Archaeologists are mystified by ancient “gates” in Saudi lava fields

Ars Technica ^ | 20 Oct, 2017 | ANNALEE NEWITZ

[MtnClimber]

Google Earth reveals hundreds of geoglyphs in the desert, possibly 9,000 years old.

For almost a century, aerial photographers have been documenting mysterious, millennia-old structures built from low walls of stone in the rocky lava fields, known as harrat, in Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. This desert region, blistered with volcanic mounds, is nearly devoid of life. But seen from above, the barren ground is covered with massive, interlocking geoglyphs that take the form of abstract arrow shapes called "kites" and rough rectangles called "gates."

University of Western Australia archaeologist David Kennedy became interested in the structures after discovering how easy they were to track using Google Earth. He'd seen some of the kites while doing fieldwork in Jordan and realized that the structures continued into Saudi Arabia. "We would have loved to fly across into Saudi Arabia to take images. But you never get the permission,” he told The New York Times. “And then along comes Google Earth.” Now Kennedy has a paper about the rectangular gate structures in a forthcoming issue of Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy.

Since 2004, a group of Saudi amateur archaeologists calling themselves The Desert Team (Fariq Al Sahra) has been exploring the geoglyph sites on the ground. Neurologist Abdullah Al-Saeed, part of The Desert Team, told the Times that it wasn't until 2008 that he looked at the sites using Google Earth and grasped the significance of what they had discovered.

[Jonah Hex]

I think I read something about that in a book written by the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred

[wildbill]

Probably animal pens. Very similar to the ones seen in Mexico and older S. Texas where stones are plentiful.

[Zeneta]

I always wondered about that. Would make a good book.

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I’ve got half a novel in my head on this idea.

[SunkenCiv]

[mad_as_he$$]

At the link is a stone corral in Northern Nevada. It is about 150 years old.

https://earth.google.com/web/search/stone+corral/@40.84993327,-119.82735344,1705.40850025a,80.63859397d,35y,73.47340029h,44.97462377t,-0r/data=CncaTRJHCiUweDgwOWUxOGRkODgyZTIyYzc6MHhmODk1ZGYzODdjNTAxZDY3GUeovpjSbERAIVlZkYf09F3AKgxzdG9uZSBjb3JyYWwYASABIiYKJAmECnLk9DpEQBFaLj01oDlEQBlzTX56xa9dwCEYTx8WgbFdwA

Note it is barley discernible and has deteriorated a lot in the 25 years that I have been traveling past it. Just a reference point.