Window into the Bible
Mud Bricks
Scroll down the page for further information about each image. Click on each image to bring up a full sized picture (some of the images on this page are cropped). You can right click on each image and save using 'save background as'.








Mud Brick from Mesopotamia
Details unknown
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Mud bricks were used to construct the Tower of Babel:
|
They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. (Genesis 11:3)


Egyptian Mud Brick
Date: 1279 – 1212 BC Place: The Ramesseum at Luxor, Egypt
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Made of mud and straw, stamped with the name of Ramses II.
|
“That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota.’ (Exodus 5:6-8)


Mould for making Mud Bricks
Date: 1479 – 1428 BC Place: Deir El-Bahari, Luxor
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
|
From the reign of Thutmosis III, this one is a miniature brick mould which had been placed as a foundation deposit.


Brick Stamp
Date: 2254 – 2218 BC. Place: Akkad, Mesopotamia [Iraq]
Photographed at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, Istanbul, Turkey.
|
This stamp was used during the reign of the Akkadian king Naram-Sin and reads ‘of king Naram-Sin’


Brick Stamp
Date: ca. 2217 – 2193 BC. Place: Akkad, Mesopotamia [Iraq]
Photographed at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, Istanbul, Turkey.
|
This stamp was used during the reign of the Akkadian king Shar-Kali-Sharri, the son and successor of Naram Sin, and reads ‘of king Shar-Kali-Sharri’.


Portion of an Inscribed Mud Brick of Nebuchadnezzar II
Date: 605-562 BC. Place: Babylon, Iraq
Photographed at Bibleworld Museum & Discovery Centre, Rotorua, New Zealand. |


Inscribed Mud Brick of Nebuchadnezzar II
Date: 605-562 BC. Place: Larsa, Iraq
Photographed at Bibleworld Museum & Discovery Centre, Rotorua, New Zealand.
|
The Inscription on the brick reads: ‘Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Provisioner of Esagil and Esada, prime son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, am I. Ebabbara, the temple of Shamash, in Larsa I restored as it was before, for Shamash, my lord.’


Inscribed Mud Brick of Nebuchadnezzar II
Date: 605-562 BC. Place: Babylon, Iraq
Photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA.
|
The Inscription on the brick reads: ‘Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, guardian of the temples Esagila and Ezida, first son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon.’


Inscribed Mud Brick of Sargon II
Date: 722-705 BC. Place: Khorsabad, Iraq
Photographed at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
|
The inscription on the brick reads: ‘Palace of Sargon, king of the world, king of Assyria, viceroy of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, builder of the city Dur-Sharrukin.’