#history In general terms, you cannot establish an origin for earthworks, since you cannot know exactly what ancient civilizations thought before the appearance of the first forms of writing.
When writing appeared, Mesopotamian civilizations wrote down their beliefs regarding the shape of the planet, which for them was a round, flat disc that floated on an ocean. Since they are the oldest writings that have been found to support this hypothesis, they can be considered as their origin.
Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations were the first to hypothesize that the planet was a round, flat disk floating on an immense ocean. The ancient Mesopotamians would leave these beliefs in writing and, later, in the sixth century BC. C., would be collected and accepted by the first Greek philosophers, such as Thales of Miletus, Hecateus of Miletus and Anaximander. The image shows what the earth and the solar system would look like according to earthworkers. 

Earthworks