All language subtitles for NOVA.S52E17.Ancient.Desert.Death.Trap.1080p.WEB.h264-BAE_track3_[eng]

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
In the midst of the Arabian
desert lie huge,

enigmatic structures;
spectacular geometries

only visible from the sky.

They're large, they're in many
cases they're kilometers long.

NARRATOR:
But what are they?
And why are they here?

BILL FINLAYSON:
There's still, I think,
a number of enigmas

as to what the kites
are really doing.

(scraping rock, chiseling)

NARRATOR:
Rediscovered a century ago,
it's only now,

with new technology,

that scientists are fully
revealing their secrets.

CHERYL MAKAREWICZ:
I've never seen this kind
of density of material.

It is unbelievable.

NARRATOR:
Bringing to life
an ancient people.

WAEL ABU-AZIZEH:
This is obviously
a very important,

once-in-a-lifetime discovery.

So we are extremely happy.

MOHAMMED TARAWNEH:
Beyond expectations.

(chuckles)

(exclaiming)

RÉMY CRASSARD:
Yes, we have it!

Awesome.

TARAWNEH:
This is really something new.

And this is something never
been found somewhere else.

No one ever expected
to find such a great discovery.

NARRATOR:
Archeologists
are finally decoding

these massive structures
engineered by

a hunting society.

"Ancient Desert Death Trap."

Right now, on "NOVA!"

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Criss-crossing
the Arabian desert

are huge geometric structures...

...often several miles
in length.

The low stone walls run through
the landscape like giant scars.

Spotted from
planes in the 1920s,

they were soon nicknamed
"desert kites"

because the pilots thought
that many of their shapes

resembled children's kites.

Spectacular examples
exist in Harrat Khaybar,

a vast volcanic desert in
Medina Province, Saudi Arabia.

For more than a decade,

archeologists Rémy Crassard and

Wael Abu-Azizeh have been
studying these features.

(camera clicking)

Now they are
heading back to the site,

armed with the very latest
technology.

Their aim?

To put a century's worth
of theories to the test.

Asking exactly when were these
desert kites constructed?

And why?

CRASSARD (translated):
We can go see nearer
the enclosure, if you like.

NARRATOR:
Because these
megastructures are so vast,

the only way to see

the entire picture is from
above.

In this case, with a drone.

♪ ♪

ABU-AZIZEH (translated):
Look, here.

You can clearly see
these two lines converging

towards the enclosure...

...which is a kind of triangle.

NARRATOR:
Even though some of
these kites are hundreds,

even thousands of miles apart,
they share common features.

(translated):
The common point between
all these structures

is the big walls that converge
on very large enclosures,

dotted with surrounding cells.

So we have
a kind of general model

for these structures,

which are found in
extremely different places.

These megastructures have long
walls, sometimes called arms,

or antennae, which can be up
to three miles long.

And they converge
at a vast enclosure

that's usually a little
bigger than a football field.

The edge of each large enclosure
is dotted

with several smaller,
often circular compartments,

each just a few feet across.

Most kites follow this
structure,

with slight variations depending

on their location
and local terrain.

But what are they for?

OLIVIER BARGE (translated):
The first idea about their use

was that they were
defensive structures,

something involving the Romans.

Then we considered buildings
for rituals.

NARRATOR:
In those early days,
there was also a suggestion

that they could
have been animal traps.

(translated):
The researchers
were unable

to decide between

these hypotheses due to
a lack of fieldwork

that could distinguish
one function

from another.

NARRATOR:
To better understand the kites,

researchers formed a
multidisciplinary task force

called GLOBALKITES,

involving several
fieldwork projects.

They want to find as many kites
as possible and map them

to confirm their use
and identify

the people who built them.

Today,
thanks to satellite imagery,

it's easier than ever
to find these sites.

Just how many are out there?

(dogs barking, bell ringing)

Geographer and cartographer,

Olivier Barge, is one of the
scientists responsible

for mapping the kites.

BARGE (translated):
One of them is really
impressive...

This one.

You can see it has...

one, two, three, four levels;

so it's a gigantic structure.

