Brick

The oldest discovered bricks, originally made from shaped mud and dating to before 7500 B.C. were found at Tell Aswad then later in the upper Tigris region and in southeast Anatolia close to Diyarbakir.[2] Other more recent findings, dated between 7,000 and 6,395 B.C., come from Jericho and Catal Hüyük. The first sun-dried bricks were made in Mesopotamia (what is now Iraq), in the ancient city of Ur in about 4000 BC, although the arch used for drying the bricks was not actually found.[3].

Other examples of civilizations who used mud brick include the ancient Egyptians[3] and the Indus Valley Civilization, where it was used exclusively. In particular, it is evident from the ruins of Buhen, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.


The ancient Jetavanaramaya stupa in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka is one of the largest brick structures in the world.
The world's highest brick tower of St. Martin's Church in Landshut, Germany, completed in 1500
Malbork Castle, former Ordensburg of the Teutonic Order - biggest brick castle in the worldThe Romans made use of fired bricks, and the Roman legions, which operated mobile kilns[citation needed], introduced bricks to many parts of the empire. Roman bricks are often stamped with the mark of the legion that supervised their production. The use of bricks in southern and western Germany, for example, can be traced back to traditions already described by the Roman architect Vitruvius.

In pre-modern China, brick-making was the job of a lowly and unskilled artisan, but a kiln master was respected as a step above the former.[4] Early traces of bricks were found in a ruin site in Xi'an in 2009 dated back about 3800 years ago. Before this discovery, it is widely believed that bricks appeared about 3000 years ago in the Western Zhou dynasty since the earliest bricks were found in Western Zhou ruins.[5][6][7] These bricks are the earliest bricks discovered that were made by a fired process.[8] Early descriptions of the production process and...