Inventions & Discoveries · Building and engineering
Dome
A dome is an architectural element resembling the hollow upper half of a sphere; the earliest found may be four dwellings of mammoth tusks and bones at Mezhirich in Ukraine, dated between 19,280 and 11,700 BCE. Corbelled stone domes appear in the Neolithic Near East, and domes were built in ancient Mesopotamia and in Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Chinese architecture. They reached monumental size in the Roman Imperial period, whose largest dome is the Pantheon, and were later common in Byzantine, Islamic, Renaissance and Ottoman architecture.
On the inventions tree
- First known
- 19,280–11,700 BCE
- Where
- Mezhirich, Ukraine
NoteWhen the first dome was built is not known; the mammoth-bone dwellings of Mezhirich may be the earliest. Corbelled stone domes appear in the Neolithic Near East.
See also
Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Dome. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/dome
- MLA
- “Dome.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/dome. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Dome.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/dome.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Dome’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/dome (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