Over time, and with practice,

you end up finding the places
where they were hidden.

We've found several

constant elements,

such as the terrain
and types of vegetation.

Today, we have an inventory
of more than 6,600 of them,

and across a territory
that is super vast--

more than 3,500 kilometers long,
which was a huge surprise.

NARRATOR:
This is a colossal
rate of discovery.

Just 20 years ago,

there were only
a few hundred known kites.

Now this number has risen
to more than 6,600.

Almost 900 of them are in the
Khaybar region of Saudi Arabia,

the rest span an area reaching
from Saudi Arabia to Kazakhstan,

via Jordan, Syria and Armenia.

But that's not all.

Ancient structures
sharing some similarities

show up even farther away

in Israel, Yemen, Egypt
and Libya.

The more scientists find,
the more questions they have.

There's many things that are
puzzling about the kites.

I mean, one is, why did
you make such a huge system?

Why do you have to have so many?

So there's still, I think,

a number of enigmas as to what
the kites are really doing.

NARRATOR:
And satellite images

can only tell us so much.

The people who know these
structures best,

are those who
live alongside them.

♪ ♪

Historian Saïfi Alshilali
grew up in Khaybar

and spent much of his childhood
among the kites

without knowing exactly

what they were.

CRASSARD (in English):
You were the first to discover
the Khaybar's kites, right?

I believe so,
I believe so, because

we usually walked around

with my, with our fathers,

grandfathers
when we were children.

We just saw ruined walls.
Yeah.

NARRATOR:
What were these extraordinary
structures used for?

Saïfi took part in a major
conservation project in 2006

using privately restricted
satellite images,

but today,
the GLOBALKITES project

is using freely available data
with a higher resolution.

In that image, they--
those ruins changed into shapes,

looks like sometimes...
CRASSARD: Pantaloons.

ALSHILALI: Pantaloons!

sometimes it looks like arrows.

And that, you know,
instead of giving me clues,

put more question marks
in front of me.

♪ ♪

(translated):
In general,
the local population,

the Bedouins who live
in these regions,

are aware of the existence
of these structures.

But don't have a precise idea
of their function.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
So scientists have
searched for clues.

Some of the most important

have been ancient carvings
and rock art.

In northeast Jordan,

one carving is especially
interesting.

Discovered in 1951
on a pile of rocks

known as the Hani Cairn,

it dates back to a period
between the first century B.C.

and the first century A.D.-- and
it's remarkably well-preserved.

On it, we see a drawing
of a kite.

The arms, enclosure,
and circular compartments

are all clearly identifiable.

but there's something
else on the carving

that hints at what
the kites were used for.

(translated):
The drawings

on the stone that was found at
the Hani Cairn

are of four-legged animals,

but we can't tell whether
they're domesticated or wild.

So the question of purpose
remains open.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The theory of kites being used

as animal pens dates back to the
time of their sightings

in the late 1920s.

But whether they were
used to catch wild animals,

or to house domestic livestock

has long been up for debate.

Finding an accurate age
for the structures would help.

Dating could reveal
more about the climate,

flora and fauna at the time:
all crucial elements

in determining the function
of these megastructures.

But that's not easy.

There's very little natural
material in kites

that can be radiocarbon dated.

So how do scientists go about
dating such complex structures?

(translated):
Excavations must be carried out

to find archaeological levels
which can be dated

on the basis of organic
materials such as charcoal.

ABU-AZIZEH (translated):
We decided to start digging
in the kites

to obtain more information;
because until then,

no digs had been carried out
at these structures.

NARRATOR:
Rémy Crassard
and Wael Abu-Azizeh

are excavating
a site in Khaybar.

They search for an area where
soil layers are undisturbed

and more likely
to hold ancient materials

that they can collect and date.

CRASSARD (translated):
Here you can

clearly see one
of the circular cells

around the enclosure.

And this one seems pretty deep.

(translated):
Yeah, I think
it's worth digging here.

(scraping, sifting)

NARRATOR:
They focus on the
sheltered spaces

inside the circular
compartments,

where sediments
can accumulate over time.

