The first time the art of architecture was practiced

Historians generally agree that the art of architecture was first practiced in the Neolithic period (between the 9th and 4th millennia B.C.) in the Near East, where the claylike earth was used to build the first walls. Two series of inventions were to play a decisive role in the development of architecture: iron tools, whose use became widespread from the 10th century B.C., and weight displacement machines such as the pulley and the winch, of which even the most modem machines are merely perfected models. (Inventions and Discoveries)