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made in Lüneburg brick-kiln, from the 14th to the 18th century, were 27–29 × 12–13 × 7.5–8.5 cm
(Rümelin 1998, 41). Also in Toruń/Thorn and its environs comparatively short bricks were dominating
from 27.5 to 28.5 cm, but elsewhere in Prussia the size of medieval bricks was up to 32 cm and more
(Herrmann 2007, 110).
Polish researcher Tomasz Torbus indicates that in German literature there sometimes prevails a
simplified supposition that medieval bricks are “the older, the longer” and “the younger, the thicker”.
However, in castles of the Teutonic Order in Prussia bricks of smaller sizes were sometimes encountered
already in the 13th century, but the longer ones were in some places used still in the 14th century (Torbus
1998, 318). A possible explanation is offered that bricks were recurrently utilized. Possibly, the undamaged
bricks were sometimes gathered from old, torn-down buildings and recurrently laid in edifices of the
Late Middle Ages, therefore, the beginning of their construction is much later than the time of brick
production. Moreover, building materials for huge edifices were sometimes brought from various brick-
kilns. Brick sizes could differ, since each brick-kiln was using its own system of measurements where the
length of a cubit or a foot could differ by several centimetres. The tendency gradually to reduce brick sizes
is explained by researchers in such a way that for a new building the mould for bricks was made after the
sample of an old brick. Since clay shrinks a bit in the baking process, the new bricks happened to be a
centimetre shorter. Clay from different deposits could show various shrinking results. It is also possible
that bricks of a specified size were ordered by the architect, since he had to calculate the dimensions of
the building and the required amount of materials (Torbus 1998, 319).
In Livonia, too, in the 13th–16th centuries, large medieval red-clay bricks were used. Mostly their
length is 27–32 cm, width 13–15 cm, thickness 8–9.5 cm. Investigations by archaeologist Andris
Caune in Riga medieval buildings show that in the time period of 13th–15th centuries the brick length
gradually increased. In Riga, in the 13th century, bricks were 28–29 cm long, and in the early 14th century –
30–31 cm long, but in the late 14th century and in the 15th century their length already slightly exceeded
31 cm (Caune 1984, 119). Architect Gunārs Erdmanis, on his turn, after building investigation of medieval
castles of Kurzeme (Courland), concluded that in the late 13th century 29–30 × 14–15 cm bricks were used,
but in the 16th century brick sizes were 28 × 13.5–14 × 7–8 cm (Erdmanis 1989, 141, 143). The thickness
of bricks in Courland had gradually decreased, until reaching 8–9 cm in the 15th century, but their width
and length in the 14th–15th centuries had been highly inconsistent (Erdmanis 1989, 145).
Unfortunately, the initial documentation of archaeological excavations made in Turaida Castle
lack a detailed description of the finding conditions of building ceramic articles, and dating of layers.
Thus, the large red medieval bricks of Turaida, which are 26.5–33.5 cm long, according to excavations,
are dated from the whole time period from the 13th to the 16th century. After building investigation of
Turaida Castle, architect Gunārs Jansons attempted to generalize the obtained observations concerning
brick length changes and to make several conclusions (Fig. 7; Jansons 2007, 133–135). According to the
cartogram drawn up by him, the longest bricks were used for buildings of the first half of the 13th century
– the Main Tower or Bergfried was built from 33.5 × 15 × 9 cm large bricks, but the most ancient building
erected on the edge of the western slope – from 32 × 15 × 8.5 cm large bricks.
Whereas in the second half of the 13th century and in the 14th century the brick sizes decreased –
29–30 × 14–15 × 8.5–9 cm large bricks were used for the residential apartaments of the castle built in
Ieva Ose. Building ceramics of Turaida Castle in the 13th–17th centuries