New Arabian desert kites and potential proto-kites extend the global distribution of hunting mega-traps

Kites of AlUla County and the Ḥarrat ʿUwayriḍ, Saudi Arabia

“…Regardless of type, all kites located on the Harrat ʿUwayrid are comparatively small in contrast to those recorded in steppe environments across Syria, Jordan, and other parts of Saudi Arabia, which are dominated by very large kites (Barge et al, 2020, p. 183; Barge et al, 2022, p. 12). Approximate lengths of the body of the kite on the Ḥarrat ʿUwayriḍ (from where the ‘funnel’ is at its widest to the ‘trap’) vary between just 35–650 m, with a mean of 195 m and a median of 155 m. Individual wall lengths have a wider variation, ranging from approximately 15–1165 m, but similarly low mean and median values, at 183 and 145 m, respectively (note that this includes intermittent walls inclusive of their entire length, including gaps).…”

“…Examples of kite types that fall outside of the kites stricto sensu template of converging walls, enclosure and cell/s: (a) the Yemen variety of kite (Brunner, 2015, 2021) which does not have an enclosed ‘head’; (b) the ‘pseudo’ (Barge et al, 2020, p. 190) or ‘open’ (Barge et al, 2022) kite, which does not exhibit a clear ‘head’ enclosure, but does have cells/s at the apex and along the perimeter of guiding walls (this example is from the Ḥarrat Khaybar in Saudi Arabia); and (c) a ‘V’‐shaped kite from the Wadi Lathi, Sinai (first published by Meshel, 1974, p. 130, fig. 3).…”

“…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.…”

“…The resulting picture of a common structure used over such an expansive area has given rise to calling it a ‘phenomenon’ (Crassard et al, 2015). Despite the numerous examples of kites documented thus far across the wider region, further examples continue to be identified (e.g., Barge et al, 2022; Groucutt & Carleton, 2021; also note significant nonacademic recording efforts such as Boelke, n.d). This study extends knowledge of the distribution in north‐west Saudi Arabia.…”

Following the herds? A new distribution of hunting kites in Southwest Asia

“…The defining physical characteristics of kites are a combination of three elements: driving walls that stretch over hundreds of metres and even kilometres, providing a guided approach to an enclosure of varying shape (the 'head'), and cells that are often integrated into the walls of the enclosure and were in some cases used as trapping pits (Crassard et al, 2022). To date, over 6000 desert kites have been reported, and by far the majority have been documented in the Levant and Arabia (Barge et al, 2018(Barge et al, , 2022Groucutt and Carleton, 2021), with an example from south-eastern Jordan producing a construction date of 7800 BCE ± 1000 at (Al Khasawneh et al, 2019), but with later dates from the fifth to the third millennium BCE for kite structures in northern Syrian and the southern Negev (Zeder et al, 2013: and references therein). Several species have been discussed as the possible hunting targets of kites, including ostrich, hartebeest, Arabian Oryx and onager (Zeder et al, 2013), although gazelles appear to be have been the most hunted species, and it has been hypothesized that unsustainable killing via the use of kites may even have led to the local extirpation of gazelle species (Bar-Oz et al, 2011;Zeder et al, 2013) and likely played a major role in the transformation of Holocene ecosystems due to their spatial and temporal spread (Groucutt and Carleton, 2021).…”