Mats, reeds, soil and wood were basic building materials from earliest times (Davies 1929; Rizkana and Seeher 1989: 40; Debono and Mortensen 1990: 17-20). Because of the fragility of these materials, the archaeological remains of the earliest architecture are extremely rare; important information may nevertheless be gathered from other sources. The earliest use of intricately woven colored mats and screens, for instance, survived as a common decorative pattern on later mudbrick and stone walls (Wendrich 2000: 257-8 and 263). Seemingly, the appearance of the earliest sacred spaces and some details of their building techniques may be partially reconstructed from some archaic hieroglyphic signs which contain miniature representations of these lost buildings (Badawy 1948: 41-65).
The use of mudbricks although attested as early as the beginning of the Gerzean Period, became suddenly widespread at the beginning of the First Dynasty (Kemp 2000: 79). Domestic and military architecture were almost exclusively built of mudbrick throughout ancient Egyptian history, but religious and funerary architecture also made extensive use of this building technique (Spencer 1979). Mudbrick was also used to build ramps used in the construction of stone monuments (Arnold 1991: 79-98). Mudbricks were made of clay, silt, and sand, often with the addition of straw or chaff, mixed in proportions which might vary depending on various factors, above all the local availability of the various components. The mixture was poured into moulds and then allowed to dry in the sun; the use of fired bricks was probably avoided due to the cost of fuel and the need for a stronger mortar (Kemp 2000: 79-83). The dimensions of bricks vary considerably but generally retained a 1:2 proportion between width and length, due to the intrinsict geometry of bricklaying (Spencer 1979: 147-8, pl. 41).
The ancient Egyptian production of mudbricks must have been massive and constant: the need for impressive quantities such as the 24.5 million mudbricks used to build the core of the pyramid of Senwosret III at Dahshur (de Morgan 1895: 47, n. 3) was probably met by large-scale brickyards, either permanent or specifically set up. Textual and artistic sources on the subject are, however, not numerous and our knowledge depends more on the careful study of the archaeological remains than on any other type of evidence (Kemp 2000: 83).
World History
