Earth building

The method of using various earth and vegetable matter mixes to build dwellings spans back thousands of years. This mix is usually comprised of a bulk material such as sand, a binding material such as clay and a reinforcing dry, fibrous material such as straw (which is particularly good because it does not rot) mixed together with water.

The structures can be extremely durable and weather resistant, therefore lasting many years if required.

Different cultures have developed and perfected different recipes from the readily available material of their regions, but in a survival situation a hasty concoction of wet earth dredged from river beds and banks and mixed with dry grasses will provide you with a great filler or 'daub' for shelters and even lining for a crude oven. The surfaces of earth structures can be burnished for strength. This can be achieved  by rubbing over with smooth rounded stones.

Adobe

The root of the word Adobe or 'mud brick' seems to originate in early Egypt, the technique was (and still is) used in early Africa, Asia, Europe and in the early Americas. In hot dry areas the mix (one half sand, one third clay and one sixth straw or animal dung) is often moulded into bricks 'adobes' that are dried in the sun before using, and finished walls are smoothly coated with more mix, and in the cooler more temperate areas the mix was rammed and moulded into walls where it dried in place.

Cob

Cob is the English name and it means 'lump', and comprises sand or crushed shale or flint, clay or clay based earth, straw and water, with clay making no more than a quarter of the mix. The mix is moulded into rounded lumps 'cobs' and used wet by stacking them on top each other and compressing them together. Another coating of cob mix is smoothed over which acts as a type of plaster.

Daub