MORTAR, II

A composition applied to bricks and stones to cement them together (as in a wall) or used as a wall coating. (Lev. 14:42, 45; 1 Chron. 29:2; Isa. 54:11; Jer. 43:9) A weather-resistant mixture (properly termed “mortar”) of lime, sand and water was used in the construction of the finer homes in ancient Palestine. Another type of mortar, used as plaster, was prepared by blending sand, ashes and lime. Sometimes oil was added to the mixture, or the wall was coated with oil after it was plastered to produce a nearly waterproof surface. In Egypt (even up to modern times) mortar used for wall plaster has been composed of two parts clay, one part lime and one part straw and ashes.

Instead of conventional mortar, the builders of the tower of Babel used bitumen, which “served as mortar for them.” (Gen. 11:3) The later Babylonians likely obtained their bitumen for mortar from the subterranean fountains near the city of Hit located not far from Babylon on the Euphrates River. According to Herodotus (I, 179), hot asphalt (bitumen) was used as cement or mortar when building up the sides of Babylon’s moat and when constructing the city’s wall.

While the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, the Egyptians “kept making their life bitter with hard slavery at clay mortar and bricks.” (Ex. 1:14) Later, in Palestine, clay mortar and mud bricks served the Israelites as basic building materials in areas where little good-quality building stone was available. The mortar was mixed to about the consistency of molasses, usually by trampling it with the feet. Chopped straw was combined with the mortar to increase the cohesiveness of the mixture.

Clay mortar or mud, frequently mixed with small stones or straw, was evidently also used for wall plaster in the past, even as it has been in recent times. It was applied over walls to afford them greater protection from the weather. Walls in ancient times were often built of sun-dried bricks, which were not lastingly resistant to wet weather. Therefore, in order to protect a new wall or to save and strengthen a damaged wall, a coat of mortar or plaster was sometimes applied. However, if only whitewash or bad mortar containing little or no lime was daubed on such a wall, it could not be expected to withstand severe storms.—Compare Ezekiel 13:11-16.