, arguing how the digital approach could represent the only answer towards a full exploitation of archaeological sites. The paper also deals with the implementation of a web tool, specifically designed to display and browse 3D-Models.</p></div></div></div></div></div></div>

Mud-brick composition, archeological phasing and pre-planning in Iron Age structures: Tel ‘Eton (Israel) as a test-case

The eighth century BCE city at Tel ‘Eton (Israel) was destroyed by the Assyrian army, probably during Sennacherib’s campaign of 701. Building 101, sealed within the heavy conflagration caused by this destruction, was uncovered almost in its entirety on the top of the mound. From the beginning, it was apparent that the structure had two major building phases, and while its initial construction was of high quality, later additions were much inferior. Analyses of mud-brick walls for firing temperatures, texture, carbonate content, color, and dimensions approved the observation regarding the differences between the two phases, but consistently pointed out that one wall, initially attributed to the first phase, was analytically different, comprising an intermediate phase. This conclusion not only altered our understanding of the building construction, adding heretofore unknown building phase, but also gave us insights into the pre-planning of Building 101, indicating that some rooms had originally two doorways. Such a configuration allowed easy subdivision of spaces according to needs, without harming the overall structural stability. Differences in inner division of similar Iron Age houses were identified in the past and were attributed to differences in the life cycles of families. The evidence from Tel ‘Eton suggests that such future changes were taken into considerations when the structures were built.

Simulation of Various Wall and Window Glass Material for Energy Efficient Building Design

Buildings consume huge amount of energy for forced ventilation and artificial day lighting. Use of appropriate material combinations for walls and window glass can help in reducing energy consumption for cooling and lighting. This paper presents the thermal properties of four building materials such as, laterite stone, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick. It also presents the experimentally measured optical properties of glass materials such as, clear glass, bronze glass, green glass and reflective. In this study building of size 5m X 5m X 3.2m with four wall materials and four glass materials were designed using design builder software. The thickness of the wall was considered as external wall with thickness 0.22m. All the walls covered with cement plaster on either side. Roof of the building is made of reinforced cement concrete and floor is dense concrete. Thermal analysis was carried out using by Energy plus software. Single sized glass windows were placed in south direction (Due to less heat gain in south direction) for Mangalore city (12.870N, 74.880E), Karnataka, India. Different window to wall ratios (20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%) were maintained for buildings. Total eighty building models were investigated for heat gain into buildings. From the results, it is observed that irrespective of the window to wall ratio, mud brick walls with reflective window glass were observed to be energy efficient from the lower heat gain point of view, and laterite stone wall building with clear glass windows were observed to be the worst due to their higher heat gain values. At 60% window to wall ratio mud brick walls with reflective window glass have 24.93kWh heat gain and dense concrete walls with clear glass have 32.9 kWh heat gain. The results of the study help in establishing the best combination of wall and glass materials for minimum heat gain into buildings.

The effect of external walls on energy performance of a Korean traditional building

As one possible approach to improving the energy performance of the eco-friendly Korean traditional building, this study develops an energy simulation model to investigate the influence of five types of alternative walls – a mud brick wall, a cement brick wall, an ALC block wall, a CRC board wall, and a chaff charcoal wall – on the energy performance of Korean traditional buildings in three different climate zones in South Korea – a central region, a southern region, and a Jeju Island region. The results of the simulation study indicate that the cement brick wall provides the highest energy saving and the mud brick wall provide the lowest energy saving for all three climate regions. For five types of alternative walls, the Korean traditional building with small window area shows a better energy performance than the traditional building with large window area in all three climate regions. The results of this study can be used as basis data for estimating the potential energy saving with the replacement of alternative walls under the regional climate consideration.

