Rammed earth construction (hangtu)
Tierra apisonada (hangtu)
- Date
- c. 3000 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Xishan, Zhengzhou, Henan, China
- Credited to
- Late Yangshao culture; widespread in Longshan
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A technique of compacting thin layers of earth within wooden formwork to build walls and platforms. It was the basic construction method for walls, palaces and, later, stretches of the Great Wall.
Rammed earth developed independently in other regions (the Mediterranean, the Andes); the Xishan wall is among the oldest in China.
What it led to
- walled enclosures of the earliest Chinese cities
- platforms of Shang and Zhou palaces and temples
- border walls of the Warring States and Qin