A remarkable archaeological find has unveiled the oldest known scale plans of human-made mega structures. The engravings, dating back 7,000 to 8,000 years, represent desert kites—large structures utilized for animal trapping. This significant discovery, published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on May 17, 2023, sheds light on human cognitive evolution and the conception and construction of these unique structures.
First discovered by air in the 1920s, desert kites are elaborate archaeological formations featuring walls up to 5km long converging in an enclosure and surrounded by pits for animal trapping. Their complete visualization from the ground is a complex task, highlighting the importance of these newly discovered plans.
Rémy Crassard of CNRS, Université Lyon, along with his team, reveals two kite engravings in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The first, found near the Jibal al-Khasabiyeh area in Jordan, home to eight kites, is a stone carving created using stone tools, measuring 80 cm long and 32 cm wide and dating back around 7,000 years.
A Discover in Saudi Arabia: Precision in Stone
In Saudi Arabia, at Zebel az-Zilliyat, two sets of kites situated 3.5km apart can be observed. An impressively large, to-scale engraving, 382 cm long and 235 cm wide, was unearthed there. Rather than being carved, the image was pecked, potentially using hand picks, dating approximately 8,000 years ago.
The necessity for these plans emerges from the kites’ design complexity, which is impossible to grasp fully from the ground level. Until now, indications of large structure plans appeared only in rough drafts, contrasting with the newfound precision.
A Milestone in Human Intelligence
Even though human structures have long modified natural spaces, these examples stand as the oldest known scaled plans in human history, predating the literate civilizations of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. Transposing large spaces onto small, two-dimensional surfaces signifies a milestone in human cognitive development.
“The oldest known plans to scale in human history are reported in our study. The engravings, dated between 8,000 and 9,000 years old, were discovered in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. They depict nearby desert kites that were humanmade mega structures used to trap wild animals,” the researchers wrote in the study.
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