The History of Brick Reading Answers

A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements, and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term brick denotes a block composed of dried clay but is now also used informally to signify other chemically cured construction blocks. Bricks can be joined together using mortar, adhesives or by interlocking them. Bricks are produced in numerous styles, categories, materials, and sizes which diverge with region and time period, and are produced in bulk quantities. Block is a similar term suggesting to a rectangular building unit composed of similar materials but is usually larger than a brick. Lightweight bricks are made from expanded clay aggregate. 

Fired bricks are one of the longest-lasting and strongest building materials, sometimes referred to as artificial stone, and have been used since 4000 BC. Air-dried bricks, also known as mudbricks, have a history older than fired bricks, and have an additional ingredient of a mechanical binder such as straw. Bricks are laid in courses and numerous patterns known as bonds, collectively known as brickwork, and may be laid with several classes of mortar to hold the bricks together to make a durable structure. The earliest bricks were dried brick, meaning that they were formed from clay-bearing Earth or mud and dried (usually in the sun) until they were strong enough for use. The oldest discovered bricks, originally made from shaped mud and dating before 7500 BC, were found at Tell in the upper Tigris region and in southeast Anatolia close to Diyarbakir. The South Asian inhabitants of Mehrgarh also constructed, and lived in, air- dried mudbrick houses between 7000-3300 BC. Other more recent findings, dated between 7,000 and 6,395 BC, come from Jericho, Catal Hüyük, the ancient Egyptian fortress of Buhen, and the ancient Indus Valley cities of Mohenjo -daro, Harappa, and Mehrgarh. Ceramic, or fired brick was used as early as 3000 BC in early Indus Valley cities like Kalibangan. 

The earliest fired bricks appeared in Neolithic China around 4400 BC at Chengtoushan, a walled settlement of the Daxi culture. These bricks were made of red clay, fired on all sides to above 600 °C, and used as flooring for houses. By the Qujialing period (3300 BC), fired bricks were being used to pave lanes and as building foundations at Chengtoushan. Bricks continued to be used during 2nd millennium BC at a site near Xi'an. Fired bricks were found in Western Zhou (1046-771 BC) ruins, where they were produced on a large scale. The carpenter's manual Yingzao Fashi, published in 1103 at the time of the Song dynasty described the brick making process and glazing techniques then in use. Using the 17th-century encyclopaedic text Tiangong Kaiwu, historian Timothy Brook outlined the brick production process of Ming Dynasty China. Early civilisations around the Mediterranean adopted the use of fired bricks, including the Ancient Greeks and Romans. 

The Roman legions operated mobile kilns, and built large brick structures during the Roman Empire, stamping the bricks with the seal of the legion. During the Early Middle Ages, the use of bricks in construction became popular in Northern Europe, after being introduced there from Northern-Western Italy. An independent style of brick architecture, known as brick Gothic similar to Gothic architecture flourished in places that lacked indigenous sources of rocks. Examples of this architectural style can be found in modern- day Denmark, Germany, Poland, and Kaliningrad (former East Prussia). Long-distance bulk transport of bricks and other construction equipment remained prohibitively expensive until the development of modern transportation infrastructure, with the construction of canal, roads, and railways.