Out of the harra: desert kites in south‐eastern Jordan. New results from the South Eastern Badia Archaeological Project

Abstract

Although kite structures are known from several areas of the southern Levant and the Near East (e.g. Sinai, Negev, Syria, Saudi Arabia), their distribution in Jordan was thought to be restricted to the north‐eastern basalt harra landscape. From the point of view of arid peripheries settlement dynamics, the gap left in southern and south‐eastern Jordan was puzzling in view of the clear continuity in human occupation evidenced by recently intensifying research in this region. This paper presents the first occurrences of kites identified in this hamada landscape in the framework of the joint French‐Jordanian South Eastern Badia Archaeological Project (SEBAP). Despite obvious similarities with the examples known from the harra, the two distinct sets of kites uncovered show clear local specificities in their layout and use of topography, which will be emphasised through the description of survey and excavation results. The evidence clearly supports a function of hunting structures and some clues regarding dating, although still preliminary, are expressed as well. Some lines of investigation to grasp the diversity and regionalism of the kite phenomenon are also explored, as different kite‐building traditions seem to emerge from the growing body of evidence available.