
Archaeologists are mystified by ancient “gates” in Saudi lava fields - tambourine_man
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/10/archaeologists-are-mystified-by-ancient-gates-in-saudi-lava-fields/
======
xaedes
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...](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/desert-kites-out-of-eden-
walk-uzbekistan-iron-age-saiga/)

See especially this image:
[https://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/rights-...](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)

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
That 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
If 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
The article claims the walls aren't high enough to keep animals penned.

------
marcus_holmes
"Ritual Purposes" \- the archeologist's get-out clause when they have no idea
what something is used for.

If they said these things were for hunting or agriculture, they'd have to
explain how. But if they're for "rituals" then they don't have to explain what
the use was or the ritual was.

However it leaves us with an impression of ancient peoples as superstitious
fools who spent vast amounts of time and energy building ritual objects with
no practical purpose.

Instead maybe we should be left with an impression of archeologist's massive
ignorance about ancient culture.

~~~
OJFord
Or just a broader interpretation of 'ritual'. The modern family sitting on a
long soft bench at one end of a room facing some sort of oblong panel next to
a tangle of wire, likely electrical, might be a 'ritual lost to time'.

~~~
marcus_holmes
In which case the definition of ritual becomes "any object or activity that
isn't required for immediate survival needs", and it becomes meaningless.

I would not describe a television as being used for "ritual purposes". It has
a specific function and is used for a specific reason. If future archeologists
cannot determine that function or describe that reason, then I would expect
them to say "we don't know what this is used for", not "it was used for ritual
purposes".

That's the thing that bugs me about it. If they said "we don't know" that'd be
much more intellectually honest.

~~~
OJFord
So what's the definition to be? Must religion be involved?

Drawing the lines around what is or is not religion is surely in itself a can
of worms!

~~~
marcus_holmes
Not necessarily religion:

"a set of fixed actions and sometimes words performed regularly, especially as
part of a ceremony"
[http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ritual](http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ritual)

and yeah, determining what an ancient person would have thought of as
religious, or not, or even ritual, would be tricky.

but the point is that "rituals" (as opposed to "habits" or "customs and
practices") make up a tiny part of our average day, and a tiny fraction of the
objects we use.

To suggest that ancient peoples spent vastly more of their time in rituals
gives a completely erroneous impression of both the ancient people and their
objects.

------
coda_
It seems they could have been designed as an attempt to guide, trap and pool
lava that might otherwise flow toward settlements or other things of value.
Didn't see that hypothesis in the article. Not sure how effective it would
have been... But if your elders told stories of villages being wiped out by
lava, you would probably try to do something to stop it.

