The Legacy Of Egypt

128 Mechanical and Technical Processes. Materials
placed alongside it and another brick 'struck'. The bricks
were left for some days to dry, stacked, and were then ready
for use. In building the mortar was simply the same clay from
which the bricks were made. Another form of brick, longer
and flatter, was used for making barrel-roofs, without

FIG. 6. Method of constructing an arch without centring by means of
special bricks.
* centring', over rooms and galleries. Each half-ring of brick was
leant against its neighbour (Fig. 6). Burnt brick, although
known at a very early date in Mesopotamia, was not used in
Egypt until Roman times. Although after the advent of
stone this material began to enter into the construction of the
houses and palaces of the nobles, brick continued to be the
material far excellence of residences, walls, and temple depen-
dencies (Fig. 7).
A real legacy from the crafts of ancient Egypt is found in