Mudbrick

A general term for unfired earthen blocks, broadly synonymous with adobe in conservation literature. The distinction between mudbrick and adobe is technical and varies by author; in this archive the two terms are used interchangeably except where the source uses a specific distinction.

Some authors reserve "adobe" for the Spanish-American tradition derived from the Arabic toub and the West African banco line, and use "mudbrick" as the broader cover term spanning the entire Old World tradition from the Indus to the Niger; others use the two terms in the opposite hierarchy. International conservation guidelines (notably the Getty Conservation Institute's Terra programme literature) tend to adopt "earthen block" as a preferred neutral term and qualify with technical parameters — block dimensions, mix composition, drying method — rather than relying on the regional vocabulary.