A new study has stated that humans who constructed enormous "desert kites" in the past first drew scale plans of them, producing an 8,000-year-old schematic.
As per the news release, the engravings, dated to between 7,000 and 8,000 years old, depict nearby desert kites, vast structures used to trap animals. The ability to transpose large spaces onto a small, two-dimensional surface represents a milestone in intelligent behaviour, and boosts understanding of how kites were conceived and built.
The study further stated that the desert kites were first spotted by airplanes in the 1920s. They are sophisticated archaeological structures made up of walls up to 5km long that converge in an enclosure to trap animals bordered by pits. Such structures are visible as a whole only from the air, yet this calls for the representation of space in a way not seen at this time.
"The oldest known plans to scale in human history are reported in our study. The engravings, dated to between 8,000 and 9,000 years old, were discovered in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. They depict nearby desert kites that were human-made mega structures used to trap wild animals," the authors of the study said.
"Although human constructions have modified natural spaces for millennia, few plans or maps predate the period of the literate civilizations of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. The ability to transpose large spaces onto a small, two dimensional surface represents a milestone in intelligent behaviour. Such structures are visible as a whole only from the air, yet this calls for the representation of space in a way not seen at this time."
