Hunting with kites in Armenia
Résumé
Access in recent years to high-resolution satellite imagery via online platforms such as Google Earth and Bing Maps has provided a wealth of information for many scientific subjects, among them archaeology. In the years following 2010, comprehensive satellite coverage of the Near East and the Caucasus became available, enabling the discovery of large archaeological structures in remote and hard-to-reach areas. This has renewed scholarly interest in 'desert kites', huge structures apparent from above. In recent years the known number of kites has drastically increased to more than 5200 structures (31 December 2016). Desert kites (or simply 'kites') consist of long stone walls or alignments, called 'drivelines' (also called 'arms' or 'antennae'), that converge towards an enclosure flanked by smaller circular structures, called 'cells'. The joint presence of these three elements-drivelines, enclosure, and cells-distinguishes kites from other constructions sharing the widespread principle of long walls converging towards a structure meant to enclose or trap animals. Desert kites can be huge structures with drivelines several kilometres long and enclosures that cover several hectares. Excavation of the cells has shown them to be rounded hollow structures, walled with rough fieldstones, and sometimes several metres in depth. Kites are among the most imposing structures built in recent prehistory and early historical times. Their geographical distribution in such a vast area, from Arabia to Kazakhstan, is impressive, and many details about their function and chronology remain contentious or poorly understood. From 2012 to 2017, a research project entitled 'Globalkites' (www.globalkites.fr) was set up to shed additional light on these matters. The project greatly increased the number of known kites and prompted scholars to attribute greater significance to something we decided to call the 'kite phenomenon' (Crassard et al. 2015), which profoundly reassessed their spatial extent.
Domaines
Archéologie et Préhistoire
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