Ancient Chinese Craftsmen Used Sticky Rice In Mortar

The legend that rice porridge was used in mortar to make robust ramparts has been verified by archaeological research in the north-western province of Shaanxi. During recent maintenance work on the city wall of the provincial capital Xi’an, workers found that plaster remnants on ancient bricks were quite hard to remove. A chemical test showed that the mortar reacted the same as glutinous rice to a reagent