But after a few days of digging,

they still have not found any
organic material,

like charcoal, to test
with radiocarbon dating.

Instead, there are only
minerals, like sand and stone.

Can they be used to
find out how old the kite is?

CRASSARD (translated):
Do you think we can
insert a tube here?

DEPREUX (translated):
I think this is
a better place.

CRASSARD (translated):
Okay.

NARRATOR:
Bruno Depreux
is a geo-archeologist

and an expert in sediments.

To date this kite,

he uses optically stimulated
luminescence,

or OSL dating.

(tapping continues)

DEPREUX (translated):
OSL allows us to date

the sediment, the last time the
sediment

was exposed to sunlight;

so it gives us the date
the sediment was deposited.

NARRATOR:
And the results?

At least 7,000 years old
with some,

like those in Jordan,
as old as 9,000 years.

(translated):These kites dated
from the Neolithic--

from a period
7,000 years B.C.E.

NARRATOR:
The results support a
hypothesis

that kites emerged during the
late Stone Age,

a time called
the Neolithic period.

They are some of the oldest
large-scale structures

in human history...

♪ ♪

...built several thousand
years before

the standing stones
of Stonehenge,

the first Egyptian pyramids,

and the geometric figures
of Nazca.

But what does this dating
tell us

about how the kites were used?

The Neolithic period
was a time of great change.

Between about 10,000 B.C.
and 5,000 B.C.,

the peoples of the near east
gradually transitioned

from a nomadic
hunter-gatherer lifestyle

to living in more
settled communities,

where farming and herding
were the main sources of food.

They domesticated animals,

a major turning point
in the history of humankind.

FINLAYSON:
Kites are an accident
of the history

of research in the Neolithic
in a sense

that in the way we use the term,
because

we know the Neolithic
has new sorts of stone tools,

has farming,
has domesticated animals,

has pottery and everything.

NARRATOR:
So what role did the kites
play during this transition?

Were their builders
hunting to survive?

Living solely off
of domesticated animals?

Or a mixture of both?

With such a wide timeframe,
scientists have to look

for other clues beyond the
kites.

Luckily, some other nearby sites

have provided a wealth
of information

about how
these Neolithic peoples lived.

♪ ♪

The cradle of Neolithic life

was in this part of the
Middle East,

sometimes known as the
Fertile Crescent:

a great belt of arable land,

to the north
of the Arabian Desert.

It was here that some of
the first great civilizations,

like Mesopotamia, emerged.

♪ ♪

Archeological research
in the Fertile Crescent

has revealed evidence
of herding by nomadic peoples

around the same time
that the kites were being built.

We know those herders used
enclosures--

but were they similar at all
to the kites

found out in the desert?

ABU-AZIZEH (translated):
Our research told us
that the dimensions

of these enclosures were
very different from those

that were generally used
by nomadic pastoral populations

to keep their domesticated
animals.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The kite enclosures measure

nearly two-and-a-half acres,

orders of magnitude larger
than the enclosures

used by the region's herders;

much too big for simply

penning cattle and goats.

This, combined with the fact

that these structures
are open-ended,

suggests they
may have had another purpose.

While there may have been
some domesticated herding

around the time the kites
were built,

it was far from
a universal practice.

It took thousands of years
for domestication

to resemble what it is today.

So some Neolithic peoples
certainly hunted.

Whether this was alongside
keeping domestic animals

or as their main way of
sourcing food, is still unknown.

But why would they build these
megastructures for hunting here,

in an arid desert
where potential prey animals

seem to be nonexistent?

To find out more about the
climate and the environment

during the Neolithic period,

the scientists leave the kites

in search of preserved
soils rich in organic matter.

Can they provide insight
into what the desert was like

some 9,000 years ago?

The Khaybar Oasis is an ideal
spot for this kind of study.

Geo-archeologist Bruno Depreux
takes samples of the soil

at various depths where he knows

they correspond
to the age of the kites.

A few weeks later in his lab
in Lyon, France,

Bruno analyzes
these core samples

taken from the oasis soil.

DEPREUX (translated):
Colors give us our first clues
in interpreting past landscapes.

