Sun-dried bricks

Japanese: 日乾煉瓦 - ひぼしれんが（英語表記）sun‐dried brick

A building material made by kneading clay by hand or putting it into a mold, then drying and hardening it in the sun. It is also called "nikkan renga" and written as "hidden bricks." They come in various sizes, but most are square, and some hand-kneaded ones are conical. To prevent cracks, straw or grass is mixed into the clay. The finished sun-dried bricks are piled with mud as a binder to build walls, and the surface is finished by coating with clay. Sun-dried bricks have been widely used since prehistoric times in dry areas lacking in wood. They were used as an important building material for a long time in ancient Mesopotamia, and even after the use of fired bricks began, the main bodies of large structures such as temples and ziggurats were built with sun-dried bricks, and fired bricks were only used for finishing the walls.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

粘土を手でこねたり型枠に入れるなどして成形し，天日で乾燥して固めた建築材料。〈にっかんれんが〉とも呼び，日干煉瓦とも書く。大きさはさまざまだが，方形のものが多く，手づくねのものには円錐形もある。亀裂を防ぐため，粘土に藁屑や草などを混ぜる。でき上がった日乾煉瓦は，泥を結合材として積んで壁を築き，その表面をさらに粘土で上塗りして仕上げる。乾燥し，木材に恵まれない地域では先史時代から広く使用された。古代メソポタミアでは長い間重要な建築材料として利用され，焼成煉瓦の使用が始まっても，神殿やジッグラトなどの大建造物の本体は日乾煉瓦で構築され，焼成煉瓦は壁面の仕上げなどに用いられるだけであった。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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