A study of mysterious ancient giant structures in the Middle East has been published. The stone sculptures, which form wheel-shaped symbols, date from about 6500 BC. e. Thus, they are older than the famous Peruvian geoglyphs - the Nazca Lines.
For the first time, geoglyphs were noticed by pilots during the First World War. British Air Force Lieutenant Percy Maitland published a report on them in 1927 in the journal Antiquity, reporting that the Bedouins refer to the structures as "the work of the ancient people," a name still used by researchers today.
Ancient creations include discs with spokes emanating from the center, rhomboid figures called “deltoids”, as well as wall remains and stone pyramids.
The sizes of the figures vary from a few tens of meters to several kilometers, causing parallels with the well-known system of geometric Nazca Lines in Peru, the appearance of which dates back to the period between 200 BC. e. and 500 A. D. e.
Similar geoglyphs are found throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula - from Syria through Jordan and Saudi Arabia to Yemen. Moreover, it is difficult to notice them from the ground.
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 old, while the other wheel, judging by the analysis, was built at the same time, and later 3000 years old reconstructed or restored.
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.
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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 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.
The purpose of the ancient figures is unclear. There are suggestions that the "wheels" were built at burial sites or for other ritual purposes. "Deltoids", according to one of the versions, were used as cattle corrals, reports Live Science.
The Nazca Lines are a group of giant geometric and figured geoglyphs on the Nazca Plateau in southern Peru. On the plateau, which stretches for more than 50 km from north to south and 5-7 km from west to east, today about 30 drawings are known, as well as about 13,000 lines and stripes and about 700 geometric figures (primarily triangles and trapeziums, and also about a hundred spirals).