{"pk":4007,"title":"Mud-Brick","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Made from a mixture of silt, clay, sand, and straw formed into regular molded units, unfired mud-bricks were the primary construction material employed in ancient Egypt—being quite literally the most basic of building blocks for all levels of domestic structures, from simple one-room buildings to lavishly decorated palace complexes, as well as administrative and storage structures, and even early phases of temples. Modern methods of mud-brick fabrication accord with ancient evidence, suggesting that the production of unfired mud-brick has remained a stable technology through the millennia. Ancient evidence concerning mud-brick not only illuminates mud-brick production organization, but also highlights the symbolic significance of bricks in religious contexts, especially relating to birth and death.","language":"en","license":null,"keywords":[{"word":"mud brick"},{"word":"sun dried brick"},{"word":"unfired brick"},{"word":"adobe"},{"word":"domestic architecture"},{"word":"palace"},{"word":"house"},{"word":"mold"},{"word":"construction material"},{"word":"production"},{"word":"birth brick"},{"word":"magic brick"},{"word":"Near Eastern Languages and Societies"},{"word":"Other Architecture"}],"section":"Material Culture, Art and Architecture","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7v84d6rh","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Virginia L.","middle_name":"","last_name":"Emery","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Chicago","department":"None"}],"date_submitted":"2008-08-20T00:00:00-07:00","date_accepted":"2008-08-20T00:00:00-07:00","date_published":"2009-08-27T00:00:00-07:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/nelc_uee/article/4007/galley/2583/download/"}]}