BRICKWORK. 915 



existed, ))ut few archseolog-ical discoveries are of more interest 

 than those denionstratinsi' the al)undance of pottery even so 

 far back as the hiter Stone ag'e. 



Some recovered examples of the later INeolithic period 

 have considerable merit, but as Ave go further back into 

 the dim abyss of more distant times such ceramic examples 

 as liave yet been obtained become more rude both in con- 

 strnction and design, though there is every reason to Ijeheve 

 that some of the cruder pottery belongs to the later part 

 of the earlier Stone age. 



We can well imagine some rude representative of pal«BO- 

 lithic man, seated by the side of a gently Howing stream, 

 where the action of water had laid bare a deposit of soft 

 plastic clay, and watch him take up the material in his hands, 

 roll it, and turn it into all manner of fantastic shapes, and 

 then try to fashion it into toy imitations of his stone imple- 

 ments or cooking- utensils. Possibly he might find that the 

 frequent addition of a little water would greatly facilitate his 

 labours, and that the sun would give a certain degree of hard- 

 ness to his work ; but it may only have been accident, or the 

 childish glee of playing with a mock cooking utensil, which 

 first taught him the importance of fire for giving permanency 

 to his works. 



Such speculation as this may appear fanciful, but the real 

 birth of brickmaking belongs to the Stone age, and the 

 probabilities are that it originated in such a manner as I have 

 suggested. 



We do not know the precise date at which brickwork was 

 first introduced as a building material, yet it has long been 

 recognised that sun-dried bricks were used in Egypt from a 

 very early age ; and recent discoveries have established the 

 fact that kiln-burnt bricks can also claim great prehistoric 

 antiquity.* 



At a later period in Egyptian history, round brick-kilns, 

 very similar to those used at the present day, are depicted in 

 mural paintings ; and in these terra cotta tablets were burnt, 

 on which writings had been previously modelled. We do not 



* Proiessoi' A. H, Sayce says : — " Kiln-burnt bricks of an early date are 

 found in Upper Egypt as well as in the l)elta. The bricks composing- the old 

 fortress of GebelAn, south of Ihebes, are stamped with the cartouches of Ra- 

 men-kheper and Isis-m-kheb of the (illegiiimatc) XXI. Dynasty .... 

 Last winter I found the remains of a kiln where some of the stamped bricks 

 had been burnt before being used for building purposes. A portion of one of 

 tlieni, with the cartouche of Isis-m-khcb, lies liefoj-e me at the present 

 moment,"— Bidldin(/ ]Vew.<i, Vol. 1,1., p. 185. 



