When the nations of Europe took form out of the ruins of the Roman
Empire, they inherited among other arts that of making brick,
and subsequently carried it to a higher state of development,
especially in countries such as Northern Italy, Southern France,
the Netherlands, and Northern Germany, where the absence of good
building stone gave a natural impulse to brickmaking. In the great
Gothic epoch of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, brick
enjoyed a wide vogue and was freely and effectively used in the
best types of building such as city halls, great churches, palaces,
and mansions of the wealthy.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Man returning after carrying the bricks.
Figs. 7, 9, 11, 13. Digging and mixing the clay or mud.
Fig. 16. Fetching water from tank (h).
Figs. 3, 6. Taskmasters.
Figs. 4, 5. Men carrying bricks.
Figs. 8, 14. Making bricks with a wooden mold, d, k.
At e the bricks (tobi) are said to be made at Thebes.
Foreign captives employed in making bricks at Thebes.