Here we have
sediments that are greenish

and then
others veering on black.

So around 7,000 years B.C.E.,

soils were much richer
in organic matter,

which testifies to more
vegetation

and much less of a desert
landscape than there is today.

This means
that the rivers and streams,

which have since dried up, were
constantly filled with water.

So there was more wildlife,
more vegetation,

and more significant sources
of water.

NARRATOR:
The results
of the core samples reveal

what the landscape looked like
during the Neolithic period.

The difference is staggering.

Around 7,000 B.C.,

riverbanks were lush
and closer to the kites.

The basalt plateaus were
covered with trees.

With these conditions,

the area was probably full
of wildlife.

A good place for hunting.

Back in Khaybar,

Rémy Crassard and his team
continue their investigation

into one of the kites,

digging in
the circular compartment.

They confirm a previous finding

that these large holes,
surrounded by dry-stone walls,

can be as much as several
feet deep.

But what was their use?

Initially, they were thought
to be stone circles

with no specific purpose.

The excavations reveal
that the walls of the pits

were clad with stones.

In some cases,

rocks weighing
over 200 pounds each,

topped the structure.

It would be the perfect way

to prevent trapped animals
from escaping.

Combined with previous clues;

the shape of the kites

and information about what
this location was like

in Neolithic times,
this discovery confirmed

that the kites were
used as hunting traps.

CRASSARD (translated):
They're not what
we originally thought:

mere stone circles attached

to the enclosures and antennae.

They're pits that we're now
calling "pit-traps,"

because we've realized

that animals fell down them
and were trapped.

NARRATOR:
But this discovery
also raised new questions.

Why were the kites so big?

What was the purpose
of the various parts?

How did the megastructures work?

What animals were they trying
to trap?

With the pits fully excavated,

the team of archeologists
widens their focus

to look for clues
about the builders

of these megastructures.

But the excavation
is nearing its end,

and they've found no traces
of human settlements

near the kites.

So they decide to continue
their investigation elsewhere.

♪ ♪

Several hundred miles away,

in Khashabiyeh,
southeastern Jordan,

the team identifies a very
promising excavation site.

Nine kites,

all dating back to roughly
7000 B.C.,

have been recorded in this area.

But in 2023, the team found
something remarkable;

the first traces of a
human settlement complex

near a kite...

...a major discovery

that could revolutionize our
understanding

of how these mega-traps
functioned,

and help scientists unravel
exactly

who was responsible
for their construction.

Rémy Crassard joins the dig,

co-directed by Wael Abu-Azizeh

and Jordanian archeologist
Mohammad Tarawneh.

♪ ♪

The team of the south eastern
Badia archaeological project

focuses their research on one
of the main areas

with signs of human occupation.

CRASSARD (translated):
It's an incredibly rich dig,

because we've found thousands,

tens of thousands,
hundreds of thousands

of stone objects
in knapped flint.

NARRATOR:
But as the dig goes on,

the archeologists not only
find traces of human activity,

they unearth what
looks like a dwelling.

So, as you can see, we have here

a very well-preserved

habitation site.

We have three occupation units

agglutinated next to each other,
and they are centered around

a central space.

Into each one of these
habitation units,

you will find maybe one
or two hearths

where people were cooking.

NARRATOR:
From their findings,

the team has
created reconstructions.

They believe the site was once
made up of half-buried huts,

circular in shape,
one up against the other,

and covered with a roof made
of sticks.

Finds within these houses have
also provided clues

to the way these ancient people
lived.

Evidence of cooking on a fire,

grinding ingredients
with a wheel and pestle,

and knapping flint.

(cracking)

In all, the archeologists
have identified

nine habitation sites.

By mapping them out,
they soon realize

that each one could correspond
to a different kite,

strategically located next
to an antenna.

Fragments of charcoal found
in the hearths

date these dwellings to
7000 B.C.--

the same time these
kites were built.

TARAWNEH:
This is actually one of
the most important part is

dating the kites and
dating the occupation sites

and to have them linked
together from the same period

and we achieved
that through Carbon 14

so now we have just enough
evidence to link them together.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
But what else can these
sites reveal

about the people
who once lived here?

