I can still kick myself because I did not take a picture of a man who was restoring a wall like this, with what looked not just like mud but rather like dung. I was a bit embarrassed and did not dare ask if I could take the picture. The walls “mature” nicely and look much better than concrete, even when that crumbles.

The building technique used in most 19th and early 20th century Tokat houses is called ‘half-timbered’.

Traditional timber framing is the method of creating structures using heavy squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs (larger versions of the mortise and tenon joints in furniture). The method comes from making things out of logs and tree trunks without modern high tech saws to cut lumber from the starting material stock. Using axes, adzes and draw knives, hand powered auger drill bits (bit and brace), and laborious woodworking, artisans or farmers could gradually assemble a building capable of bearing heavy weight without excessive use of interior space given over to vertical support posts. This building method has been used for at least two thousand years in many parts of the world.

In the half-timbered houses of northern Anatolia, the panels between the timbers are filled-in with non-structural material that is known as infill: generally stones or bricks. Then the half-timbered walls are covered by siding materials such as plaster or (cheaper) loam.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.
Sources: ‘Anadolu Mirasında Türk Evleri’ (T.C. Kültür Bakanlığı) 1995 & Wikipedia.