BRICK (לְבֵנָה, H4246; Akkadian libittu; Ugaritic lbnt), the sundried or baked brick of the Fertile Crescent. Indications are that mud bricks were invented for the Mesopotamian regions c. 3500-3000 b.c. in the mountainous areas of what became Persia in a time before the descent to the level country of the pre-Al ‘Ubaid peoples. It became the universal medium of the plains peoples of the Mesopotamian valley because stone was too far away in the mountains and clay was available everywhere. In the following Early Dynastic period (3000-2340 b.c.) the mold-formed plano-convex brick made its appearance, with some preserved samples showing the fingerprints of the makers. In the Kassite period (1600-1100 b.c.) appear bricks with molded figures in the flat form. But planoconvex mud brick had already appeared in Pal. c. 7000 b.c. in Prepaltery Neolithic A Jericho (Kenyon, op. cit., p. 42ff.).

Glazing was known from the fourth millennium in the Near E, but best in Egypt. Due to the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt, the knowledge of glazing technique spread as far as Crete, Syria and Assyria (which latter applied the technique to brick c. 1350-1000 b.c. for war scenes). In the following period (1000-612 b.c.) baked bricks appear in Sargon’s temple of Nabu at Khorsabad, set in bitumen. When Nebuchadrezzar rebuilt Babylon, baked bricks were profusely used and glazed brick with figures in the round appeared uniquely here, as in the lion figures of the famous Ishtar Gate.

In the Hitt. areas building walls were formed with stone base courses composed of shaped stone, and wainscoted courses with mud brick walls above, reinforced with longitudinal wood beams.

The purpose of the wood beams was first for strength, and then to hold the wall in line and unwarped as the brickwork dried out. Plastering in this case was delayed as much as six months. This type of construction was used in Jerusalem in Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 6:36; 7:12). It appears at Megiddo in the time of Solomon and Ahab (Guy, New Light from Armageddon, OIC, 9, 34, 35). In Syria the same type of construction is to be found, but frequently this part of the wall was covered with plaster, as in the palace of Niqmepa at Alalakh.

Mud bricks were used extensively in Pal. on rough stones as foundation courses. Middle Bronze Age walls at Tel Beit Mirsim and Middle and Late Bronze and Hel. walls at Shechem employed mud brick. Neolithic levels at Jericho exhibit what K. Kenyon calls “hog-back” bricks and molded bricks occur in the Early Bronze period there.

Brickmaking is commonly enough depicted on the walls of Egyp. monuments, showing the mining, mixing and molding processes which are almost universal for the Fertile Crescent areas (Wiseman, Illustrations from Biblical Archeology [1959], 42-45; figs. 36-38). Frequently in both Egypt and Mesopotamia the bricks bear the name of the king or of their building. Nebuchadrezzar used five different types (Koldewey, Excavations in Babylon [1914], 75-82).

The earliest reference to the use of burnt brick occurs in Genesis 11:3, far earlier than any current evidence indicates, thus showing the high level of achievement reached by the antediluvians.

The brick-making labors of the Israelites in Egypt reflect accurately what is found on the monuments there. Bricks made with straw have proved to be stronger than those lacking straw, due to the chemicals released by the straw as it decomposes in the clay, which chemicals (similar to glutamic or gallotanic acid) made the clay more plastic and homogenous and thus of finer quality giving greater strength (Acheson, Transactions of Am. Cer. Soc., VI, 31). The problem confronting the Israelites when they were denied straw, was that they had to find the straw themselves and deliver the same quota of bricks as always. The Egyptians had come to know and appreciate the addition of the straw and were not about to downgrade the product by its omission. The presence at Pithom of bricks in the upper courses without straw denotes construction necessity and scarcity of straw in the area.

Brick kilns are known in Israel in David’s time (2 Sam 12:31; not “brickwork”). Nahum sarcastically told Nineveh to “make strong the brick kiln” but the city will fall (3:14 KJV). Isaiah (9:10) rebuked the pride of the people of Samaria for boasting that they would replace the thrown-down brick walls with walls of stone. See Architecture.

Bibliography H. Frankfort, Art and Architecture of Ancient Orient (1955); A. Badawy. Architecture of Egypt and the Near East (1966).