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.’