The discovery of stone age remnants in the Middle East deserts of Northern Arabia and Southern Iraq called kites wasn't documented until now. Identified were 350 monumental hunting structures called 'kites' done by the University of Oxford's School of Archaeology.
Discoveries Shock scientists
Dr. Michael Fradley of the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project, along with others, used open-source satellite imagery to study and understand the area all around the eastern Nafud desert, an area that has been given little attention in the past; reported Phys. Org.
Such surprising findings, published in the scientific journal The Holocene, do have the possibility of changing the understanding of prehistoric links and climate science in the Middle East.
These formations, identified as kites by early aircraft pilots, are composed of low stone walls which form a head compartment and several guiding wall surfaces that may be kilometers long.
Thought to have been employed to guide game-like gazelles into the areas where they might be killed or captured. There is proof that all these formations date to the Neolithic era, approximately 8,000 BCE, noted the University of Oxford.
Kites are difficult to spot from the ground, but the emergence of commercial satellite pictures and portals such as Google Earth has permitted recent discoveries of fresh data distribution.
Such stone age remnants are now well known from eastern Jordan and nearby places in southern Syria.
The new findings stretch the known spread over 400 kilometers east all over northern Saudi Arabia, with many being encountered in southern Iraq and the Middle East for the very first time.
Hunting Structures Called Kites
Dr. Fradley continued, "The structures discovered indicate proof of complex, deliberate planning." The 'heads' of the kites may be well over 100 meters in diameter.
He adds the leading walls (the kite's "strings") that researchers currently think gazelle and other animals might follow to the kite heads, which can be lengthy.
The surviving segments of walls in a few of these new examples run in almost parallel lines for 4 kilometers, mostly over very diverse terrain. Such structures were reused over time and rebuilt over generations by the hunters.
According to the researchers, their disproportionate size and shape could be a means of expressing prestige, individuality, and boundaries.
The existence of kites in Jordanian rock art suggests that Neolithic residents of the area prized them highly in both representational and ritual circumstances.
Structures differ significantly in size from any other early Holocene architecture and design evidence, from the styling of the kite heads to the thorough runs of leading walls over vast distances.
Researchers theorize that the individuals who erected these kites ended up living in transient constructions made of natural materials which aren't visible in the most recent satellite data.
New sites indicate a previously unknown level of connectivity throughout northern Arabia at the time they were constructed.
Bringing up intriguing questions regarding who constructed these structures, who the hunted game was destined to feed, and why the people were able to not only stay alive but also invest in these immense structures.
To improve our understanding of these landscapes and the impact of climate change, the project is now expanding its survey work across all these now-arid zones. These stone age remnants in parts of the Middle East are called kites used for hunting, but they are not yet final.
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