High-intensity geomagnetic field ‘spike’ observed at ca. 3000 cal BP in Texas, USA

Abstract By observing the fluctuations in direction and intensity of the Earth's magnetic field through time, we increase our understanding of the fluid motions of the Earth's outer core that sustain the geomagnetic field, the geodynamo. Recent archaeomagnetic studies in the Near East have found extremely rapid increases – ‘spikes’ – in geomagnetic field intensity at ca. 3000 yr cal BP. These observations have proved problematic for our current understanding of core-flow. However, until now, these geomagnetic spikes had not been observed outside of the Near East, where they have been preserved in metallurgical slag and fired, mud brick walls. We present a new, fully oriented, geomagnetic secular variation and relative palaeointensity (RPI) record for the last 17,000 yr from Hall's Cave, Texas, whose complete, >3.8 m thick sedimentary sequence spans from the present to 16 , 850 ± 110 RC yr BP (Modern to 20,600 cal BP). Within the stable, cool climate of the cave, pedogenic and bioturbation processes are negligible to non-existent, thereby limiting post-depositional physical and geochemical alteration of the magnetic record. The sub-aerial and subterranean setting of the sedimentary sequence in Hall's Cave enabled us to collect oriented palaeomagnetic cubes from a previously excavated stratigraphic section. The palaeomagnetic samples yielded high-quality vectors. An age model for the sequence, determined using 15 AMS 14C-dates on individual bones from microvertebrates, was combined with the palaeomagnetic data to construct a secular variation record. The record is in broad agreement with predictions by Holocene field models for the site's location. However, starting ca. 3000 yr ago, the RPI data indicate an almost four-fold increase in geomagnetic field intensity lasting several hundred years. This record presents well-dated evidence, obtained using conventional techniques, for the existence of a geomagnetic intensity spike in North America that is contemporaneous with the shorter duration, decadal-scale spikes reported from the Near East.

Experimental in-plane behavior and retrofitting method of mud-brick walls

Despite the rapid growth of engineering science especially in the modern structural engineering and application of new materials in civil engineering, a significant percentage of world population in different countries are living in adobe buildings made from mud-bricks. In this paper, by performing experimental study on scaled mud-brick walls under monotonic load, inplane behavior of the walls have been investigated for different levels of vertical load. After recognizing damage mechanisms from experiment, a simple retrofitting method has been presented to upgrade wall performance. Experimental behavior of retrofitted walls was also studied. The proposed retrofitting method consists of using polypropylene lace and tarpaulin belts. As a result, a better performance of the walls in terms of shear capacity, ductility and energy absorption are observed by using proposed retrofitting method. Meanwhile, Proposed retrofitting method has significant effect in rocking mechanism delay and prevention of wall sudden collapse.

Physical and mineralogical properties of experimentally heated chaff-tempered mud bricks: Implications for reconstruction of environmental factors influencing the appearance of mud bricks in archaeological conflagration events

Sun-dried mud bricks are used around the world and have been found in the Levant and Mesopotamia since the Neolithic period. Their form and composition lend important information pertaining to social and technological meaning in human cultures. Fired mud bricks are well known in the southern Levant, often identified in Bronze and Iron Age strata and used as a marker for destruction by fire (conflagration events). Only a few studies have attempted to reconstruct conflagration conditions from fired mud bricks because many variables impact the formation of the final fired brick. These include brick composition, heat intensity (i.e., maximum temperature), heat duration and firing atmosphere (i.e., oxidizing vs. reducing). The myriad combinations of these factors may result in different appearance of fired bricks. Infrared spectroscopy is one method that has been exploited quite extensively in relation to fired clay-based materials: studies were conducted on powdered sediment samples for a fixed duration and in oxidizing conditions, producing calibration curves that were then utilized for reconstruction of past maximal heat. Here we report on an experimental study of the thermal behavior of mud bricks under differing composition, heat intensity, heat duration and firing atmosphere. We carried out experiments in a furnace oven using micro-thermocouples which allowed us to simultaneously measure heat across bricks, from edge to core. The resulting mud bricks were analyzed using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. We identify a previously unknown thermal effect that occurs in bricks tempered with organic material while they are fired; namely a correlation between the amount of organic temper and elevation of temperatures up to 100°C above the oven chamber temperature. We record the color patterns obtained at different temperatures and duration of heating, as well as the colors obtained from heating in different atmospheres. We report that the FTIR spectrum of bricks heated in oxidizing conditions differs from that of bricks heated in reducing conditions at the same temperature. We note that the position of the main clay absorbance band cannot be used alone to infer firing temperature as its shift is not systematic. We show that combining this parameter with the width of the same band in the FTIR spectrum makes it possible to achieve better temperature reconstructions from fired bricks. Lastly, we report a small scale case study in which we tested the applicability of the experimental results to the remains of a mud brick wall unearthed within the largest known destruction event in the ancient city of Megiddo, i.e., Tel Megiddo Stratum VIA. We show that this wall was burnt as one unit, having a reduced core and oxidized outer part, where the core experienced temperatures in the range of 500–600°C and the edge 600–700°C. The detailed analysis of brick compositions carried out in this study further allows us to reconstruct the ancient bricks' preparation recipe. The results of this study bear important implications for future studies of archaeological conflagration events, and the destruction phenomenon in general.

