Ancient Building Materials in the Bible

I can't beleive I found this, 10 years ago I took an Engineering class at Joliet Junior College and had to write a paper. Since I find Biblical engineering interesting I could not pass up this topic. The professor ran out of time in class and never graded it, he offered it as extra credit. I never turned it in.

Ancient Building Materials of Biblical Times

Go back two or three thousand years ago and you will find builders using essentially the same materials as we use today. Of course, without the aid of electric of gasoline powered equipment, they had to manufacture and assemble the materials by hand. But just like modern contractors, they worked with wood, stone, and cement. They even used iron fittings to connect timber and masonry.

Before any foundation was laid there had to be some surveying and layout work to be done. God gave Noah instructions on how to build the Ark, (Genesis 6:14-22) Nehemiah surveyed the walls around Jerusalem. God gave Solomon a detailed blueprint of how He wanted the temple built. (1 Kings 6) God also gave Moses detailed instructions on how the Tabernacle was to be built.

According to geologist, the Hold Land was once at the bottom of the sea. The skeletons and shells of microscopic sea animals sank to the sea floor and were compressed over millions of years, by the collecting sediment, forming white limestone. When the earth’s own turbulence forced this sea floor up and above sea level, it formed mountains of limestone and dolomite. As wind, water, and volcanic action eroded this material, it formed various kinds of soils and exposed rock.

Ancient builders had a variety of different types of materials to choose from. In 1 Kings 15: 15-18 King Solomon had limestone quarried for the temple. “Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills, as well as thirty three hundred foremen who supervised the project and directed the workmen. At the Kings command they removed from the quarry large blocks of quality stone to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple. The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram and the men of Gebal cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple.”

Limestone was a nearly perfect material for construction in central Palestine. To quarry the stone, the stonecutters drilled several holes into the rock in a straight line and drove wooden pegs into the holes. When soaked with water, these pegs expanded exerting pressure on the stone and splitting it in a rather straight line. Using chisels and other hand tools, the stonecutters then shaped the rough surface of the stone. With levels and measuring strings, they laid out the angles and straight edges of the stone block, which then would be sanded with a rubbing stone.

The stones used in any given area depended on the geology of that area and the ability to quarry it. The Egyptians used sandstone for the bulk of the pyramids, because it was close at hand. In the Mesopotamia valley, the Babylonians were dependent on clay brick. Throughout the Mediterranean world, workers would dig up clay, add straw fibers to increase tensile strength, mix it to the proper consistency, shape it in wooden molds and allow the bricks to dry in the sun. In Exodus 5 Pharaoh ordered his slave drivers and foreman not to give the Israelite slaves straw. Exodus 5:7 says “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks, let them go and gather their own straw.” “Archaeologists digging up settlements from ancient Egypt have unearthed three kinds of sun-dried bricks: some made of good straw, some containing mere roots and bits of straw, and some with no straw.”

Cementing materials date back to when prehistoric man abandoned his cave and started to build shelters. The first obstacle in their way was to fine a material to “chink”, filling in the voids, between the stones to keep the cold out. Clay was used by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. As early as 3000 B.C. the Egyptians used gypsum mortar which was used to line the inside of their pyramids.

“The ancient Romans while quarrying for mortar, accidently discovered a silica-and alumina bearing mineral on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius that, when mixed with limestone and burned, produced cement that exhibited the unique property of hardening underwater as well in the air. This cement was also harder, stronger, and much more adhesive than the ordinary lime mortar to which they were accustomed. In time this mortar not only became the type for use in all their building projects but began also to alter the character of Roman construction. Masonry of stone or brick was used to build only the surfaces of masonry piers, walls, and vaults, and the hollow interiors were filled entirely with large volumes of this new type of mortar. We now know that this mortar contained the essential ingredients of modern Portland Cement and that the Romans were inventors of concrete construction”

“In 1884 an Englishman patented a process for the manufacture of an improved cement. The process consisted of heating a mixture of limestone and clay and then crushing the resulting product to a fine power. He called this powder Portland Cement, because it produced a yellowish-gray concrete which resembled stone quarried on the Isle of Portland, England. Aspdin is generally recognized as the father of the modern Portland cement industry.”

Wood was used for a number of things. Genesis 6:14 says, “Noah built an Ark out of Cypress wood and coated it inside and out to make it water proof. Wood beams were used to support the rook of the Temple. 1 Kings 6:9-10, “So he built the temple and completed it, roofing it with beams and cedar planks. And he built the side rooms all along the temple. The height of each was five cubits, and they were attached to the temple by beams of cedar.” And in 1 Kings 7:2-3 it describes Solomon’s palace’s roof support, “He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high, with four rows of cedar columns supporting trimmed cedar beams. It was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the columns—forty-five beams, fifteen to a row.”

Wood was also used for the interior of buildings. 1 Kings 6:15-18 says, “He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of pine. He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. . The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long. The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.”

Prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century, metals had little role in buildings except as connecting devices. The Greeks and Romans used hidden clamps of bronze to join blocks of stone, and architects of the Renaissance countered the thrust of masonry vaults with iron chains and rods.” 1 Chronicles 22:3 says that, “He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors of the gateways and for the fittings, and more bronze than could be weighed.”

The most amazing thing about ancient buildings is how they did it. How did they lift those large quarry stones? Some of those buildings that they built are still standing today. Yet we as a modern culture tend to tear down and rebuild old buildings. It amazes me at the engineering that went into one of the largest construction projects ever built, the Temple. 1 Kings 6:7, “In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.”

Bibliography
The Student Bible, NIV
Compton’s Interactive Bible CD Rom
“Fundamentals of Building Construction, Materials and Methods”, Allen
“Concrete Technology”, White