Who were they?

(sand shifting)

♪ ♪

JUAN SANCHEZ-PRIEGO
(speaking French):

ISABELA CARRIÓ
(speaking French):

(speaking French):

PRIEGO:

CRASSARD:

PRIEGO:

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The team has found several
thousand knapped flints,

like this blade.

It shows these people
were skilled tool makers.

With distinct and unique tools,

pottery, artwork,
evidence of religious practices

and the kites themselves,

the archeologists realize
that they have discovered

a previously unknown people.

ABU-AZIZEH (translated):
We have all the elements--

the architecture,
the material culture--

to allow us to identify

this culture as a distinct
culture in its own right.

♪ ♪

We wanted to give
this culture a name,

and to do so,
we used a local place name,

Tal'at Ghassan,

to come up with "Ghassanian,"

the Ghassanian culture.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The Ghassanians were
Neolithic hunters

who designed monumental traps
to catch wild animals.

But the team still isn't exactly
sure how the kites worked.

♪ ♪

(sifting)

After a few weeks of digging,

they finally unearth the clue
they've been waiting for.

(scraping)

(speaking indistinctly)

ABU-AZIZEH (translated):
It's an animal bone.

We've found some in
some fairly dense pockets.

NARRATOR:
Away from the kites,
but close to the dwellings,

the archeologists uncover pits
filled with bone fragments.

The pits are more than
six feet across

and about four inches deep.

Inside are thousands

of small burned bones.

One pit alone

contains more than
7,500 bones and fragments.

They are sent
for further study.

In north Germany, at her lab
in Kiel University,

zooarcheologist Cheryl
Makarewicz analyzes the bones.

(objects shifting on desk)

All right, so,

you can see this incredible
amount of material

coming from one
relatively small context.

And so all of this

was the result of
processing of the carcasses.

And everything is concentrated

in a kind of midden,
or a, a dump,

and this is just one bag
from one small context.

So imagine, that we have
actually hundreds of these bags.

NARRATOR:
Cheryl compares the shapes
of the bones

to animals we know today,

and finds nearly all the bones
are from just one species.

MAKAREWICZ:
So, at Khashabiyeh,

99.9% of the animal bones
that we encounter,

they're from gazelle.

NARRATOR:
Gazelles are small antelopes.

Today several different
species roam in herds

across parts of Asia
and Africa.

(rattling)

So the question for Cheryl is,

were the Ghassanian people
who lived

9,000 years ago actively
hunting these animals?

The answer lies in
the sheer number of bones.

MAKAREWICZ:
In this case, we're--

we're counting
the number of,

first phalanges.

The first foot bone,
basically.

Now, if we take
a look here at this...

this forelimb from a sheep,

which has the same
exact bones as a gazelle.

You can see here

that in the foot bones--

that's these three here--

there are two of each type.

So, two first phalanges,
two second phalanges,

and two third phalanges.

And so, what we're doing,

is we're counting
the numbers of these,

and then-- in that we're
finding in the faunal deposits,

and then we're simply
dividing by

the number of these bones

that we find
in the animal itself;

in this case, eight.

So...

if we have eight
first phalanges,

we have at least one individual.

And in the case of
Khashabiyeh,

we have probably
around 150 animals or so.

NARRATOR:
There is no way

that this many gazelles
could have died nearby

from natural causes.

But how do we know

they were trapped
inside the kites en masse

rather than being
individually hunted

over a longer period of time?

MAKAREWICZ:
So there was almost no sediment,

in between
the bones themselves.

It's just this incredible,

dense concentration of
these kinds of faunal remains.

And what we excavated
through this very carefully,

and it became
very clear that

this was one
depositional event.

And I've never seen

this kind of density
of material

in a single depositional
context.

It is unbelievable.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
For the researchers,
there's no doubt:

these animals were hunted,

and to capture
hundreds of gazelles at a time,

the hunters needed
a mega-trap, like a kite.

♪ ♪

ABU-AZIZEH (translated):
Hunting inside the kites
was mass hunting,

because 100 or so animals
were captured in one go.

