Mud Bricks and the Process of Construction in the Middle Bronze Age Southern Levant

This study investigates patterns in the process of construction during a period of urbanization early in the Middle Bronze Age of the southern Levant. Detailing the manufacture and use of sun-dried mud bricks in this period's architecture, this study presents a hypothetical reconstruction of urban building processes based on data collected and analyzed from three case-study sites: Dan, Megiddo, and Pella. A number of important considerations are discussed as part of this reconstruction, such as strategies of brick manufacture, rates of labor, and costs of construction. Straw temper used in brick manufacture is highlighted as a particularly important aspect of the construction process, since it provides a tangible connection between the agricultural system and the mud bricks that form the building blocks of urban architecture. Likewise, the chaîne opértoire of the construction process links such varied components of urbanization as monumental architecture, rural agriculture, and people, while the analyses and reconstruction presented in this study help render such components perceptible within the archaeological record by looking at issues of specialized production and standardization.