Earth Construction Materials

Raw materials used for earth construction materials depend on local soil and sediment resources available in each locality. Two groups of techniques are usually distinguished in earth-based construction: Indirect shaping, with the earth materials shaped into a mould such as adobe or mud brick or sundried brick; and Direct shaping, including: the cob technique, in which materials are piled by layers, by clumps or by lumps, rammed earth within a temporary frame, and daub. This chapter describes key micromorphological features of mud bricks, cob and wattle and daub. The degradation of earth construction material is an important part of archaeological site-formation processes in general and in particular contributing to the formation of archaeological mounds. The most distinctive micromorphological features for identifying this process are slope-deposition features and evidence of low energy flows.