The Indus Civilization c5.15

c5.15

In building walls, what is known as "English Bond" was usual—that is, a course of stretchers alternating with a course of headers. Here, too, care was taken to break the joints by using a half-brick where necessary. A curious method of bricklaying sometimes employed was to set some of the bricks on end, with now the flats exposed and now the sides, a practice which has also been observed on Babylonian sites. Quite long walls were built in this way, and it must have been regarded as decorative, although this type of masonry could hardly have been as strong as the ordinary style, for some of the bricks had very little to bond them in. On the other hand, these walls may have been mud-plastered, though very few traces remain to prove that this was done; only where accidental fires had occurred was plaster found on the walls, sometimes plain mud-plaster, sometimes gypsum. It is not improbable that all the inside walls of the houses were plastered to hide the brickwork, and they may even have been decorated with colour.