| The giant stone structures form wheel shapes with spokes often radiating inside. Here a cluster of wheels in the Azraq Oasis. CREDIT: David D. Boyer APAAME_20080925_DDB-0237 |
Posted on 09/14/2011 10:09:47 AM PDT by Palter
They stretch from Syria to Saudi Arabia, can be seen from the air but not the ground, and are virtually unknown to the public.
They are the Middle East's own version of the Nazca Lines — ancient "geolyphs," or drawings, that span deserts in southern Peru — and now, thanks to new satellite-mapping technologies, and an aerial photography program in Jordan, researchers are discovering more of them than ever before. They number well into the thousands.
Referred to by archaeologists as "wheels," these stone structures have a wide variety of designs, with a common one being a circle with spokes radiating inside. Researchers believe that they date back to antiquity, at least 2,000 years ago. They are often found on lava fields and range from 82 feet to 230 feet (25 meters to 70 meters) across. [See gallery of wheel structures]
"In Jordan alone we've got stone-built structures that are far more numerous than (the) Nazca Lines, far more extensive in the area that they cover, and far older," said David Kennedy, a professor of classics and ancient history at the University of Western Australia.
Kennedy's new research, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, reveals that these wheels form part of a variety of stone landscapes. These include kites (stone structures used for funnelling and killing animals); pendants (lines of stone cairns that run from burials); and walls, mysterious structures that meander across the landscape for up to several hundred feet and have no apparent practical use.
His team's studies are part of a long-term aerial reconnaissance project that is looking at archaeological sites across Jordan.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
| The giant stone structures form wheel shapes with spokes often radiating inside. Here a cluster of wheels in the Azraq Oasis. CREDIT: David D. Boyer APAAME_20080925_DDB-0237 |
Michelin, ping.
Clan/Family compounds in a tribal village.
Farrakhan’s “Mother Wheel”...
Is the opposite of the Mideast the Midwest?
If there is a Northwestern College and a Northwestern University, is there a Eastnortheastern or Southsouthwestern Community College somewhere?
Agreed.
Could be the remnants of ancient homesteads.
A circle encloses the maximum area within a given length of wall,A compound inside the outer wall would be divided into animal pens,storage,human shelter,garden?,privy,and whatever else might be needed.Bigger groups of people would have the time (and need) to wall (make secure) bigger areas.
You don’t need space aliens to explain every bit of ancient history.
They look like livestock pens...
Wow! Three other posters beat me to the same conclusion;I think we have a consensus.
I wonder what they’ll look like after being baked under a mushroom cloud...
Not the same thing as Nazca lines.. at all..
Well duh! How do you think aliens ordered pizzas?
Sheep pens
Mike
Except to protect caravans from those ginormous sandstorms that debraded the flesh from the bones.
Obviously landing sites for ancient craft, either that or giant desert bacteria ...
No, the opposite of the mideast is the extremewest.
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