months heavy rainfalls sometimes occur, and large sheets of plastic
were used to cover the newly made bricks when dark clouds began
to appear on the horizon. Very likely, the Hittites made their bricks
during the same months, using sheets of straw-matting to cover
them when rain threatened. From experimentation, the project
team concluded that it took 12 days of curing in open sunlight
for the bricks to reach their maximum strength, depending on
temperature and other weather conditions. The bricks could then
be stored or directly placed in position on the walls, using a loam
mortar. Stress tests were carried out by driving heavy vehicles over
some of the cured bricks. A tractor with a trailer-load of stones
failed to cause any damage to them. It was only when a steamroller
was driven over them that cracks began to appear.
In all, some 64,500 bricks were used in the reconstructed section
of the wall. (Between 328 and 720 bricks were made each day.) The
fact that this represents only 0.6 per cent of the total fortification
system at Hattusa gives some idea of the magnitude of the task
undertaken by the Hittites, without any aids such as the trucks and
water vehicles used in the modern reconstruction (which required
Figure 21.14Reconstruction in progress.
222 WARRIORS OF ANATOLIA