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OP I was reminded of a neat word today and I thought I'd introduce y'all to it:
tabby: A mixture of oyster shells, lime, sand, and water used as a building material. (AHD)
Used primarily along the southern Atlantic coast in the 16th - 18th centuries, tabby is a generally vernacular building material, and is not the most durable material (relatively speaking, compared to other traditional building methods) so little survives today. The usual definitions of the word (the cat and the cloth) come from an Arabic toponym, but this definition seems to be from an alternate source (although there are Moors involved so...). I found the following from the Beaufort County (SC) Public Library:
Tabby is a cement made from lime, sand and oyster shells. Its origin is uncertain: although early documents record Indian burial vaults with walls made of oyster shells and lime, no such structures have survived. It is likely that Sixteenth-century Spanish explorers first brought tabby (which appears as "tabee", "tapis", "tappy" and "tapia" in early documents) to the coasts of what would become South Carolina and Georgia. Tapia is Spanish for "mud wall", and, in fact, the mortar used to caulk the earliest cabins in this area was a mixture of mud and Spanish Moss. There is evidence that North African Moors brought tabby to Spain when they invaded that kingdom: a form of tabby is used in Morocco today and some tabby structures survive in Spain, though in both instances it is granite, not oyster shells, that is used.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted Feline construction? Flatlander 05/24/02 02:33 PM Re: Feline construction? Hyla 05/24/02 03:01 PM Re: Feline construction? Bean 05/24/02 03:23 PM Re: Feline construction? wwh 05/24/02 04:22 PM Post deleted by Jackie KeivaCarpal 05/24/02 05:46 PM Re: Feline construction? Wordwind 05/27/02 08:23 PM Re: Feline construction? wwh 05/27/02 08:40 PM Re: daub and wattle date? Wordwind 05/27/02 09:36 PM Re: daub and wattle date? wwh 05/27/02 09:50 PM Re: daub and wattle date? Bingley 05/29/02 04:19 AM Re: daub and wattle date? wwh 05/29/02 01:32 PM First composites Bryan Hayward 05/31/02 08:39 PM Re: daub and wattle date? tsuwm 05/29/02 02:58 PM Re: Feline construction? wsieber 06/04/02 12:18 PM
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