DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5009#0026
8 HANDBOOK OF ARCHAEOLOGY.
time in beating the mortar with wooden staves, which rendered it
of such prodigious hardness, that Vitruvius tells us that slabs of
plaster cut from the ancient walls served to make tables.
Bricks.—The ancients both baked their bricks and dried them in
the sun. The Egyptians used sun-dried bricks in the large walls
which inclosed their temples, and in the constructions about their
tombs. Pyramids were sometimes built of bricks, which consisted
of ekiy and chopped straw. In some of the paintings in Egyptian
tombs, slaves are represented mixing and tempering the clay, and
turning the bricks out of the mould. They are sometimes found
stamped with the oval of the king in whose reign they were
made. They are about sixteen inches long, seven wide, and five
thick. Burnt bricks were not used in Egypt until the Roman
period.
It has been supposed that the Greeks did not employ bricks until
after their subjugation by the ltomans, as none of the works executed
prior to that period, the ruins of which still exist, exhibit any signs
of brick-work : yet there are Greek buildings mentioned by Vitru-
vius, as built of brick. Vitruvius (lib. ii. cap. 8) mentions the
walls of Athens, towards Mounts Ilymettus and Pentelicus, and the
cella of the temples of Jupiter and Hercules. The Greek name for
bricks were didoron, pentadoron, tetradoron, from the Greek
Swpoi', a handbreadth. The didoron was a foot long and half a
foot wide. The pentadoron was five dora wide, and the tetradoron
four dora wide on each side. All these bricks were also made half
the size, to break the joint of the work; and the long bricks were
laid in one course, and the short in the course above them.
Vitruvius says, the pentadora were used in public works; and the
tetradora in private. The Romans, according to Pliny, began to
use bricks about the decline of the republic ; but a brick building,
called Temple of the god Rediculus, still remains, which is said to
have been built on the occasion of the retreat of Hannibal. This
building is, however, now supposed to be a tomb and an imperial
structure, probably of the time of the Antonines. The Boman brick
used in the buildings on the Palatine hill, in the baths of Caracalla,
and in various remains of lioman buildings in England, is more like
a tile than a brick, being very thin compared with its length and
breadth. The dimensions of Koman bricks vary, being 7 J inches
square and 1$ thick; lGi inches square, 1\ thick, and 1 foot
10 inches square, and 2i thick; the colour is red. The terms used
by the Romans for bricks dried in the sun, were lateres crudi; and
for bricks burnt in the kiln, lateres cocti, or coctiles. Though
time in beating the mortar with wooden staves, which rendered it
of such prodigious hardness, that Vitruvius tells us that slabs of
plaster cut from the ancient walls served to make tables.
Bricks.—The ancients both baked their bricks and dried them in
the sun. The Egyptians used sun-dried bricks in the large walls
which inclosed their temples, and in the constructions about their
tombs. Pyramids were sometimes built of bricks, which consisted
of ekiy and chopped straw. In some of the paintings in Egyptian
tombs, slaves are represented mixing and tempering the clay, and
turning the bricks out of the mould. They are sometimes found
stamped with the oval of the king in whose reign they were
made. They are about sixteen inches long, seven wide, and five
thick. Burnt bricks were not used in Egypt until the Roman
period.
It has been supposed that the Greeks did not employ bricks until
after their subjugation by the ltomans, as none of the works executed
prior to that period, the ruins of which still exist, exhibit any signs
of brick-work : yet there are Greek buildings mentioned by Vitru-
vius, as built of brick. Vitruvius (lib. ii. cap. 8) mentions the
walls of Athens, towards Mounts Ilymettus and Pentelicus, and the
cella of the temples of Jupiter and Hercules. The Greek name for
bricks were didoron, pentadoron, tetradoron, from the Greek
Swpoi', a handbreadth. The didoron was a foot long and half a
foot wide. The pentadoron was five dora wide, and the tetradoron
four dora wide on each side. All these bricks were also made half
the size, to break the joint of the work; and the long bricks were
laid in one course, and the short in the course above them.
Vitruvius says, the pentadora were used in public works; and the
tetradora in private. The Romans, according to Pliny, began to
use bricks about the decline of the republic ; but a brick building,
called Temple of the god Rediculus, still remains, which is said to
have been built on the occasion of the retreat of Hannibal. This
building is, however, now supposed to be a tomb and an imperial
structure, probably of the time of the Antonines. The Boman brick
used in the buildings on the Palatine hill, in the baths of Caracalla,
and in various remains of lioman buildings in England, is more like
a tile than a brick, being very thin compared with its length and
breadth. The dimensions of Koman bricks vary, being 7 J inches
square and 1$ thick; lGi inches square, 1\ thick, and 1 foot
10 inches square, and 2i thick; the colour is red. The terms used
by the Romans for bricks dried in the sun, were lateres crudi; and
for bricks burnt in the kiln, lateres cocti, or coctiles. Though