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From someone in the ars comments: The 4th and the last image are fair matches to form and wall height of desert hunting kites of Central Asia seen here: https:
by xaedes 9y ago
From someone in the ars comments:
The 4th and the last image are fair matches to form and wall height of desert hunting kites of Central Asia seen here: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/desert-kites-out-of-eden-walk-uzbekistan-iron-age-saiga/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/desert-kites-out...
See especially this image:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/rights-exempt/nat-geo-staff-graphics-illustrations/2016/08/desert_kites/Kite_traps04-Artboard_2.ngsversion.1470860356983.png https://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/rights-...
From the linked article (on nationalgeographic):
“They make more sense when looked at from above,” says Shamil Amirov, an archaeologist who uses satellite imagery to map the colossal artifacts in western Uzbekistan. “Most are shaped like arrows. We have found them in chains across the migration trails of antelopes. They probably directed thousands of animals into killing pits.”
In effect, Amirov says, Central Asia’s desert kites—named after similar triangular or kite-shaped features discovered earlier in the Middle East—were massive protein pumps. Built over generations by nomadic pastoralists some 2,500 years ago, the structures siphoned vast numbers of animals from the environment.
...
Desert kites first came to the attention of science nearly a century ago, when World War I pilots reported low walls tracing gigantic polygons, funnels, and triangles across the sunbaked barrens of modern Jordan, Israel, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. Experts have been debating the function of these cryptic structures ever since.
- jdonaldson 9y agoThat has to be the purpose of the kites. I still wonder about the gates though. Those don't look useful for hunting. Especially the one on the volcanic mound.
- tmm 9y agoIf the kites are for trapping animals, wouldn’t the gates be pens to hold them? If you trap 1000’s of antelope or whatever, you can’t kill them all at once, you have to keep them somewhere. These kinda look like stockyards to me.
- mcphage 9y agoThe article claims the walls aren't high enough to keep animals penned.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]