Adaptation strategies and bio-economic regulations in fragile environment: the role of the "desert kites" – GLOBALKITES

The project objectives are to analyze the spatial extent of the phenomenon, to search for regional characters of kites and to establish typologies, to relate the presence of kites with environmental characteristics, to clarify how the kites were used, to understand the territory used by human groups making kites and to reveal their function within that territory. Meanwhile, it will be tried to define in which bioclimatic contexts these original constructions have been used, when were they used in various parts of the world, and finally, what were the concerned animals, being wild or (and) domestic.
The expected results will be achieved by the application of different methods of absolute and relative dating (radiocarbon, Uranium/Thorium thermoluminescence, study of anthropogenic dust, comparison of archaeological artefacts), some of which are innovative. The geoarchaeological approach is also quite new in the context of the study of this type of structure and seems particularly appropriate. Finally, archaeozoological and ethnoarchaeological approach adds an important reflection on ecology, animal behavior and economic livelihood systems and the management of wildlife resources.
A geomatic-oriented preliminary inventory (i.e. using GIS) is underway across the Middle East, spread to regions where kites have been reported (from Yemen to Uzbekistan). The study area is separated in three interbedded levels: general scale, regional scale, local scale. Thanks to the involvement of additional researchers with their fields of study and the existence of international scientific networks of collaboration, it will be possible to apply a critical reading of the existing literature thanks to homogenizing data, then thanks to a persistent fieldwork, it will be possible to implement innovative and effective techniques, including GIS spatial analysis, methods of sampling and analysis, excavations and surveys, dating methods, and archaeozoological methods.

Recent fieldwork undertaken in Armenia has allowed identifying and studying hundreds of these structures, linearly organized along the lava flows. Oriented along the slopes, these kites have a strong resemblance to those in the Middle East, particularly the ones from Syria and Jordan, while showing morphological homogeneity, exhibiting a regional specificity. The combination of several chronological evidences dates their construction from the beginning of the Bronze Age to the beginning of the Common Era. This dating range is still large, but will be specified by the dating of samples collected during spring 2013 surveys. Several hints revealed by kites architecture and their landscape insertion tend to assign them a hunting function, even if the exact functionality is still misunderstood at the stage of the study. Other fieldworks are expected soon in Kazakhstan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. These operations will therefore strengthen our links with partner institutions abroad, and will allow the innovative data collection which analyses will be published as and when the project carries on. Another project has developed in parallel to GLOBALKITES, through a PhD funding in pattern recognition from cartographic support and satellite images, in partnership with the Labex IMU of the Lyon University and in collaboration with the laboratory LIRIS, UMR 5205. The development of specific software for the recognition of kites where they are not yet identified is the ultimate goal.

The GLOBALKITES project enters in different fundamental research areas. By studying an archaeological structure type, this project addresses a range of issues, which include the development of animal domestication, the theoretical context that opposes hunting to breeding, settlement and peopling patterns and territory types in arid or semi-arid areas, the question of nomadism against sedentarism, and finally the Man/environment relation taking into account landscape artificialization and biodiversity degradation evidenced by animal species extinction.
The project is then particularly rooted in the current questions about the relationship between man and nature and the concept of societies’ sustainable development and their relationship with their milieu.
The desert kites represent an archaeological enigma that remains unexplained in many aspects. What we call the «kites phenomenon« refers to the outbreak and the abundance of such structures in the Levant and the Middle East, as well as their presence in regions far from this centrality. This phenomenon is shocking enough through archaeological evidence that its study is fully involved in the attempt to answer all these anthropological questions, being more specifically historical, geographical or ethnological. Observation of these structures that are now known in various parts of the world, raises questions about man/environment relation, and how landscape artificialization, and a form of technical standardization at a great scale, led to biodiversity degradation and to species extinction, such as ostrich and oryx in Saudi Arabia, and some species of gazelles in the Levant.

As part of the project kick off, a first scientific paper was presented in Caen on December 6 and 7, 2012, during a symposium organized by the National Network of Maisons des Sciences de l’Homme «Which humanities for the 21st century?«. In addition, three scientific articles are being finalized: a short presentation in the British journal Antiquity, a detailed article on geomatics and geoarcheological aspects based on the fieldwork in Armenia to be proposed at Paléorient, a CNRS journal and an inaugural paper on general aspects of GLOBALKITES including all research characteristics in an international archaeological journal. Finally, the project website, www.globalkites.fr, is nearing completion (online in July 2013) to present the project, members, news and a mapping tool offered to the scientific community that will show the global distribution of kites and a set of evidence for each individual structure.

This research project proposes to define the variability and functionality of major archaeological stone-made structures called "desert kites". Often considered as hunting traps, the kites could have been also used for animal domestication. In a broader archaeological context, where kites seem to have been used from the Neolithic to sub-contemporaneous times, we propose an interdisciplinary approach at the crossings of anthropology (archeology and ethnology), geomatics and geoarchaeological and bioarchaeological sciences.
The project covers a large geographical area which the focal point extends to about 600 km from north to south and 300 km from west to east. This area in particular, where the kites are the most numerous, covers southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Alongside to this Middle-Eastern core, similar structures have been recently discovered in particularly distant regions. As a matter of fact, countries as unexpected as Armenia, but also western Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, or the western Yemeni highlands have yielded structures similar to the Levantine kites. A first inventory of the literature and preliminary observations from satellite imagery have revealed the existence of more than 1,200 structures, 63% being observed previously by other researchers, but also 37% that we have newly discovered. Therefore, these recent findings induce a quite exceptional potential for in-depth study of this phenomenon: the use of kites across time and space.
The main issues that the project relates to are kites’ functionality and dating: is it possible to differentiate the kites used as hunting traps and/or as corrals for domesticated animals, or in the process of being so? And also, what time the utilization of kites covers? Other fundamental issues are also at the center of the project. Among them is the geographic spread, and the explanation of this extension: cultural convergence or real interregional technical influence? Finally, the adapting strategies by human groups will be observed, as well as issues of bio-economical regulations in fragile environment context, including the potential overexploitation of wild animal species and the ownership of an exclusive territory by Man.
To address these issues, we propose to bring together a multidisciplinary group from three CNRS teams (UMR-5133 - Archéorient, UMR-6249 - Chrono-Environnement, UMR-6636 - Lampea). Collaboration is also scheduled with mathematicians and computerized data processing specialists from the University Lyon 1. Everyone's skills will be particularly used by testing traditional methods and techniques of analysis. Other methods at the forefront of current research will also be used such as geomatics and geographic information systems (GIS), geostatistics, isotope studies, paleoclimatology... to quote the main ones. This research program sets up a bridge between different scientific fields, embodied by the complementarities of different approaches and methods. Broadcasting results and news of the ongoing project will largely deal with current communication tools (website, web-mapping). These means allow a "live" broadcast and allows accessibility to both researchers and the general public. Finally, such a program is not possible without tight and secure international collaborations. These scientific and logistical partnerships involve researchers who have already worked on the kites phenomenon as well as local teams, from the Arabian Peninsula to Armenia.