To update the earlier post – a digital copy of the glossary ‘On Cob Balls, Adobe and Daubed Straw Plaits’ is now available to download from the Sachsen-Anhalt State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology
The glossary relies heavily on images to illustrate the subtle variations in the ways in which earth is used as a building material, for massive, load-bearing walls (eg cob, rammed earth, earth blocks and mudbricks), and for non-bearing, mixed building techniques (eg wattle-and-daub and half-timbering). Together we collated over 50 relevant terms. Many of these didn’t have an easy equivalent (as the uses of earth in building seem to adapt to very local materials and needs). For example the very wonderful term lehmwickel equated very roughly to straw and earth wound around a timber stake, rollos de barro, quenoilles. Other terms caused some significant debate as to what the equivalent would be (particularly as terms in English are sometimes more generic) – for example turf equated to bloque de turba, mottes ou blocs de tourbe, and torfsoden.
We know there will be other terms and methods of using earth as a building material that we can add to this list, but we hope this work starts to build up our knowledge and understanding, and starts to fill in our lost literacy of using earth as a building material. The wealth of language and terms collated shows how important the connection is between physical, tangible heritage and its language, methods and practices – its intangible heritage.
Knoll, F, Pastor Quiles, M, Chazelles, A and Cooke L. 2019. On cob balls, adobe and daubed straw plaits – a glossary on traditional earth building techniques for walls in four languages. Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt.
Louise Cooke 