ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

204Anca CeauşescuThe image nr. 1 Building techniques of the houses: a) an adobe wall;b) a wall built from beaten earth, in casings; c) wall built from knitted twigs,placed on the foundation; d) wall built from knitted twigs, placed directly on theground (după I. Vlăduţiu)Sometimes, between the sustaining vertical pillars, because of thedeforestation from this area, were put laths, the so-called planks, in a horizontalposition, at 20-25 cm distance between them. The free remained space was filledup with a mixture made from earth, chaff and water. This is the traditional halftimberedwork technique, spread across the whole country.Starting from the 20 th century, because of the deforestation from thisarea, were used techniques based on the use of earth: that of the earth beaten inthe casings and that of the adobe.In many cases, the walls of the traditional houses were built only fromclay mixed with chopped straws or chaff: “the clayey material […] was takenwith the pitchforks by two men and given to a third one, who stacked it up andpressed it with the feet on a stone base or directly on the ground. The part from awall built to a certain height, called «lair» was leveled with a spade and left todry for a few days. After the first lair had dried, was built the second and thethird one, with which was finished the construction of the walls” 15 . Thistechnique was improved once with the introduction of the casings, made fromboards or planks with a breadth of 20-35 cm. They are placed around the house.Into the casings is put the earth mixed with straws and chaff and it is beaten withthe “rammer”, and, at the edge of the walls, the boards were hit with the so-15 P. Mureşan, Contribuţii la studiul aşezărilor şi construcţiilor ţărăneşti din CâmpiaTransilvaniei, in „AMETC” in the 1965-1967 years, Cluj, 1969, p. 179.