Hunting or pastoralism? Comments on “seasonal use of corrals and game traps (desert kites) in Armenia” by Malkinson et al

Abstract

In a recent article, Malkinson and his colleagues (Malkinson et al., 2017) have put forward a series of hypotheses on the function, seasonality, and chronology of kites discovered on the slopes of Mount Aragats, in Armenia. Among their hypotheses relevant to function, Malkinson et al. propose that the kites without antennae would have been meant for pastoralism, while those with antennae would have been for large herbivore game. In our opinion, this hypothesis appears to be particularly flimsy: it rests on a very incomplete body of evidence, and does not take into consideration the analysis of the morphological and morphometric aspects of these constructions. The question is whether kites with antennae and kites without them have characteristics that are sufficiently apart from one another to consider different functions.