Geography

In the Ras al Khaimah Emirate, it is assumed that the development of important settlements for the last 5000 years, such as Nud Ziba, Shimal and later Kush and Julfar, has been supported by fishing, pearl production and inter-regional trade. The large fertile areas like the Sir and Jiri plains, where the main oases of the Emirate are located (Dhayah, Shimal and Khatt), also played an important role in regional economy (Kennet, 2012). However, the history of these oasian landscapes remains poorly known, excavations being rarely conducted in agrarian zones. Our study, part of the ANR OASIWAT (dir. L. Purdue), aims to complete this history by the acquisition of new field data in the oases of Ras al Khaimah.
In the oasis of Dhayah, geoarchaeological and geophysical investigations were conducted in 2017 to identify ancient agricultural soils and hydraulic structures. In parallel, geomorphological surveys and spatial analysis were performed to understand the surrounding landscapes supplying water and soils to the oasis. Our field results, reframed in a precise chronological background, provide new data on cycles of agricultural development, intensification and abandonment in Ras al Khaimah. Compared with the regional archaeological record and local climatic reconstructions (Parker et al., 2016), they enrich our knowledges about the emergence and evolution of the oasian landscape in the South-Eastern Arabian Peninsula.

Key words: oasis, agrarian geoarchaeology, geophysics, geomorphology, United Arab Emirates

Bibliographical references:
Kennet (2012): Archaeological history of the Northern Emirates in the Islamic period: An outline, In “Fifty years of Emirates Archaeology” (eds. Potts & Hellyer), Abu Dhabi, 189-201
Parker, Preston, Parton, Walkington, Jardine, Leng and Hodson (2016): Low-latitude Holocene hydroclimate derived from lake sediment flux and geochemistry, Journal of Quaternary Science (2016) 31(4) 286-299

"The numerous publications dedicated to desert-kites show that the question of their function and their dating cannot be explained in a simple way: there are probably very different scenarios. Identified at first in the Near East, their area of distribution is getting bigger and bigger. In particular, a group of desert kytes has just been discovered and studied in Armenia.

The big size of desert-kites makes them often clearly visible on high-resolution satellite images. Coupled with fieldwork, the use of Google Earth has been very efficient: the study of the shape of the remains, of their architectural peculiarities, of their preservation as far as their mapping with GPS allows to distinguish their signature on the images. A set of 78 desert-kites has been discovered, leading to new investigations and fieldworks.

This iterative approach (satellite images / fieldwork) allows to build a spatial database with two scales: the scale of the desert-kite himself where are recorded fieldwork data and the scale of the region where every desert-kite is characterized by about twenty descriptors identified or measured on the images. This database allows to bring to light the regional specificity of these edifices.

In particular, the orientation of the desert – kites according to the aspect of local slopes, suspected on the ground, was able to be proved thanks to the analysis of the database. The circular correlation between the orientation of desert-kites and the local average aspect of slopes is rather strong and highly significant."

High-resolution satellite imagery publicly accessible on the Internet (e.g. Google Earth, Microsoft Bing) greatly facilitates the observation of large archaeological structures. This is particularly the case for 'desert kites', dry-stone constructions comprising long convergent walls with an associated enclosure. Recent publications have significantly increased the number of known kites, including in regions where they had never before been reported (e.g. Kennedy 2012; Kempe & Al-Malabeh 2013). Previous research projects have been numerous (e.g. Helms & Betts 1987; Échallier & Braemer 1995) but isolated and at a regional scale only. Additionally, researchers were regularly faced with a scarcity of archaeological material, which often had no clear stratigraphic relationship to the kite structures. Thus,
apart from a few isolated cases (Holzer et al. 2010), key issues such as dating kites and understanding their function have not been satisfactorily resolved. Hypotheses have been proposed based on historical evidence, rock carvings and faunal remains, some of them from sites interpreted as mass killing sites. These data are still insufficient, however, due to the unsystematic nature of the studies, and the current hypotheses cannot explain such a large spatial distribution (from the Arabian Peninsula to the Aralo-Caspian region) and presumably long chronology (from the Neolithic to sub-contemporary times).

""Many desert kites have recently (2010) been discovered on the basaltic slopes of Mount Aragats in Armenia. The implementation of various complementary techniques (geomatics, statistical analyses, geoarchaeology, malacology, radiocarbon analysis) has enabled definition of their specificities. Isolated from the classic Syro-Jordanian zone, they are characterised by a certain simplicity, great morphological homogeneity, strongly related locations to the morphological characteristics of the mountain
massif, and dated between the Bronze Age and beginning of the Common Era.""