So that means
extremely abundant

hunting by-products,
like meat,

which needed to be butchered.

(speaking French)

(translated):
And we've found traces of this

at the occupation sites
in Khashabiyeh.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
By building kites,

the Ghassanians
were able to hunt

at a near-industrial level.

♪ ♪

But many questions remain.

What were
the long stone walls for?

And how did the Ghassanians
use them to catch their prey?

♪ ♪

TARAWNEH:
They were living with
the animals,

watching the animal behavior,

understanding the nature
and the environment around them,

so they understood how,

how to deal with these animals.

NARRATOR:
By observing gazelles,

the ancient hunters
likely noticed

that they naturally followed
lines on the landscape:

ridges, rivers, ravines,

even features
with no height at all.

FINLAYSON:
Gazelle follow

straight lines in the landscape.

And you can still see this
behavior today.

So each individual one--
the sum of the kites--

has a series of long,
long walls that lead into it.

They're designed
to bring gazelle in.

They'll come in by themselves,

and then you wait for them
at the head of the kite.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
It was thanks to

a deep understanding
of gazelle behavior

that these Neolithic people
were able to prepare

the perfect traps.

♪ ♪

Scientists have
also long suspected

that the kites
are all positioned

along the gazelles'
migration routes.

♪ ♪

Olivier Barge has gone
to Khashabiyeh, in Jordan,

to check the orientation of
this region's nine known kites.

And to get this aerial footage,

the team is using
another kind of kite.

(winding)

♪ ♪

(camera shutter clicking)

BARGE (translated):
It's important to
have aerial photos,

because we can then
treat these photogrammatically

to obtain a digital
description of the kites.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
These digital maps

provide researchers with
a wealth of information.

The region's topography

combined with
the kites' positioning

provide clues to how
these mega-traps worked.

With these maps,
Olivier sees that

the arms of the
nine Khashabiyeh kites

all open to the east;

the direction from which
the gazelles may have migrated,

drawing them in.

♪ ♪

This shows that the gazelles

could have entered the kites
naturally.

Then, the kite walls
gradually narrowed,

ushering them towards
the enclosure.

♪ ♪

(gazelles running)

But then what?

How were they ensnared?

(dirt crunching)

(crunching, rattling)

(translated):
We're now at the far end
of the antennae,

and the walls
have really narrowed.

We'll go on a bit further.

We can't see too far ahead.

The vice tightens,

and now...

we enter the enclosure
just below.

The animals were running
at full pelt,

and they didn't realize
they were inside an enclosure

until they were
already inside it.

(gazelle hooves thundering)

NARRATOR:
Olivier Barge and the
global kites team

have noticed that this kite
appears to have been

deliberately positioned
across two breaks in the slope.

The first high point hides
the enclosure...

...and the second
hides the pits.

And in other cases,
when the topography

of a kite would've
made it impossible

to naturally mask
the enclosure and pits,

the hunters
devised other ways:

they constructed
stone ramps or small walls.

Taking the height
of a gazelle's shoulders,

the archeologists calculated
its field of vision

and determined
that a 20 inch-high wall

would've been enough
to hide the pit.

(booming)

ABU-AZIZEH (translated):
The construction of the kites

called for knowledge
of the environment

and the topography
of the terrain.

And once the gazelles
had fallen into the pits,

there was no way out.

NARRATOR:
So what happened next?

How did the Ghassanians
manage to butcher

150 gazelles at once?

MAKAREWICZ:
So people were probably
coming together

not only as people
living on the settlement,

but people coming together
and processing these as a group.

So we could imagine 20 people,

30 people, 50 people,

to really rapidly process
those carcasses.

♪ ♪

Still, at the same time,
the question still remains,

what are they doing
with these animals?

What are they doing with
the meat?

What are they doing with
the skins?

CRASSARD (translated):
We don't have any real answers

to those questions yet;
but it most probably

involved trade with
populations further away,

because there was too much meat
and by-products

for the local population alone.

