Uncovering Stone Age Architecture through Desert Monoliths.
Stone monoliths with precise depictions of nearby desert kites in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, engraved between 7,000 and 9,000 years ago, are by far the oldest known to-scale architectural plans recorded in human history, according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE. The engravings could have been prepared as blueprints to aid in the construction of the kites, or served as maps for hunters. The researchers inferred the ages of the engravings by using geological dating tools to determine how long ago the corresponding local kite structures were built.