Archaeologists and historians are continuing to unearth ancient structures and cities in deserts all over the world, including Egypt, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Many of these finds shed light on the fascinating civilizations that once flourished in these arid regions, such as the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Indus Valley Civilization.
An international team of researchers led by the University of Freiburg has identified engravings in Jordan and Saudi Arabia as the world’s oldest known scaled building plans.
Although human constructions have altered natural spaces for millennia, few plans or maps predate the literate civilizations of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. Researchers from the French research organisation “Centre National de la recherche scientifique” (CNRS) and Prof. Dr. Frank Preusser of the University of Freiburg have identified engravings in Jordan and Saudi Arabia as the oldest known true-to-scale construction plans in human history. The 8,000 to 9,000-year-old engravings depict so-called desert dragons, which are kilometre-long prehistoric megastructures used to trap animals.
Conclusions can be drawn from the findings about the people of the time. “The ability to transfer a large space to a small, two-dimensional plan represents a watershed moment in intelligent behavior.
Dr. Frank Preusser
“Conclusions can be drawn from the findings about the people of the time. “The ability to transfer a large space to a small, two-dimensional plan represents a watershed moment in intelligent behaviour,” Preusser says. The findings, which were published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE in mid-May, should aid in understanding how desert dragons are conceived and built.
Deserts have frequently served as the setting for ancient civilizations, and some of these civilizations have left intriguing architectural wonders. Famous desert structures include the pyramids of Egypt, the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, and the Nazca lines in Peru.
Scale plans of desert dragons discovered in Jordan and Saudi Arabia
Both discoveries are engraved stone tool representations of nearby desert dragons. Desert dragons, which can be up to five kilometres long and were first seen from aircraft in the 1920s, are made up of stone walls that converge in a complex surrounded by pits. Archaeologists have recently discovered that they were used for large-scale trapping of wild animals.
There are eight desert dragons in Jordan’s Jibal al-Khasabiyeh area. The researchers discovered a depiction engraved in stone that measures 80 by 32 cm and is approximately 9,000 years old. Two visible pairs of dragons can be found three and a half kilometres apart in Saudi Arabia’s Jebel az-Zilliyat. Here, too, a scaled engraving dating back about 8,000 years was discovered with a total length of 382 cm and a width of 235 cm.
Plans for large structures have so far only been attested by rough representations, in stark contrast to the precision of al-Khashabiyeh and az-Zilliyat’s engravings. The question of their exact use and how they were implemented, especially given the difficulty of grasping the entire complex from the ground, remains the secret of those who created them for the time being.
