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Walls, ramps and pits: the construction of the Samar Desert kites, southern Negev, Israel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2010

Dani Nadel ,
Guy Bar-Oz ,
Uzi Avner ,
Elisabetta Boaretto  and
Dan Malkinson
Dani Nadel*
Affiliation:
Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel (Email: dnadel@research.haifa.ac.il; guybar@research.haifa.ac.il)
Guy Bar-Oz
Affiliation:
Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel (Email: dnadel@research.haifa.ac.il; guybar@research.haifa.ac.il)
Uzi Avner
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University, Arava Institute and the Dead Sea-Arava Research Centre, Eilat 88133, Israel (Email: uzia@012.net.il)
Elisabetta Boaretto
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Dating and Cosmogenic Isotopes Lab., The Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel; Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel (Email: Elisabetta.Boaretto@weizmann.ac.il)
Dan Malkinson
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel (Email: dmalk@geo.haifa.ac.il)
*
Author for correspondence
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Abstract

Archaeological investigations of ‘desert kites’ in south Israel show them to have been animal traps of considerable sophistication and capacity, constructed in the Early Bronze Age or earlier. Extensive stone-wall arms gather in gazelles from their habitual trails and canalise them into a sunken enclosure, cunningly hidden from view of the galloping herd until it was too late…

Keywords

IsraelLevantEarly Bronze Agehuntingtrappinganimal management
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 326 , December 2010 , pp. 976 - 992
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

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