ABSTRACT
To provide ourselves with shelter, humankind turns to whatever raw materials are available, although, from the earliest times, these always received some preliminary processing on the site. The Israelites in ancient Egypt made mud blocks from the soil in the vicinity, and villagers in Africa do the same today. The stones for medieval cathedrals usually came from the nearest suitable quarry from which it was possible to transport them, but most of them were shaped on the site. Settlers in North America built their cabins with roughly squared and end jointed logs cut when clearing their fields.
