The First Stonemason…
Per Wikipedia, “stonemasonry” is “the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with mortar and even the ancient lime mortar, to wall or cover formed structures [emphasis added].”
The first part of the above-definition, “the craft of shaping and arranging stones…” leads to interesting questions:
- In what age did stonemasonry originate?
- Who was the first stonemason?
Freemasonry traces its literal origins to the stonemason guilds of medieval Europe.
- Medieval Europe (or the Middle Ages) dates from AD 600 to AD 1500.
So AD 600 to AD 1500 is our starting point.
But we can go back to an earlier age.
Freemasonry traces its figurative origins to: the building of King Solomon’s Temple and the stonemasons employed therein.
- The building of King Solomon’s Temple dates to approximately 950 BC.
But we can go back to an earlier age.
Freemasonry traces its usages and customs to: ancient Egyptian stonemasons and the building of the great pyramids.
- The building of the great pyramids dates between 2600 BC to 2500 BC.
But we can go back to an earlier age.
Stonemasonry existed in an even earlier age than above: the construction of Stonehenge by the neolithic stonemasons.
- Stonehenge was constructed in several phases, beginning about 3100 BC and continuing until about 1600 BC. The famous circle of large sarsen stones were placed between 2600 BC and 2400 BC.
Many other cultures developed stonemasonry independently of what was and is found in Europe. This includes Tenochtitlan: an Aztec city (located in now Mexico City) that dates between AD 1325 to AD1521.
Based on the above, can we say that the earliest example of stonemasonry dates to 3000 BC?
Perhaps we can go to an even earlier age.
As Wikipedia states:
- “Stone tools found from 2011 to 2014 at the Lomekwi archeology site near Lake Turkana in Kenya, are dated to be 3.3 million years old, and predate the genus Homo by about one million years. The oldest known Homo fossil is about 2.4–2.3 million years old compared to the 3.3 million year old stone tools. The stone tools may have been made by Australopithecus Afarensis [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_tool]”
Might stonemasonry date to an age before humans existed?
Might stonemasonry (or the craft of shaping and arranging stones) be the invention of our ancestor Australopithecus Afarensis and date to a prehistoric age of 3.3 million years?
If stonemasonry dates to an age before humans, than was the first stonemason even human, or rather one of our ancestors taking the first steps in what would (3.3 million years later) become freemasonry!
We think it is fascinating!
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