ABSTRACT

Brick was the building material most widely used in Kievan Russia. It is natural, therefore, that brickwork has always been an object of interest for the historians of Kievan architecture. However, the technological aspects of brick manufacture have remained practically unstudied. Publications on this question give substantial data only for a period starting from the seventeenth century, but for the pre-Mongol period there is little information about brick manufacture to be found, and it is often incorrect.1 Nevertheless, recent archaeological studies of monumental architecture and of the brick kilns, in conjunction with the chronicles and ethnographic material, make it possible to give a general picture of brick manufacture in Kievan Russia.