ABSTRACT
This paper describes a picture of early earthen architecture that is distorted by the disappearance of most of it, and by the archaeological misinterpretation of what remains. Moist sod construction is widespread, but there is now evidence also of dry sod construction. The first mud bricks were cut from a layer of mud spread on the ground, giving them a flat plate form which then dominated ancient Mesopotamia and the later Arab world. In wetter climates a brick or block shape developed, and in Anatolia the Kurds developed an ingenious compromise between the flat plate and the block shape. In Iran, where the timber shortage is most acute, there is a technique of building adobe arches on gypsum ribs. Rammed earth was a later North African invention and lehmwickel, or earth winding, was a widespread technique in Europe and in German–influenced areas elsewhere, but until recently usually mistaken for wattle and daub.
