Desert kites in the Tripolitania region: new evidence from satellite imagery

Abstract

Abstract

Kites of AlUla County and the Ḥarrat ʿUwayriḍ, Saudi Arabia

“…188-192;Barge et al, 2022, pp. 7-8) that appear to have no clear 'head' or have numerous possible 'heads' or cells (e.g., Figure 3b); those that consist of only a 'head' (e.g., the 'crescent kites' of the Ustyurt Plateau in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; Barge et al, 2020, p. 188) and the 'V'-shaped structures that often end in an enclosed pit or a natural precipice (Giannelli & Maestrucci, 2019), or simply a single cell (Figure 2, right), such as those on the fringes of the Ararat Depression in Armenia (Nadel et al, 2015), the Sinai/Negev (e.g., Figure 3c) (Holzer et al, 2010;Meshel, 1974;Nadel et al, 2013Nadel et al, , 2021 and areas east of the ʿAsīr mountains in southern Saudi Arabia (Ryckmans, 1976). 4 The latter, also known as 'single-pit-trap kites' (Crassard et al, 2022, p. 11), were the most common type identified in our study areas.…”

“…The stone‐built structures known as ‘kites’ were first identified in the modern era in the Ḥarrat al‐Shām, the lavafield straddling the Jordanian panhandle, by Royal Air Force pilots who saw them while flying the Airmail Route from Transjordan to Iraq (Kennedy, 2012a; Rees, 1929). These structures, also known as ‘game drives’ or ‘hunting traps’, have now been documented across multiple regions, including northern Africa (e.g., Boelke, n.d [Sahara]; Giannelli & Maestrucci, 2018, 2019; Storemyr, 2011), the Arabian Peninsula (e.g., Barge et al, 2022; Groucutt & Carleton, 2021; Kennedy et al, 2015; Ryckmans, 1976), Jordan (e.g., Abu‐Azizeh & Tarawneh, 2015; Betts & Burke, 2015, 2021; Helms & Betts, 1987; Kempe & Al‐Malabeh, 2010), Syria (e.g., Chambrade & Betts, 2021; Echallier & Braemer, 1995; Kennedy, 2012b; Morandi Bonacossi, 2014; Van Berg et al, 2004), Iraq (Chambrade & Betts, 2021, pp. 157–158; Kennedy, 2012b, pp.…”

Hunting in the desert: assessing the form and use of kite-like structures in the western Sahara

“…2020). Further hunting-trap structures, formed of long walls, have also been discovered in the Hamada al Hamra desert region, Libya (Giannelli & Maestricci 2018, 2019). Further to the west, in the heart of the western Sahara, new research has identified nearly 500 additional structures using satellite imagery; some are isolated in the Saharan vastness, but most are distributed in two main concentrations.…”