♪ ♪

ABU-AZIZEH (translated):
During the digs,

we found seashells
used as beads,

which indicates that
they traded with people

on the Mediterranean
or the Red Sea.

Even if you're a local and
distinct culture,

you're part
of the Neolithic world.

You're clearly
speaking to people.

You're trading with people,
you're in contact with people,

you're getting
new ideas from them,

you're giving them
new ideas.

And the whole area is,

in a sense,

very much like our world.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
But one mystery continues
to puzzle the researchers.

(translated):
What's astonishing

and very hard
to explain,

is the symmetry

of such gigantic structures.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
It's only from above
that they can see

what a technological feat
this truly is.

♪ ♪

CRASSARD (translated):
How did prehistoric populations,

with no access
to aerial vision,

manage to
build huge structures?

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Once again,

it's the dwellings
close to the nine kites

of Khashabiyeh,
in Jordan,

that provide the team
with potential clues.

♪ ♪

(indistinct conversing)

they find a large flat stone

with intriguing carvings.

(indistinct talking)

(straining)

(relieved sigh)

(group exclaiming)

(brush sweeping)

TARAWNEH:
Decorated nose.

(excited noise)

It's simple,
but very expressive

at the same time.
Yes.

NARRATOR:
The team has already discovered
two other similar stones.

Within these pictures,

they suspect there might be
hidden images of kites.

(group talking indistinctly)

♪ ♪

(chuckling):
Right.

These two...
Well, actually,

yeah, with the eye to
represent the enclosure.

That could make sense,
that's amazing.

(muted audio)

NARRATOR:
They suspect this could be
a representation of a kite.

Carved on a standing stone.

Was this used
as a building plan?

we should compare
with the actual kite...
The actual kite,

the closer one.
Near the, near the site.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
This carving suggests

the shape of the nearby kite.

♪ ♪

And it's not the only stone
that follows this pattern.

Another stone,
with a different image,

maps out another kite,

with one of the pits
acting as the mouth.

It too was found
near the kite it matches.

Could this be a coincidence?

The team thinks
it seems unlikely.

They suspect that each
of the nine habitation sites

in Khashabiyeh
may have one.

♪ ♪

ABU-AZIZEH (translated):
Our hypothesis

was based on mathematics.

Mathematics
allowed us to quantify

and formally establish
the similarity with the kites,

far beyond the simple hunch
that we had to begin with.

NARRATOR:
Here's one of the carved plans

selected for mathematical study.

A specially designed
computer program

allows the researchers
to compare

the image of the layout
to its nearby kite.

And it isn't the only one.

The computer is able
to take into account

small similarities
and differences

that are difficult
to see with the naked eye.

It then calculates
the degree of similarity

between the actual kites

and the plans on the stones.

Despite 9,000 years
of erosion,

the carved plan
most closely matches

kites near the drawing,

not those for
more distant regions.

One kite shares
over 75% similarity.

The main inaccuracy
is that the pit-traps

are significantly exaggerated
compared to their actual size,

but if done to scale, they
would be too small to carve.

And one carving
is more than 81% similar

to its nearby kite.

Such close alignments
suggest that each plan

corresponds to a nearby kite.

CRASSARD (translated):
These are the oldest scale plans

in the history of humankind.

The oldest scale plans

that we knew of
before these dated from

only the second
millennium B.C.E.,

in Mesopotamia.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Rémy and the team believe

that the Ghassanians
produced scale plans

around 5,000 years earlier
than the Mesopotamians did,

and the team has found
no evidence

of mathematics or written
language.

♪ ♪

Without these, it would be
especially impressive,

given the complexity
of the topography

at the Khashabiyeh site.

With hills and
vast rocky outcrops,

it is impossible to see

the layout of the entire kite

from one spot.

♪ ♪

(group chatting
in non-English language)

(all applauding)

(exclaiming, cheering)

(translated):
We're all here together

to share
this great moment in time.

(cheerful chatter)

(flames roaring)

TARAWNEH:
I'm proud as a Jordanian

of, you know,
excavating Jordanian sites,

especially these sites turned
out to be extremely important,

not only for Jordan,
it's worldwide.

