Desert kites (mass hunting traps)
Cometas del desierto (trampas de caza masiva)
- Date
- c. 7000 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Jibal al-Khashabiyeh, eastern desert, Jordan
- Credited to
- Pre-Pottery Neolithic hunters of the arid Levant
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Stone enclosures several kilometres wide, with two converging arms leading to a pen or pit, used to drive and trap gazelles and other ungulates in the desert. Their oldest known origin lies in the Neolithic of the arid Levant (Crassard et al., 2015).
The age (c. 9000 cal. BP at Jibal al-Khashabiyeh) rests on few dates, and both exact function (trap, corral or ritual complex) and chronology are debated. Coordinates are approximate within the kite field.
What it led to
- planned collective hunting of migratory gazelle herds in the Levant and Arabia
- spread of the technology across Jordan, Syria, Arabia, Armenia and Central Asia
- an example of monumental construction by hunter-gatherers