9,000-Year-Old Drawings of Real Structures in Miniature Form are the Earliest Known.

Researchers have found two large stones in the Middle East that display the oldest known building plans drawn to scale, according to a new report. One carving was part of a rectangular stone found at a Jordanian campsite about 9,000 years ago, while two other engravings were made about 8,000 years ago on a boulder discovered at the base of a cliff in Saudi Arabia. Carvings on the stones depict nearby desert kites, which were massive structures once used to capture animal herds. These engravings might have been blueprints for building desert kites or could have served as maps that helped hunters plan strategies for driving animal herds into specific locations.

The kite depictions at the two sites resemble the layout and proportions of desert kites found nearby. Scale drawings etched into rock may have served as public displays of their makers’ ability to transfer large, 3-D structures onto small, flat surfaces. As farming and animal domestication took root in parts of the Middle East, regional hunting groups that built desert kites to trap wild animal herds maintained a special regard for massive hunting structures.

According to Rémy Crassard, of the French National Center for Scientific Research in Lyon, other ancient maps and structural plans, intended as scaled-down drawings, date to about 4,300 years ago in Mesopotamia. Those depictions, however, were not as accurate as the newly discovered desert kite engravings.

The report concludes that the mission of providing accurate, engaging news of science to the public has never been more important, and that the support of readers enables accessible content. Donations allow readers to invest into quality science journalism and keep its content free for the next generation of scientists and engineers.