MA’AN, JORDAN—The Associated Press reports that a 9,000-year-old ritual complex has been found in Jordan’s eastern desert. Within the shrine, archaeologist Wael Abu-Azziza of Al Hussein Bin Talal University and his colleagues uncovered two standing stones carved with anthropomorphic figures. One of them was also carved with a representation of a desert kite, a structure made of long stone walls converging toward an enclosure where wild gazelles were trapped and killed. Several desert kites have been found near the shrine, Abu-Azziza explained. The shrine structure also contained a miniature model of a desert kite, an altar, a hearth, and marine shells. To read about the history of human habitation in northeast Jordan's Jebel Qurma region, go to "Desert Life."
