The oldest structures built by humans

If most people had to guess what the oldest building built by humans would be, they’d probably say something like the pyramids or Stonehenge, but these ancient monuments don’t even come close to these structures. Some of these buildings are so old that theoretically, humans should not have had the ability to construct them with the technology they had at the time, but somehow they did. Here are five of the oldest structures that our species ever built.

Çatalhöyük, Turkey – 7,600 BCE

This strange assortment of rooms was discovered in 1958 during an archeological dig and is believed to be a small town. During this age, people were in the Neolithic period which began around 12,000 BCE when people first started to farm the land and move away from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. The Neolithic period is also known as the New Stone Age since it was the last major period of the Stone Age, a time when people hadn’t discovered any kind of metal and used flint and wooden tools.

Çatalhöyük is an excellent example of when people started to move away from the small isolated dwellings and into an actual community. The structure is made up of dozens of small rooms that are connected directly to each other without the use of streets, suggesting a very close community since some of the rooms are only accessible by walking through multiple others. Several bodies were found under the hearths and beds in some of the rooms, suggesting they had a tradition of keeping their deceased close by.

Göbekli Tepe, Turkey – 9,000 BCE

The most confusing structure on the list, the oldest layer of this temple-like complex was constructed around 9,000 BCE during the Epipaleolithic period which began in 20,000 BCE. During this age, people were very primitive and hadn’t even discovered how to make pottery yet, which begs the question of how they managed to build such a huge complex out of stone.

So far there have been three major layers uncovered, with the lowest one aged around 9,000 BCE and the most recent one carbon dated to between 7560–7370 BCE. It’s thought the structure was a temple of some sort but the strangest thing about it isn’t why they built it, but how they built it. Another puzzling thing is when they finished its construction, the entire temple was buried under thousands of tons of soil to make it look like a small hill. Excavations have been stopped to preserve the site but it’s possible there’s much more hidden beneath the ground, with the uncovered portion potentially being even older.

Cairn Of Barnenez, France – 4,800 BCE

A cairn is a type of stacked stone structure used as a memorial, usually as a marking for someone important who died. They were popular around Europe during the Neolithic and Bronze Age and appeared more within Celtic cultures than anywhere else in the world. The Cairn Of Barnenez is probably the best example of Neolithic artwork and shows the extent people would go through to say goodbye.

The Cairn contains 11 chambers that acted as buried rooms for whoever was put to rest there, and each room contains drawings of weapons and animals. Numerous axes and intricately carved knives were found in some of the rooms along with stone pictures of what are believed to be the gods of the people who built it. Pretty impressive for people who didn’t even know what metal was.

Mammoth bone hut, Russia – 25,000 years old

Even though this structure fell down a very long time ago, it’s still an example of an ancient building and so far is the oldest surviving evidence of an independent structure built by humans. The structure contains bones from around 60 different mammoths as well as a few smaller bones from foxes and other types of small game. The building is thought to have been built using mammoth bones as supports and then covered with skins since the invention of thatched roofs was still a long way off.

No one will ever know why they built it or what its purpose was, but one theory talks about how it could have been used as somewhere to live during the cold winter months because there is an underground spring nearby which would have provided a source of unfrozen water, something quite rare during a Russian winter.

Knap of Howar, Scotland – 3,600 BCE

Sitting on the Papa Westray coast in Orkney are the UK’s oldest still-standing homes. They weren’t discovered until erosion started to reveal the tops of the walls during the 1930s, after which an excavation revealed the two homes are connected with a central passage. The larger of the two is believed to be the living area, with the smaller room acting as a barn or some kind of work area.

At some point the smaller room was divided into three sections, supporting the theory it was used as a barn, but the entrance was later blocked up. An interesting thing found during the dig suggests the homes were built on top of an even older structure, with wall lines and partial foundations found beneath the floor.