Desert kites and prehistoric periods in Iranian plateau

author

  • Nazari, Hamid
Abstract:

The known area of distribution of kites is very large, from Arabia and the Near East, to Armenia in the Caucasus and the Aralo-Caspian region, namely south-western Kazakhstan and western Uzbekistan (e.g. Barge et al. 2013).although still there is not any official report about its existence in Iranian plateau but regards to the vast distribution of desert kites from Egypt in west to Kazakhstan in east, it is not so worth if we expect to see this prehistoric phenomena in Iranian territory also. The kite structures, typologically well known for decades and often interpreted as giant hunting traps or game drives, are being reappraised by means of a research project called Globalkites (Crassard et al. 2014).These structures, comprising long driving walls or stone alignments (antennae) converging towards an enclosure surrounded by small closed rooms (cells), are being studied through different approaches, including archaeology and geomatics, geoarchaeology, environmental studies, zooarchaeology and animal ethology (e.g. Barge, Brochier & Crassard, this volume 2015; Chahoud, Vila & Crassard, this volume 2015). Desert kites” is a term coined in Near Eastern archaeology for describing large game drives solely found in arid and semi-arid environments. Most kites can be grouped into two major types with many varieties: small triangular, V-shaped structures, and large enclosure-like (Betts and Helms, 1986; Helms and Betts, 1987; Echallier and Braemer, 1995; Betts et al., 1998; Betts and Yagodin, 2000; Kempe and Al-Malabeh, 2010; Kennedy, 2012; Bar-Oz and Nadel, 2013; Barge et al., 2013; Brochier et al., 2014; Crassard et al., 2014). “Desert kites” were first identified in the Near East in

Upgrade to premium to download articles

Sign up to access the full text

Already have an account?login

similar resources

early villages and prehistoric sites in the abharroud basin, north west of iranian central plateau

the abharroud basin is an important region in the archeological studies of northwestern outskirts of the central plateau, and west and northwest of iran. considering its environmental capabilities and geographical location, studying the region can leads us to a better understanding of regional relations and also inter-regional interaction between the mentioned cultural-geographical regions. how...

full text

A Prehistoric Solar Observatory in the Middle of Sahara Desert

The prehistoric stone funerary monuments of the Sahara desert, distributed in a huge geographical area, had been created in several different shapes. Some of them have a design that looks like a keyhole, and therefore are known as keyhole tombs. Since they are facing the sunrise, these tombs were also considered as places for the worship of the sun. In this paper, we show that one of them, in A...

full text

Helminth remains from prehistoric Indian coprolites on the Colorado Plateau.

Examination of coprolites excavated from archaeological sites in the Americas demonstrates excellent preservation of helminth eggs and, in some cases, larvae. To gain an understanding of helminth parasitism in prehistory on the Colorado Plateau of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, 319 coprolites from 5 archaeological sites were analyzed. Helminth eggs and larvae were recovered after the coprolites...

full text

Phylogeography of Calomyscus elburzensis (Calomyscidae, Rodentia) around the Central Iranian Desert with Description of a New Subspecies in Center of Iranian Plateau

Calomyscus elburzensis Goodwin, 1938, was previously known from central and northern Iran to southern and southwestern Turkmenistan and northwestern Afghanistan. Its type locality is at altitude of 1200m elevation in the Kurkhud Mts., North Khorasan province in northeastern Iran. This study provides new evidence that its range is more extensive than thought previously and central Iranian Mounta...

full text

High dietary intake of prebiotic inulin-type fructans in the prehistoric Chihuahuan Desert.

Archaeological evidence from dry cave deposits in the northern Chihuahuan Desert reveal intensive utilisation of desert plants that store prebiotic inulin-type fructans as the primary carbohydrate. In this semi-arid region limited rainfall and poor soil conditions prevented the adoption of agriculture and thus provides a unique glimpse into a pure hunter-forager economy spanning over 10 000 yea...

full text

My Resources

Save resource for easier access later

Save to my library Already added to my library

{@ msg_add @}


Journal title

volume 1  issue 1

pages  0- 0

publication date 2018-08

By following a journal you will be notified via email when a new issue of this journal is published.

Keywords

No Keywords

Hosted on Doprax cloud platform doprax.com

copyright © 2015-2023