History of Bricks and Brickmaking
Man has used brick for building purpose for thousands of years. Bricks date back to 7000 BC, which makes them one of the oldest known building materials. They were discovered in southern Turkey at the site of an ancient settlement around the city of Jericho.
The first bricks, made in areas with warm climates, were mud bricks dried in the sun for hardening.
Ancient Egyptian bricks were made of clay mixed with straw. The evidence of this can be seen today at ruins of Harappa Buhen and Mohenjo-daro. Paintings on the tomb walls of Thebes portray Egyptian slaves mixing, tempering and carrying clay for the sun dried bricks.
The greatest breakthrough came with the invention of fired brick in about 3,500 Bc. From this moment on, bricks could be made without the heat of sun and soon became popular in cooler climates.
The Romans prefered to make their bricks in spring, then they stored them for two years before selling or using them. They only used white or red clay to manufacture bricks.
The Romans succeeded in introducing fired bricks to the entire country thanks to mobile kilns. These were bricks stamped with the mark of the legion who supervised the brick production. Roman bricks differed in size and shape from other ancient bricks as they were more commonly round, square, oblong, triangular and rectangular. The kiln fired bricks measured 1 or 2 Roman feet by 1 Roman foot, and sometimes up to 3 Roman feet with larger ones. The Romans used brick for public and private buildings over the entire Roman empire. They built walls, forts, cultural centre, vaults, arches and faces of their aqueducts. The Herculaneum gate of Pompeii and the baths of Caracalla in Rome are examples of Roman brick structures.