It's scientific research.

We are adding a lot for,
you know, scientific knowledge.

So that's really important
for us.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The global kites team

has found hundreds
of new kites

using satellite imagery,

and their excavations
have also uncovered

an entirely new people--

the Ghassanians.

Their discoveries have
put Jordan and Saudi Arabia

on the archaeological map
once more.

(flames crackling)

♪ ♪

(brushing)

(mumbling indistinctly)

NARRATOR:
But just as the team

is beginning to close
the dig sites,

there is one more surprise.

ABU-AZIZEH (translated):
We've found four

anthropomorphic
standing stones.

Two here,

and two back there--

which stand inside
a structure

that is composed of
two lines of stones,

which you can see here.

And they join to form
a small circular cell.

In fact, it all forms

the structure of the kite

which is close to
this occupation site.

NARRATOR:
The Ghassanians had taken things
one step further.

This is not a plan,

but a small-scale model
built of stone.

Once again, its shape
resembles a nearby kite.

♪ ♪

The archeologists also find
some unusual remains

between the two arms
of the model.

CRASSARD (translated):
What's interesting here

is that this prehistoric
population

collected objects from nature

and stored them in this
scale model.

(speaking French)

(translated):
At the back of this compartment,

there's an ensemble
with some very large fossils,

and flint nodules

with a very particular
inward-curved shape.

So they're all objects
that stand out in the terrain.

NARRATOR:
These Neolithic people
gathered shellfish fossils

from millions of years ago,
when the desert was a sea.

CRASSARD (translated):
So they were like
curiosity collectors,

going around,
picking up objects

that are a bit strange,
a bit different...

And that makes us think
that we're dealing with

something that's
ritualized, probably.

And certainly
something symbolic.

NARRATOR:
Inside the model kite,
the archeologists also find

stones blackened with soot:

evidence of a hearth.

For the team,

this isn't merely a model
of the kite,

but possibly a site with
a ritual and spiritual purpose.

(indistinct talking)

TARAWNEH:
The whole kite model here,

it's oriented,
it was the main entrance

of the whole unit,

and all the
anthropomorphic figures

are also orienting towards

the same direction as the kite.

♪ ♪

ABU-AZIZEH:
I think it is obviously
something ritual,

related to
their beliefs, yes.

Because I think the symbolism

is very strong,
and suggests also

a very strong tie with the,

with the desert kites,

which was most probably

something very important
in their life.

♪ ♪

(scraping, brushing)

NARRATOR:
With this discovery,

the archeologists
are now confident

that the kites not only
had a major role

in the economic life
of the Ghassanians,

but in their cultural
and spiritual life, too.

This is obviously
a very important,

once-in-a-lifetime
discovery.

So we are extremely happy.

TARAWNEH:
Beyond expectations.

(laughs)

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
A few months later,

the team is back in Khaybar,
Saudi Arabia.

♪ ♪

The determination of
Rémy Crassard and his team

has finally born fruit.

Here, too, they have found
a habitation site

close to a kite.

♪ ♪

CRASSARD (translated):
Very recently, we were fortunate

to discover
a very old dwelling,

dating from 7000 B.C.E.,

which is exactly the same date

as the sites
currently being dug

in Khashabiyeh.

It's really an exceptional
discovery,

and it's just
what we were looking for

and expecting to find.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
With these remains,

the archeologists
hope to identify

the people behind
the kites of Khaybar too.

Could they also be Ghassanians?

ABU-AZIZEH (translated):
We've made some great
discoveries.

The big question now is:

How far did this
Ghassanian culture stretch?

How far can we follow
the presence

of the Ghassanians through
the deserts of the Middle East?

♪ ♪

(hooves thundering)

NARRATOR:
When they first started
investigating the kites

more than a decade ago,

the researchers never imagined

they would rediscover
a forgotten people.

Inventors who designed
and built mega-traps

taking hunting
to an almost industrial level.

♪ ♪

Creators of the earliest known
models and scale plans,

and builders of some of the
earliest known megastructures

in human history.

(group exclaiming)

An ancient, ingenious people,

forgotten no more.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

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