Amman: Archaeologists have discovered a 9,000-year-old ritual complex, believed to be the world’s earliest known large man-made structure, in the Jordanian desert.
The Stone Age shrine, excavated last year, was used by gazelle hunters and features carved stone figures, an altar and a miniature model of a massive hunting net.
The giant represents game trap models – so-called “desert kites” – made of long walls that transform into enclosures or holes for slaughter to coral running gazelles.
Similar structures of two or more stone walls, some several kilometers (miles) long, are found in the deserts of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and Kazakhstan.
The Neolithic-era ritual site was discovered last October by a joint French-Jordanian team inside a large campsite. South East Badiya Archaeological Project,
Nearby Desert Kites in Jibal al-Khashabiyeh These are “the largest-scale man-made structures known to date around the world,” it said in a statement. SEBA Project,
It commended the “splendid and unprecedented discovery” of the ritual site, which is dated to around 7000 BCE.
It consists of two steles with anthropomorphic features, one tall 1.12 m high, other artifacts including animal sculptures, flint and about 150 systematic marine fossils.
The comprehensive, decades-old research project aims to study “the evolution of earlier pastoral nomadic societies as well as specialized subsistence strategies”.
The project’s statement said the desert moths suggest “extremely sophisticated mass hunting strategies, unexpected in such an early time frame”.
It has been said that the sacred symbolism was meant to “invoke supernatural forces for successful hunting and abundance of prey for the capture”.
Teams of researchers have also found circular dwellings and campsites containing a large number of gazelle bones.
This project is in collaboration with Jordan Al Hussein bin Talal University and the French Institute of the Near East.
The French ambassador, Véronique Woland-Année, lauded the “results for both the scientific world and Jordan”, saying, “It provides us with an invaluable testimony of historical life. Middle EastIts traditions and customs”.
The Stone Age shrine, excavated last year, was used by gazelle hunters and features carved stone figures, an altar and a miniature model of a massive hunting net.
The giant represents game trap models – so-called “desert kites” – made of long walls that transform into enclosures or holes for slaughter to coral running gazelles.
Similar structures of two or more stone walls, some several kilometers (miles) long, are found in the deserts of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and Kazakhstan.
The Neolithic-era ritual site was discovered last October by a joint French-Jordanian team inside a large campsite. South East Badiya Archaeological Project,
Nearby Desert Kites in Jibal al-Khashabiyeh These are “the largest-scale man-made structures known to date around the world,” it said in a statement. SEBA Project,
It commended the “splendid and unprecedented discovery” of the ritual site, which is dated to around 7000 BCE.
It consists of two steles with anthropomorphic features, one tall 1.12 m high, other artifacts including animal sculptures, flint and about 150 systematic marine fossils.
The comprehensive, decades-old research project aims to study “the evolution of earlier pastoral nomadic societies as well as specialized subsistence strategies”.
The project’s statement said the desert moths suggest “extremely sophisticated mass hunting strategies, unexpected in such an early time frame”.
It has been said that the sacred symbolism was meant to “invoke supernatural forces for successful hunting and abundance of prey for the capture”.
Teams of researchers have also found circular dwellings and campsites containing a large number of gazelle bones.
This project is in collaboration with Jordan Al Hussein bin Talal University and the French Institute of the Near East.
The French ambassador, Véronique Woland-Année, lauded the “results for both the scientific world and Jordan”, saying, “It provides us with an invaluable testimony of historical life. Middle EastIts traditions and customs”.
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