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shaper made about 1000 bricks or 700 Monk and Nun roof tiles per day, but in 1684 the daily standard was
550 bricks (Rümelin 1998, 40). At the beginning of the 19th century, in Austria, a man could make about
1200 bricks or 5000 flat roof tiles in 12 hours (Schönauer 1815, 54, 74). It is difficult to explain such great
differences in work efficiency, since information is lacking about the work organisation in each brick-kiln.
The number of bricks made per day could depend on various factors like work duration, the number
of auxiliary workers of the brick shaper, the number of baking ovens, the way of registering the finished
products and the proportion of defective products, and on the demand in the market. In the 15th and
16th centuries, the brick-kiln of Lüneburg was a large enterprise with several dozens of workers who fulfilled
plenty of large orders. Documents have been preserved that contain proof of workers’ specialisation, a
successfully set up production process and an effective accounting system. No such detailed documented
information has been preserved about brick-kilns in Riga or elsewhere in Latvia. It is possible that the
number of bricks made per day, as calculated by Ā. Zeida, refers not to a single specialist – brick shaper,
but is an average number for a worker of the brick-kiln including the auxiliary workers.
Before baking, bricks were dried: first they were laid flatwise, then – on the sides, but later they were
laid crisscross piled in heaps, with large gaps. In the Middle Ages, the wet, yet soft bricks were dried in the
open air, but in the 15th–16th centuries the designation “brick barn” appeared in written sources (in 1474,
in Rauna/Ronneburg ziegelscheune – LGU I, Nr. 496, S. 452; in 1540, in Ērgļi/Erlaa zigel schune – LGU II,
Nr. 825, S. 527). Ā. Zeida holds that the brick barns (Ziegelscheune ) mentioned in 17th–18th century
documents were working facilities where bricks were made, instead of being storehouses for the ready-
made products (Zeida 1962, 139). However, in explanatory dictionaries the designation tegelschune or
Ziegelscheune is translated as the barn for making and drying bricks (Lübben 1989, 400; Bender 1995, 312).
Raw bricks dried faster on the field, exposed to sun and wind; but there they were also subjected to
sudden rain and occasional mechanical damages. If the brick master or inhabitants of the surrounding
houses had small children or animals that were chasing about they could step on yet undried bricks
and deform them or even damage completely. In the barn where bricks were dried the raw bricks were
protected from occasional damage by walls but it is possible that sometimes the door remained unclosed.
Probably this was the reason for a peculiar provision in a 18th century lease agreement of a Riga brick-kiln –
that the pig that has ran into the brick barn from the neighbourhood and damaged the yet undried
products is to be delivered to needy persons in St. George’s Hospital (Zeida 1962, 139, 140). Similar
problems were to be averted elsewhere, too. In 1684, in Lüneburg, northern Germany, professional rules
for brick makers were issued, with a suggestion to place safe walls around drying sheds so that dogs and
pigs chasing around could not tread onto the newly-made and yet undried bricks thus making impressions
and damaging them (Rümelin 1998, 35). The above rules explain the origin of occasional paw prints and
footprints of animals and domestic birds on ancient bricks. After having established animal footmarks
the master used still to burn the less damaged items so that the whole brick-making effort would not
turn out futile.
The dried bricks and other raw products of building ceramics were burnt to make them durable to
mechanical pressure and to the effect of precipitation. The oven was formed as a quadrangular, elongated
room, in the centre the raw bricks and dried roof tiles were stacked but from the sides the wood was
stuffed in and then set on fire. The burning process lasted for several days. Air circulation was regulated
Ieva Ose. Building ceramics of Turaida Castle in the 13th–17th centuries