Is it possible to have structures older than 500,000 years old

[Apple_Mango]

It appears the oldest structures don't go father than 4500 BC. I was wondering if it's possible that were are structures that go beyond 4500 BC that we just haven't discovered yet? I doubt that there are buildings that can last for 500,000 years before falling down. However, is it possible that archaeologist can find materials from collapse buildings?

 

[Evo]

Gobekli Tepe in Turkey is more than 12,000 years old.

The world’s oldest monuments may soon get an image makeover. A new project will promote and preserve http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text, home to the most ancient temple structures ever discovered.

Turkey hopes to eventually boost tourism at the site, which is in a region where tourism has declined because of the nearby Syrian conflict and refugee crisis.

Since excavations began in 1995, the site in southeastern Turkey has changed the way archaeologists think about the origins of civilization. Its circular structures, with their elaborately carved stones and distinctive, T-shaped pillars, are more than 12,000 years old—older than the invention of agriculture or even pottery.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/150120-gobekli-tepe-oldest-monument-turkey-archaeology/

 

[Evo]

Another old civilization.

Çatalhöyük (Turkish pronunciation: [tʃaˈtaɫhøjyk]; also Çatal Höyük and Çatal Hüyük; from Turkish çatal "fork" + höyük "mound") was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithicproto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 5700 BC, and flourished around 7000 BC.[1] In July 2012, it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Çatalhöyük

 

[Apple_Mango]

Oh, I entered in google and it appears the oldest buildings were 4500 thousand years old. I missed those articles.

 

[Evo]

Oh, I entered in google and it appears the oldest buildings were 4500 thousand years old. I missed those articles.

That's why we're here.

 

[Vanadium 50]

it appears the oldest buildings were 4500 thousand years old.

I doubt very much it is 4500 thousand, i.e. 4.5 million. Human ancestors hadn't begun to walk upright yet.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

It appears the oldest structures don't go father than 4500 BC. I was wondering if it's possible that were are structures that go beyond 4500 BC that we just haven't discovered yet? I doubt that there are buildings that can last for 500,000 years before falling down. However, is it possible that archaeologist can find materials from collapse buildings?

We find residences nearly that old, Sterkfontein comes to mind immediately. But the technology didn't exist to building structures more complicated than wickiups until we got together to make civilizations.

The lunatic fringe will claim otherwise, of course.

 

[gmax137]

... The lunatic fringe will claim otherwise, of course.

You mean, like this?

The nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh…was built in measureless eons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars. There lay great Cthulhu and his hordes, hidden in green slimy vaults...

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

You mean, like this?

There's retro silent movie out now, "The Call of Cthulhu", available on Amazon.

 

[Mark44]

However, is it possible that archaeologist can find materials from collapse buildings?

They do it all the time. They can dig at the sites of old cities that were built on the ruins of earlier cities. Sometimes at some of the digs in the middle east, archeologists find the remains of four or more sites that were sacked at various times over the past several thousand years.

 

[Astronuc]

It appears the oldest structures don't go father than 4500 BC. I was wondering if it's possible that were are structures that go beyond 4500 BC that we just haven't discovered yet? I doubt that there are buildings that can last for 500,000 years before falling down. However, is it possible that archaeologist can find materials from collapse buildings?

In addition to the example given, there are paleolithic ruins in Scotland.

Early Human Habitation
The history of ancient Scotland is told through the standing stones, ancient settlements, and burial places built by those who lived in the region. No written history of the people who came to be known as the Scots exists prior to the coming of the Romans in 79/80 CE. By that time, the land had been inhabited for thousands of years. In the 1960's CE, the archaeologist John Mercer established that the stone rings found at Lussa Wood and the Mesolithic settlement, An Carn, both on the Isle of Jura in the Inner Hebrides, are the oldest stone structures in Scotland, dating back to 7000 BCE with seasonal settlement of the area going back at least to 10,500 BCE.

Even so, there are ancient sites on the island of Rum, further north, which have been dated to 7700 BCE, and the famous site at Crammond, near Edinburgh, dates to 8400 BCE. There is further evidence of Mesolithic settlements (some seasonal) found on nearby Oronsay, at Kintyre, Luce Bay and further on in Fife, and the Paleolithic site at Howburn Farm in Biggar, though certainly a seasonal camp, dates to 12,000 BCE.

https://www.ancient.eu/scotland/

Much of the northern parts of North America and the Eurasian continent were covered in glaciers, ice and snow, during the ice ages. Wooden structures would have decayed over that period. Many stone structures can be found buried.

If a stone/rock structure was made of granite, it could last many millennia, but that would require the ability to quarry granite, basalt, or similar rock, and possesses stone masonry skills.

One should look into Paleolithic cultures.

 

[CWatters]

Refers to the remains of artificial structures dated to 200,000 to 500,000 years ago...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/662794.stm