Two human-shaped stone figures stand at the center of a 9,000-year-old ritual complex in Jordan’s southeastern desert, surrounded by marine fossils, animal figurines, and miniature hunting traps. The hunters who created this shrine also built enormous stone traps known as desert kites, reproducing those same structures in a setting apparently devoted to ritual ceremonies.
In a prehistoric campsite deep in Jordan’s southeastern desert, archaeologists encountered a scene unlike an ordinary dwelling or burial. Two human-shaped stones stood beside a carefully arranged collection of marine fossils, animal figures, and objects associated with hunting. The arrangement suggested that the people who lived here had created a special place for ceremonies connected to their daily survival.
The site, known as Jibal al-Khashabiyeh, lies in the desert east of the al-Jafr Basin. Archaeologists Wael Abu-Azizeh and Mohammad Tarawneh lead the Jordanian-French mission investigating the region, where researchers have identified extensive hunting installations, settlements, and two ritual complexes discovered during the 2021 and 2023 excavation seasons.
Two Human Figures and 150 Marine Fossils
At the ritual installation designated JKSH P52, archaeologists found two upright stone figures measuring approximately 112 and 70 centimeters in height. The taller stone combines a stylized human form with an image of a desert kite, while the smaller figure preserves more detailed human features.
Researchers nicknamed the figures Abu Ghassan and Ghassan. Their original meaning remains uncertain, but their placement suggests that they occupied an important position within the ceremonies performed at the site.
Behind the standing stones, the excavation team documented nearly 150 marine fossils. Many stood vertically in deliberate arrangements, accompanied by unusually shaped natural stones, animal figurines, and worked flint objects. The complex also contained a stone interpreted as an altar.
The fossils present a particularly intriguing question. Although the region is now an arid landscape, the Neolithic inhabitants collected these ancient marine remains and placed them together in a carefully organized deposit. Archaeologists have established that the arrangement was intentional, but its symbolic meaning remains unknown.
What makes the complex especially unusual is the relationship between the standing figures and the surrounding objects. The builders arranged elements of the installation to resemble a much larger structure that dominated the landscape around their settlement: a desert kite.
Close-up views of Ghassan, a human-shaped stone figure discovered at the approximately 9,000-year-old Neolithic ritual complex of Jibal al-Khashabiyeh in southeastern Jordan. Credit: © MASEJ.
When Hunting Traps Became Part of Ritual Life
Despite their name, desert kites have nothing to do with flying. They are enormous stone hunting installations consisting of long, converging walls that directed herds of wild animals toward enclosed areas equipped with traps. Some extended across several kilometers, requiring considerable planning and cooperation among hunters.
The inhabitants of Jibal al-Khashabiyeh used these structures primarily to hunt gazelles. Archaeologists found large quantities of gazelle bones, distinctive stone tools, and partly sunken buildings at nearby settlements, providing physical evidence of a community whose economy depended heavily on organized hunting.
Yet the hunters also reproduced their remarkable constructions on a smaller scale. At JKSH P52, the ritual arrangement itself followed the shape of a miniature desert kite, while the taller anthropomorphic stone carried an image of one of these hunting installations.
This connection suggests that hunting occupied an important place in the community’s symbolic world. Researchers have proposed that the ceremonies may have sought successful hunts or expressed beliefs associated with animals and the surrounding landscape.
While many Neolithic communities in the Near East were turning to farming, the hunters of Jibal al-Khashabiyeh developed their own ritual traditions around the animals they pursued.
A Different Path Through the Neolithic
The archaeological mission identifies the communities of Jibal al-Khashabiyeh with a cultural tradition known as the Ghassanian. Unlike many contemporary populations in the Fertile Crescent, these groups developed a way of life centered on intensive communal hunting.
Their achievements extended beyond the construction of elaborate traps. The settlements associated with the desert kites show that people organized their activities around hunting installations, while the ritual complexes suggest that these shared practices influenced their cultural identity.
A scientific study published in February 2026 in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences has strengthened the chronology of this hunting tradition. Mohammad Tarawneh, Wael Abu-Azizeh, and their colleagues combined ten radiocarbon dates with eighteen optically stimulated luminescence measurements from three desert kites in the region.
Their analysis places the construction and use of these installations in the second half of the eighth millennium BCE. This provides some of the earliest secure direct dating evidence for desert kites and demonstrates that organized hunting on this scale developed alongside early agricultural settlements elsewhere in the southern Levant.
The researchers also confirmed that circular features surrounding the hunting enclosures functioned as deep trapping pits. These findings clarify how the installations worked, although the dating study does not establish a new age for the ritual structures themselves.
Jordan and France Join Forces to Preserve the Neolithic Finds
Archaeological discoveries at Jibal al-Khashabiyeh have also brought Jordanian and French specialists together for a major conservation project. On October 28, 2026, Jordan’s Department of Antiquities announced that the teams had completed work on approximately 30 archaeological objects at the Jerash Regional Conservation Center.
The specialists cleaned and conserved the objects while documenting their surfaces through photogrammetry, three-dimensional scanning, and Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). These techniques help researchers record fine details and monitor the condition of fragile artifacts without unnecessary handling.
The collaboration also includes plans to introduce the finds to a wider public. As part of the project, the teams developed a proposal to incorporate the archaeological material into the Petra Museum’s permanent exhibition, allowing visitors to explore the ritual practices of communities that inhabited Jordan’s southeastern desert around 9,000 years ago.
The conservation work builds on years of cooperation between Jordanian and French archaeologists, who have investigated the region’s ancient settlements, hunting installations, and ritual structures. With the latest phase of the project completed, the two countries have taken another step toward preserving some of the most unusual evidence of Neolithic life in the Arabian Desert.
