Term: Mudbrick

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A Mudbrick is an unfired brick made of clay.
In warm regions with little timber available to fuel a kiln, bricks were generally sun dried. This had the result that their useful lifespan is reduced to around thirty years. Once a building collapsed, new bricks would have to be made and the new structure rebuilt on top of the rubble of the decayed old brick. This phenomenon is the primary factor behind the mounds or tells on which many ancient cities stand.
The earliest use of mudbricks was in the Near East during the Pre-pottery Neolithic B period. The Sumerians used bricks that were flat on the bottom and curved on the top, called plano-convex mudbricks. Some bricks were formed in a square mould and rounded so that the middle was thicker than the ends.
Adobe is a common substitute for the word mudbrick.