Major Engineering Events in History: First Houses 298,000 B.C.

About the major engineering events in history, the first houselike dwellings built in 298,000 B.C.

Great Engineering Feats from Early Times to the Present

298,000 B.C. (Earliest Known Houselike Dwelling). A Paleolithic nomadic hunting camp, uncovered by excavators preparing a new building site near Nice, France, has proved to be the earliest example yet found of man's effort to protect himself from his environment. The structures, built 300,000 years ago, were evidently made by wandering hunters who annually visited the Mediterranean shoreline. Artifacts left behind, and plant pollen found at the site, have helped archaeologists date the huts these early hunters lived in. Their oval shelters, ranging from 26' to 49' in length, and from 13' to 20' in width, were built of 3"-diameter stakes set as a palisade in the sand, braced on the outside by a ring of stones. Larger poles were set up along the hut's longer axis to support the roof. A basic feature of each hut is a centrally placed hearth, complete with windscreens built of pebbles.

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