DEPRECIATION IN VITRUVIUS

Vitruvius has something interesting to say at De architectura 2.8.8: Non enim quae sunt e molli caemento subtili facie venustatis, non eae possunt esse in vetustate non ruinosae. itaque cum arbitrio communium parietum sumuntur, non aestimant eos quanti facti fuerint, sed cum ex tabulis inveniunt eorum locationes, pretia praeteritorum annorum singulorum deducunt octogesimas et ita – ex reliqua summa parte reddi pro his parietibus – sententiam pronuntiant eos non posse plus quam annos LXXX durare.Those structures made of soft rubble, for all their subtle attractiveness, are not the ones that will resist ruin as time passes. And thus when assessors are appointed to evaluate party walls, they never assess soft rubble walls according to their initial cost, but rather, when they look at the price recorded in the original contracts, they deduct 1/80th of that sum for each subsequent year, and the remaining amount is fixed as the current value of the walls. They have rendered judgement, in effect, that such walls cannot last more than 80 years.By contrast, mud-brick walls were not depreciated at all if they were standing when assessed (Vitr. 2.8.9). The calculation performed for concrete walls demonstrates clear understanding of what we call ‘depreciation’ or ‘amortization’ in ancient Roman thought. It appears to have been overlooked to date.

Sedimentary processes involved in mud brick degradation in temperate environments: a micromorphological approach in an ethnoarchaeological context in northern Greece

Sun dried mud bricks are a common building material across the globe, found in many archaeological sites in the Old World since ca. 11,000 years ago. This material is known to disintegrate due to exposure to the elements, mostly affected by rain. Yet, the geomorphic and sedimentological characteristics of this disintegration process have never been studied in detail until recently. Here we report on mud brick degradation processes observed in an abandoned mud brick village in northern Greece. We demonstrate that mud bricks have unique micromorphological characteristics that differentiate them from natural soils. Upon degradation some of these characteristics are lost (e.g., planar voids after fibrous vegetal temper). Rain initiates brick degradation at the upper parts of walls where from brick material is washed down walls and deposited at their feet, forming a conical talus. The talus deposits show micromorphological features indicative of a variety of flows, including wet and dry grain flows, debris, hyperconcentrated and water flows. These flows seem to operate simultaneously across small distances. These talus deposits are different micromorphologically from natural soils thus their characteristics can be used to identify degraded mud brick material in archaeological sites. This, in turn, may help identify the location of long degraded mud brick walls (in the absence of stone foundations) and identify the relationship between house floors and degraded infill that accumulated on floors following wall degradation. A comparison between the current observations with a previous study we conducted in an abandoned mud brick house in arid southern Israel, illustrates the generality of these low energy slope processes in mud brick degradation, which emphasizes the worldwide applicability of the processes identified in this study.