Tools & manufacturing · c. 8,500 BCE

Mudbrick

Molded, sun-dried bricks let settled farmers build permanent towns.

Mudbricks appear in the Levant around 8500 BCE, including early Jericho. Standard modular blocks made walls, houses and later ziggurats and city walls.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Agriculture 9500 BCE

What it led to 1

True arch 2500 BCE

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Share of people living in cities Latest: 57.5 % (2025) Source: Our World in Data

World population over a million years Latest: 6.27k million people (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, table 'Total World Population' (Kremer series); Kremer 1993, Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990, QJE 108(3)