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Lexicon Adobe _____________________________________________________ Also earthen construction. Building from clay or mud is as time-immemorial-bound as humankind's culture itself. In Southern Africa it has been part of the traditions of the endemic peoples, particularly those of Bantu origins and reached a high degree of sophistication. The settlers of European origins brought along their own methods and styles, sometimes adapted through mutual exchange, hybridisation, cultural osmosis and creolisation with the traditions off the indigenes, and vice versa. Either local clay catch pits were used directly to leaven and prepare the clay, or the clay was transported closer to the building site in bulk by, for example, ox-wagon to be further worked. Initial preparation of clay was determined by the soil type. Traditionally, bulk clay was placed in pits and trampled by an ox-span of 6 or 8 oxen driven back and forth through the catch pit, various organic additives being included such as straw or dung, perhaps sand or lime, depending on the nature of the source material, and worked until it acquired a consistency that clung to the oxen hoofs. Sometimes this kneading was done through the labours of the people themselves. A more technically advanced system was by means of a donkey-driven pug mill. Today such pug mills are mechanically driven. Once prepared, the clay was utilised in a number of ways, depending on the construction techniques employed, for example, cob construction, rammed earth construction, or wattle-and-daub construction. Contemporary techniques include experimentations with vaulted construction. Earthen architecture still has currency and examples are found in the construction of dwellings and other structures, particularly through necessity or where there is a drive towards 'green' architecture and sustainable living.