It could be, with the Turkish site of Göbekli Tepe, one of the oldest known ritual sites.
French and Jordanian archaeologists have discovered in the Badia Desert in northern Jordan a monumental structure dated to around the 8th millennium BC.
Exhumed in 2021, this early Neolithic site in the steep region of Jibal al-Khashabiyeh had an altar and a miniature game trap.
A “spectacular and unprecedented”
discovery
, according to the Jordanian authorities.
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The excavated area, some 9000 years old, would present nothing more or less
"the oldest structure in the world built on a large scale known until now".
Better still, the site includes two steles with human silhouettes, 1.12 meters high for the largest.
Extremely rare anthropomorphic representations on these first monuments and which seem to indicate a religious function, indicate the French and Jordanian researchers, united within the Archaeological Project of South-East Badia (SEBAP).
According to their statement, the site served to
“invoke supernatural forces for successful hunts and abundant prey.”
Gazelle terminus
If the ritual character or not of a site remains difficult to determine with certainty for these remote ages, it seems at least attested that the excavated zone had something to do with hunting.
The miniature game trap, nicknamed
"desert kite
" because of its shape, goes in this direction.
This type of device, formed of a stone corridor leading to a pen with a hole, was used in particular for the rites of gazelle hunters, according to a press release published on Tuesday.
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This type of structure was common in the Neolithic and has been observed on many other archaeological sites, in Saudi Arabia, Syria, but also in Turkey and Kazakhstan.
These
“desert kites”
suggest
“extremely sophisticated mass hunting strategies, unexpected in such ancient times
,” the archaeologists explain.
In addition to these hunting corridors and anthropomorphic statues, archaeologists have also unearthed numerous flints, statuettes representing animals as well as 150 marine fossils.
SEBAP hopes to derive from its careful study of the site an in-depth knowledge of
“early pastoral and nomadic societies, as well as the evolution of strategies”
of hunting.
France's ambassador to Jordan, Véronique Vouland-Aneini, for her part hailed a
"success for both the scientific world and Jordan"
, believing that
"it gives us precious testimony to the history of the Middle Orient, its traditions and its rituals”
.
And which seems above all to put the finger on a pivotal moment in human history: the slow sedentarization of the nomads of the desert.
