Many people know about the mysterious geoglyphs located in the Nazca desert. Researchers and scientists from different countries of the world have been trying to figure out their purpose for several decades. However, so far none of the versions gives a logical explanation for why they were created.
Not so long ago, the Peruvian geoglyphs had a serious competitor. In the Middle East, mysterious ancient giant structures have been found. See for yourself these unusual shapes. They resemble wheel-shaped symbols. Scientists date them to 6500 BC. Thus, they are older than the famous Peruvian geoglyphs - the Nazca Lines.
The world first learned about the Syrian geoglyphs in 1927. They were spotted by a Royal Air Force Lieutenant Percy Maitland while flying on a plane. I noticed and published an article in the journal Antiquity, reporting that the Bedouins call the structures “the work of the ancient people,” this name is still used by researchers today. Archaeologists did not attach importance to the discovery of Maitland, believing that the structures found are the remains of houses and cemeteries.
Syrian geoglyphs stretch from Syria to Saudi Arabia, and little is known about them by the general public. David Kennedy of the University of Western Australia, Pulitzer Prize winner and professor emeritus of history at Stanford University (USA) said that there are far more geoglyphs in Jordan alone than in the entire Nazca Valley.
Almost all geoglyphs are made in the form of circles with "spokes" inside, for which scientists have dubbed them "wheels". The diameter ranges from 24 to 70m. Some of the "wheels" are located singly, and some are grouped together. In Saudi Arabia, researchers have also found similar structures. The difference is that not all of them are wheel-shaped. Some of them are rectangular. In many circles there are only two knitting needles and they are oriented strictly towards sunrise and sunset.
Using the method of optically stimulated luminescence dating (OSL), archaeologists have determined that the age of one of the "wheels" located in the Black Desert of Jordan is 8,500 years, while the other wheel, judging by the analysis, was built at the same time, and later 3000 years old reconstructed or restored.
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In that prehistoric era, the climate in the Middle East was more humid; trees, shrubs and grasses grew in abundance on the site of the present desert. In one of the ancient hearths of that era, coal from oak and tamarisk was found.
There is no exact data on the connection of figures with astronomy. It was found out that the "spokes" of the two "wheels" located near the Azraq Oasis in Jordan are oriented towards the sunrise on the day of the winter solstice. Moreover, it cannot be argued that this was done intentionally by the ancient builders. The rest of the figures, it seems, do not carry any archaeoastronomical information.
Author: Nikolay Subbotin