A team of Jordanian and French archaeologists reported finding an approximately 9,000-year-old Neolithic shrine in a remote desert in Jordan. The discovered structures indicate that humans corralled and hunted gazelles long before the currently widespread thesis.
The complex was found in a Neolithic camp near large structures known as “desert kites”, which are supposed to be traps used to corral wild gazelles for slaughter. These traps consist of at least two kilometers of stone walls converging towards a pen where the animals could be more easily hunted.
While such structures are also found in other parts of the arid landscapes of the Middle East and Southwest Asia, experts believe Jordan’s are the oldest, best preserved and largest.
“This is a unique site where large numbers of gazelles were hunted in complex rituals. There is no rival in the world since the Stone Age,” explained Jordanian archaeologist Wael Abu Azizeh. “The site is unique, also because of its state of preservation. It is 9,000 years old and everything was almost intact.”
According to a statement from the Archaeological Project of Southeast Badia (Sebap), which has been working on the site since 2013, the converging wall structures “attest to the emergence of extremely sophisticated mass hunting strategies, unexpected at such an early period”.
A community around hunting
The team of French and Jordanian experts also found more than 250 artifacts at the site, including four animal figurines that archaeologists say were used in rituals to invoke supernatural forces to ensure a successful hunt.
Inside the sanctuary were also two anthropomorphic stone statues – one accompanied by a representation of the “desert kite”. There was also an altar, fireplace, 149 marine fossils and a miniature model of the gazelle trap. The objects are among some of the oldest pieces of art ever found in the Middle East.
The proximity between the site and the traps suggests that the inhabitants were specialized hunters and that the traps were “the center of their cultural, economic and even symbolic life in this marginal area”, the statement reads.
The circular dwellings in the form of settlement huts and the large amounts of gazelle remains show that the inhabitants were not only hunting for their own needs, but also trading their hunts with neighboring settlements.
According to the researchers, the sanctuary “shed new light on the symbolism, artistic expression, as well as the spiritual culture of these hitherto unknown Neolithic populations.”
Jordan’s Minister of Tourism, Nayef al-Fayez, said the findings are a spectacular addition to the country’s archaeological gems, which include the rock-hewn desert city of Petra, Roman Gerasa and castles from the Middle Ages.
