Genesis

In the late palaeolithic Near East, around 10,000 BCE, we find the first evidence of permanent villages.  Post holes indicate a circular pit house adapted from an earlier nomadic tent.  The oldest of these sites is at Ein Gev, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.  The circular stone walls are not load-bearing; the roof was supported by a central post, allowing for a more substantial roof than that allowed by a simple tepee style.  Another innovation of the prehistoric period and evident at sites such as Jericho and Beidha (near Petra), is the use of hand-formed mud brick, perhaps an indication of the growing scarcity of fieldstone.

The circle is a natural form and easily laid out by pulling a string around a central point.  The rectangle, on the other hand, is an abstract invention that is difficult to reproduce.  Sometime around 7000 BCE, a major change in architecture occurred, something that would influence all subsequent human settlement.  Round buildings became square.  We may ask: whence the square?  It is a form rarely found in nature.  One may suppose that perpendicularity could be inferred by bisecting a river with a ford or the horizon with a tree.  The right angle is surely a human invention and may be said to be the first discovery of geometry (the circle having been already available in nature).  Rectangular building allows for greater addition and division of living space, which grew increasingly scarce with the rise of urbanization.