Researchers claim to have uncovered world’s oldest architectural plans

2023-05-19T15:30:00-04:00

Engraved between 7,000 and 9,000 years ago, these representations are by far the oldest known to-scale architectural plans recorded in human history, the team reported on Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE. They also highlight how carefully planned the desert kites may have been by the ancient peoples who relied on them.

The “desert kites” in question are essentially large-scale slaughter pen-type catchalls used to herd and kill wild animal herds in the prehistoric regions known today as the Levant and Central Asia. Researchers will soon display the plans, which are engraved in stone slabs, in a special exhibition at Jordan’s Al-Hussein Bin Talal University. The paper can be found here.

Co-author Wael Abu-Azizeh told the New York Times the engravings “could also be symbolic commemorations of the desert kites, which may have been an important part of the cultural identity of the ancient peoples who made and used them.”

BeMA: a new art museum for Beirut

2016-10-14T13:08:00-04:00

Beirut is to get a new modern art museum with a design inspired by Italian campaniles and Arabic minarets. BeMA, the Beirut Museum of Art, will feature a slender tower rising 124 metres into the sky, according to designs by the winner of an architectural competition revealed on Thursday.

An international jury has selected the Paris-based Lebanese architect Hala Wardé to oversee the complex on what the project backers describe as “a symbolically charged site that once marked the dividing lines in the Lebanese civil war”.

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Researchers claim to have uncovered world’s oldest architectural plans

BeMA: a new art museum for Beirut