472 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



bricks were laid flat and then placed on their sides. As soon as they 

 had dried, they were brought to the bricklayers, who wnth great skill 

 placed them in long and intricate rows of headers and stretchers till 

 the walls of the desired thickness and height were obtained. When 

 the new fortifications were finished, hundreds of bricks still remained 

 in position in the southeast corner of the compound, where they had 

 been placed to dry during the last stages of construction. In time, 

 both before and after the settlement of Period II had been destroyed, 

 they were covered with debris and sand, and were completely lost 

 sight of and forgotten. In the following Period III, new houses 

 were built over the buried rows of bricks, which could have been 

 used in the construction of these houses had their builders but known 

 of their existence. 



The bricks of Tell el-Kheleifeh were, on the whole, exceedingly 

 well made. Good clay, obtainable directly on the site, was used. It 

 was mixed with straw of a kind, perhaps palm-tree fibers, which 

 served as an excellent binding material. Usually, in addition, char- 

 coal and fragments of shells and bones were mixed in with the clay. 

 In ancient Egypt it was correctly thought to be the height of hard- 

 ship to be compelled to make bricks without being supplied with the 

 necessary complement of straw. We read in Exodus 5 :10 ff. : 



And on that day Pliaroah commanded the taskmasters of the people and their 

 officers, saying, "Ye shall no more give the people straw for themselves ; nevertlie- 

 less, ye shall still exact from them the same number of bricks as they previously 

 made, nor shall ye reduce the number." 



An idea of the excellence of the ancient bricks found in Tell ei- 

 Kheleifeh can be obtained by comparing them with the modern, sun- 

 dried bricks used in present-day 'Aqabah. In April 1940, a teriflic- 

 rain and hail storm literally washed half of the mud-brick village 

 away. Many of the mud-brick walls simply dissolved. A few days 

 later, the natives began to make new mud bricks and dried them in 

 the sun, preparatory to repairing the damage. Their bricks were 

 made without any binding materials whatsoever except lumps of 

 dried mud from which the sand content had been more or less washed 

 away by the rains. Small wonder that such bricks go to pieces dur- 

 ing the first heavy rain ! With some trepidation we returned to the 

 excavations after the rains were over to see what damage had been 

 done to the exposed ancient mud-brick walls of Tell el-Kheleifeli. 

 We found upon our arrival that not only had they not suffered at all, 

 but that even the unattached bricks of the ancient brickyard had not 

 suffered the slightest harm. It is not surprising, therefore, that the 

 mud-brick walls of Ezion-geber: Elath, built more than 2,500 years 

 ago, have survived in some instances almost intact, while the mud- 

 brick walls of modern 'Aqabah crumble and collapse not long after 

 they are built. 



