Two prehistoric engravings in Jordan and Saudi Arabia depict ‘desert kites’ — humanmade mega-traps that are dated to at least 9,000 years ago for the oldest. The discovery provides some answers to complex questions of the representation and conception of space, faced by human groups since ancient times.
Desert kites, or simply kites, are gigantic archaeological structures made of stone alignments and walls.
Kites are composed of driving lines — from hundreds of meters to 5 km long — converging towards an enclosure, which is surrounded by up to 4-m-deep pits (called ‘pit-traps’, from 1 to more than 20 in number per enclosure) where animals were trapped by hunters.
They represent some of the most impressive stone-built constructions erected by humans in recent prehistory.
They are the earliest large-scale monuments known to date, dating back to as early as 9,000 years ago, during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period in Jordan. Elsewhere, some of them were in use in more recent times.
These massive structures visible from airplanes were first recognized in the 1920s and were quickly interpreted as hunting traps, which was confirmed by recent archaeological excavations.
Currently, 6,255 desert kites have been recorded in the kite distribution area across the Middle East, Caucasia, and Central Asia.
Until recently, almost no in-depth studies had been carried out to enhance our understanding of their function, functioning, chronology or why they were so widespread in many regions.
In new research, Dr. Rémy Crassard, an archaeologist at the Université Lyon and CNRS, and colleagues examined two engravings — dated to between 7,000 and 8,000 years old — that depict nearby desert kites in south-eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia.
“In Jordan, the Jibal al-Khasabiyeh area has eight kites,” the researchers said.
“A stone with a representation carved with stone tools measuring 80 cm long and 32 cm wide was found nearby and dated to around…
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