9,000 YEAR OLD PETROGLYPHS COPY DESIGNS OF MEGA-SCALE DESERT ANIMAL TRAPS:

Desert kite at Mafraq, Jordan. Photograph by Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

Gigantic stone constructions from millennia ago can be found in the deserts of the Middle East. These stone assemblies are referred to as “kites” and are immense hunting traps constructed by piling natural stone into large enclosures with converging lanes of stone wall leading into them. These were used by driving prey animals toward the opening of the converging walls which then guide them into the trap where the hunters can harvest them. I have previously written about this kind of hunting trap on RockArtBlog in 2012 and 2015 (see references at the end of this article).

Now, we have been informed of the discovery of petroglyphs which very convincingly have been interpreted as diagrams of two of these “kites.” The name “kite” is believed to have been bestowed upon the large traps by Royal Air Force pilots back in the 1920s who first saw them from the air and reported them.

Desert kite. Photograph from Google Earth.

"For the specific case of 'desert kites', which are prehistoric stone structures used as mega-sized traps to hunt wild animals, the existence of such representations is of the utmost importance for understanding how they wer conceived and perceived in the landscape, at a time when mapping was unknown. We report here the exceptional discovery of the up-to-now oldest realistic plans, engraved on stones, of some of these humanmade archaeological mega-traps, from south-eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia, the oldest of which are dated to 8,000 years ago." (Crassard et al. 2023)

“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 and 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 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. 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.” (de Lazaro 2023)

“In new research, Dr. Remy 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.” (de Lazaro 2023)

“Two large, engraved stones found in the Middle East display the oldest known building plans drawn to scale, researchers say. One carved depiction covers part of a rectangular stone found at a Jordanian campsite dating to about 9,000 years ago. Two other engravings were made roughly 8,000 years ago on a boulder discovered at the base of a cliff in Saudi Arabia. Carvings on these stones depict nearby desert kites, massive structures once used to capture animal herds, scientists report May 17 in PLOS ONE. Desert kites consist of stone walls up to five kilometers long that narrow into large enclosures surrounded by pits where hunters trapped animals, such as gazelles and deer. Kite depictions at the two sites closely resemble the shape, layout and proportions of desert kites found close by, archaeologist Remy Crassard and colleagues say.” (Bower 2023) These petroglyphs do seem to resemble nearby kites which has led to their being touted as ‘blueprints” or ‘construction plans’.

Desert kite in Jibal al-Khashabiyeh region, Jordan. Image Crassard et al., PONE, 2023. 

Petroglyph of the desert kite in Jibal al-Khashabiyeh region, Jordan. Image Crassard et al., PONE, 2023.

Diagram of the petroglyph of the desert kite in Jibal al-Khashabiyeh region, Jordan. Image Crassard et al., PONE, 2023. 

“One engraving depicting a kite is carved onto a rock roughly 80 centimeters long and 32 centimeters wide. Archaeologists found it in 2015 in an ancient campsite beside a kite in the Jordanian desert’s Jibal al-Khashabiyeh region.” (Metcalf 2023)

Desert kite in Jebal Az-Zilliyat region of northern Saudi Arabia. Image Crassard et al., PONE, 20023.

Diagram of desert kite in Jebel Az-Zilliyat region of northern Saudi Arabia. Image Crassard et al., PONE, 2023.

Petroglyph of desert kite in Jebel Az-Zilliyat region of northern Saudi Arabia. Image Crassard et al., PONE, 2023.

"A second engraving, found in 2015 during a survey of the Jebel az-Zilliyat escarpment in Saudi Arabia, is inscribed on a sandstone boulder more than three meters wide and two meters high. The boulder sits midway between two pairs of star-shaped desert kites that correspond to the engraving. The entrances to each pair of kites are close togethr, suggesting hunters could try to trap a herd regardless of which way the animals fled." (Metcalf 2023)  Some doubters point to the low height of the stone walls as casting doubt on the idea that they would direct an animal's travel. Of course, over 9,000 years most stone walls are somewhat eroded and fallen so they would probably have been higher originally. Additionally, in my 2015 article on the drive lines on Rollins Pass, Colorado, I cited Dr. James Benedict who told me that he once observed a small herd of elk coming upslope and reaching a drive line only one stone high, but that diverted the herd and instead of just stepping over the line they turned and followed the line on uphill.

All of the press coverage on these discoveries seems to assume that they are “blueprints” or “plans” for recreating the hunting traps. While that is a fun idea, I don’t buy it. The scale and/or shapes of the hunting trap will be determined by the local geology and the mental design of its creators, not some picture on a rock. They would have no use for a ‘blueprint’ or ‘plan.’ I am much more sympathetic to the idea that the petroglyphs are celebrations or memorials to the completion of what was obviously a major effort, the construction of the hunting trap. Sort of a “look what we did,” like the bronze plaque in the lobby of a major building. Their resemblance to particular kites nearby seems to me to back up that interpretation. And, given the scale of these kites, the completion of one would have been a reason to celebrate.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

 

REFERENCES:

Benedict, James, 1985, personal communication.

Bower, Bruce, 2023, The oldest scaled-down drawings of actual structures go back 9,000 years, 17 May 2023, https://www.sciencenews.org. Accessed online 18 May 2023.

Crassard, Remy et al., 2023, The oldest plans to scale of human made mega-structures, 17 May 2023. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277927. Accessed online 18 May 2023.

De Lazaro, Enrico, 2023, Neolithic Engravings are Oldest Architectural Plans of Human Made Mega-Structures, 18 May 2923, https://www.sci.news/archaeology/desert-kite-plans-11926.html. Accessed online 18 May 2023.

Faris, Peter, 2012, A Bighorn Sheep Trap Petroglyph Near Moab, 9 June 2012, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com.

Faris, Peter, 2015, Stone Blinds and Drivelines – Rollins Pass, CO, 14 February 2015, https://rockartblog.blogspot.com.

Metcalf, Tom, 2023, Stone Engravings of Mysterious Ancient Megastructures May Be The World’s Oldest Blueprints, 17 May 2023, https://www.scientificamerican.com. Accessed online 18 May 2023.