© REUTERS / MUATH FREIJTwo statues uncovered by archaeologists in the southeastern Jordanian desert are pictured during a news conference in Amman, Jordan February 22, 2022.
A team of French and Jordanian archaeologists made an exciting discovery on Tuesday when they unearthed a ritual hunting site that is roughly 9,000 years old. The team found over 250 artifacts that have led them to believe neolithic humans' hunting strategies were much
more advanced than previously thought."This is a unique site where large quantities of gazelles were hunted in complex rituals. It has no rival in the world from the Stone Age," said Wael Abu-
Azizeh, the co-director of the South Eastern Badia Archaeological Project (SEBAP). The crew has been working on the site since 2013.The archeologists found traps made for hunting gazelles, made up of long converging stone walls meant to trap the gazelles so that they could be killed more easily.
These structures are referred to as "desert kites", or mass traps, and though there are many found throughout deserts in the Middle East and southwest Asia. Archaeologists say these are the oldest, largest, and best preserved.
"The site is unique, first because of its preservation state," said Abu-Azizeh.
"It's 9,000 years old and everything was almost intact."Also found on the site were two carved standing
stones both with images of human-like figures. One of which is accompanied by the neolithic hunters' interpretation of their desert kite, as well as an altar, hearth, and marine shells.
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