%0 Journal Article %T Arquitectura de tierra: el adobe como material de construcci¨®n en la ¨¦poca prehisp¨¢nica %A Gama-Castro %A Jorge E %A Cruz y Cruz %A Tamara %A Pi-Puig %A Teresa %A Alcal¨¢-Mart¨ªnez %A Ren¨¦ %A Cabadas-B¨¢ez %A H¨¦ctor %A Jasso-Casta£¿eda %A Carolina %A D¨ªaz-Ortega %A Jaime %A S¨¢nchez-P¨¦rez %A Seraf¨ªn %A L¨®pez-Aguilar %A Fernando %A Vilanova de Allende %A Rodrigo %J Bolet¨ªn de la Sociedad Geol¨®gica Mexicana %D 2012 %I Sociedad Geol¨®gica Mexicana %X adobe has been used as a building material for thousands of years by indigenous peoples of america, in the southwestern united states, mesoamerica, and andean south america. currently, fifty percent of the houses in the world are built with soil-derived materials. these materials may thus represent a viable solution to the problem of homelessness, by proposing a means for low-cost self-built homes. however, a limitation to developing such an alternative is that the processing techniques of building materials made from soil are the result of empirical knowledge. such knowledge is often unsystematic, varies in each culture and region, and lacks an interdisciplinary terminology, thus precluding the recognition of universal standards for technological evaluation. the aim of this paper is to contribute to the formal knowledge related to the intrinsic nature of one of the most widely used pre-hispanic construction materials: adobe. in order to do so, techniques for the quantitative measurement of the characteristics and diagnostic properties of the material were implemented. for this purpose six samples of adobe were selected and analyzed from the pre-hispanic archaeological sites zeth¨¦ and sabina grande, both located near huichapan, hidalgo. the samples of adobe were formally characterized by internationally accepted analytical methods used by the society of soil science and by the american society for testing and materials. here, methods included routine physical and chemical analysis supplemented by selected tests, including: (i) quantitative determination of particle size, (ii) micromorphological analysis, (iii) x-ray diffraction, and (iv) x-ray fluorescence. the samples are characterized by the following variables: (i) predominance of a loamy matrix; (ii) low to moderate content of non-expansive clay; (iii) predominance of a high bulk density; (iv) a low coefficient of linear expansion; (v ) stable consistency; (vi) moderate water retention (33 and 1500 kpa); (vii) p %K adobe %K earthen architecture %K pre-hispanic construction materials. %U http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1405-33222012000200003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en