AMMan | French and Jordanian archaeologists have discovered a 9,000-year-old ritual site in the desert of Jordan, which may be one of the oldest human structures in the world.
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The site, which dates from the Stone Age, was excavated in 2021 in the Jibal al-Khashabiyeh desert in southeastern Jordan, according to a joint statement from the Jordanian Department of Antiquities and the Jordanian Ministry of Antiquities. , released on Tuesday.
It was discovered by a team of French and Jordanian archaeologists, united within the Southeast Badia Archaeological Project (SEBAP).
Used for gazelle hunter rites, the site includes an altar and a miniature model of a game trap nicknamed “desert kite” because of its shape.
In the Neolithic era, gazelles were herded by hunters towards large stone walls which then directed them to a pen or hole where they were shot.
Similar structures, with walls sometimes several kilometers long, have been discovered in Saudi Arabia, Syria, but also in Turkey and Kazakhstan.
The one discovered in Jordan is “spectacular and unprecedented”, said the Jordanian authorities in their press release, stressing that it was “the oldest structure in the world built on a large scale known to date”.
The site also includes two stelae with human silhouettes – one of which is 1.12 meters high – but also flints, statuettes representing animals, and 150 marine fossils placed in a certain way.
The SEBAP hopes to be able to deepen its knowledge of “early pastoral and nomadic societies, as well as the evolution of strategies” for hunting, according to the press release.
These “desert kites” suggest “extremely sophisticated mass hunting strategies, unexpected in such ancient times,” the statement explains.
The site certainly served to “invoke supernatural forces for successful hunts and abundant prey.”
France’s ambassador to Jordan, Véronique Vouland-Aneini, hailed a “success for both the scientific world and Jordan”, believing that “it gives us valuable testimony to the history of the Middle East, its traditions and rituals.