Around 400 mysterious clustered stone complex body part have been found , via satellite imaging , in an inhospitable neighborhood of west - cardinal Saudi Arabia . At present , it ’s not percipient what they were for , but they ’ve been nicknamed “ gate ” base on their coming into court .
Their age is unknown , as are their architects ' identities . Either elbow room , grant to the University of Western Australia ’s ancient history professor David Kennedy , they ’re the “ oldest man - made structures in the area . ”
They ’ve been built around , and seem to be middling down in the mouth . Some are relatively small , extending only around 13 meters ( 43 feet ) across . Others are far larger , with the longest being 518 meters ( 1,699 feet ) from end to goal .
The international squad behind the enquiry , due to release its analytic thinking in the journalArabian Archaeology and Epigraphynext calendar month , has spotted some singular details that hint at the purpose and construction timeline of the " gates " .
For one thing , the entire expanse – named Harrat Khaybar – is avolcanic fieldcovered in extremely old lava flows . A few of the gates have even been constructed on top of some of the more prominent , now - extinct lava domes .
The last known irruption dates back to the class 650 , and some of the frigid remnants have been localise atop these “ gates , ” implying that they ’re at least 1,370 year previous . The class 650 eruption at the otherworldly site coincides with the very earlyspread of Islamaround the region . Were the paries build up around this time ?
Plenty of lava flowspredate this , however , so the bulwark could be much older . It all depends on what the geochronological geological dating of the lava flows , and peradventure even the “ gates ” themselves , reveals .
For one thing , the investigator explain that other type of I. F. Stone structures called “ kite ” – once used to hunting animals – hint that the landscape painting pre - eruption peak may have been far more inhabitable to human existence . tufa cone , volcanic edifices that incline to form near water , also propose that the area was wetter in the past .
The fact that kites were get on top of these “ gates ” implies that the deep Lucy Stone wall predate this period of prison term , which also mean they are sometime than plenty of these lava flows .
Right now , it ’s anyone ’s dead reckoning – and a proper recon of the domain , on base , is take .
Using satellite imagery to expect for hidden geological or archaeological structures that ca n’t be seen from the ground tends to produce mixed result . surely , sometimes an ancient , supermassivefire pitthat predates Stonehenge , or avolcano - mimicking templein Peru can be name – but sometimes , that long - lost Mayan temple turns out to be illegalmarijuana fieldsinstead .
Fortunately , this sentence around , it seems that " distance archaeology " has once again hit the pot .
[ H / T : LiveScience ]
