Unique 9,000-Year-Old Shrine With Symbols Discovered At Neolithic Ritual Site In Jordan Desert

Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - Archaeologists have discovered a unique 9,00-year-old shrine in the Jordan Desert.

According to scientists the shrine "sheds an entirely new light on the symbolism, artistic expression as well as spiritual culture of these hitherto unknown Neolithic populations."

This photo provided by Jordan Tourism Ministry shows two carved standing stones at a remote Neolithic site in Jordan's eastern desert. A team of Jordanian and French archaeologists said Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022, that it had found a roughly 9,000-year-old shrine. The ritual complex was found in a Neolithic campsite near large structures known as "desert kites," or mass traps that are believed to have been used to corral wild gazelles for slaughter. Credit: Tourism Ministry via AP

Within the shrine were two carved standing stones bearing anthropomorphic figures, animal figurines, flints, and some 150 arranged marine fossils.

There is also a representation of the "desert kite," as well as an altar, hearth, marine shells, and miniature model of the gazelle trap.

“Archaeologists believe the animal figurines were used in rituals to invoke supernatural forces for successful hunts,” the Jerusalem Post reports.

The shrine, located in the Khashabiyeh Mountains in the eastern Al-Jafr Basin was unearthed inside a larger campsite called the South Eastern Badia Archaeological Project (SEBA) by a French-Jordanian team.

Credit: Tourism Ministry via AP

The Neolithic complex was found “near large structures known as "desert kites," or mass traps that are believed to have been used to corral wild gazelles for slaughter.

Such traps consist of two or more long stone walls converging toward an enclosure and are found scattered across the deserts of the Middle East,” the Associated Press reports.

"The site is unique, first because of its preservation state," said Jordanian archaeologist Wael Abu-Azziza, co-director of the project. "It's 9,000 years old and everything was almost intact."

One of the two statues uncovered by archaeologists in the southeastern Jordanian desert is pictured during a news conference in Amman, Jordan February 22, 2022. Photo credit: Muath Freij / Reuters 

“Structures similar to this Jordanian ritual site have been found in deserts across Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Syria, Turkey and Kazakhstan, some of which were several kilometers long.

These types of constructions can also be found in several regions around the world including North and South America, and even Scandinavia,” the Jerusalem Posts reports.

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The desert kites found at the Jordan Desert site suggest "extremely sophisticated mass hunting strategies, unexpected in such an early time frame," according to SEBA's statement.

The SEBA project hailed the "spectacular and unprecedented discovery."

Written by Conny Waters - AncientPages.com Staff Writer