This paper argues that the wide geographical distribution of desert kites, which are huge archaeological structures of stone visible from satellite images, must be more broadly acknowledged as a momentous factor in the study of their variability and function. This is important so that researchers can more accurately understand and interpret their impact on biodiversity, landscapes and subsistence patterns. The first results and perspectives of the Globalkites research project are discussed and presented. Often considered as hunting traps, the kites could have also been used for animal husbandry. In a broader archaeological context, where kites seem to have been operating from the Neolithic to recent historical times, we propose an interdisciplinary approach at the crossroads of anthropology (archaeology and ethnology), geomatics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), geostatistics, mathematics and computerized data processing and geoarchaeological and bioarchaeological sciences (isotope studies, paleoclimatology, archaeozoology…). The principal aims of the project are to clearly articulate the variability of the structures and their relationship with the function and chronology of the kites. It is also crucial to discuss the wide distribution of these structures across the Middle East and Central Asia as a global phenomenon and the ideas that explain the dispersal and movements of people and/or traditions must be addressed.

This paper argues that the wide geographical distribution of desert kites, which are huge archaeological structures of stone visible from satellite images, must be more broadly acknowledged as a momentous factor in the study of their variability and function. This is important so that researchers can more accurately understand and interpret their impact on biodiversity, landscapes and subsistence patterns. The first results and perspectives of the Globalkites research project are discussed and presented. Often considered as hunting traps, the kites could have also been used for animal husbandry. In a broader archaeological context, where kites seem to have been oper-ating from the Neolithic to recent historical times, we propose an interdisciplinary approach at the crossroads of anthropology (archaeology and ethnology), geomatics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), geostatistics, mathematics and computer-ized data processing and geoarchaeological and bioarchaeological sciences (isotope studies, paleoclimatology, archaeozoology…). The principal aims of the project are to clearly articulate the variability of the structures and their relationship with the function and chronology of the kites. It is also crucial to discuss the wide distribution of these structures across the Middle East and Central Asia as a global phenomenon and the ideas that explain the dispersal and movements of people and/or traditions must be addressed.

The desert-kites have seen their spatial distribution  onsiderably expanded in recent years, thanks to new discoveries. This spatial distribution shows some areas of high density, while the presence of hiatuses exists. Therefore, among these new discoveries, the Aragats kites in Armenia form an isolated aggregate. The comparison of their morphology and their integration in the landscape with other kites, and in particular with those of the Ustyurt Plateau, shows similarities between these two sets. They can clearly be discriminated from those of the whole area of distribution, which, besides, presents a high variability of their morphological characters. From this evidence, the question which arises is that of the existence of a cultural diffusion phenomenon.

Kites are remnants of long stone walls that outline the shape
of a child’s kite. But the kites are huge, their big size makes them often clearly visible on high-resolution satellite images. Identified at first in the Near East, their area of distribution is getting larger and larger. This wide distribution gives new dimensions in the interpretation of these structures. Consequently, a large scale recognition of kites will help archeologists to understand the functionality of these enigmatic constructions.
In this paper, we investigate how the satellite imagery can be exploited in this purpose using a graph representation of the kites. We propose a similarity measure and a kite identification process that can highlights the preservation state of the kites. We also construct from real images a benchmark of kite graphs that can be used by other researchers.

The Aralo-Caspian region includes a ninth of the total number of 'desert kites'. These are located at a considerable distance from the large concentrations of the Near East and the Levant. A combined fieldwork and satellite image analysis, undertaken in September 2013 on the southwestern fringe of the Ustyurt plateau, allowed us to record and describe 143 kites of different morphological types and to obtain new chronological data. Within the framework of the Globalkites research project, set up at the scale of the whole distribution area of kites, a GIS database was constructed using a methodology successfully tested in other regions (Armenia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia). This paper is a detailed description of the kites of this region, focusing on location in the landscape, morphology, architecture and chronology. Despite the lack of accurate information about their use, relationships with animal migration routes can sometimes be suggested. Our chronological data show that the southwestern Ustyurt kites have a long history of use and were abandoned only very recently. Some architectural details and morphological features, commonly observed on Near Eastern kites, lead to the conclusion that Ustyurt kites belong to a single phenomenon.

L’information archéologique est spatiale par nature. Quels que soient l’échelle (fouille, habitat, ville, région), le contexte (urbain, rural), le thème (peuplement, territoires, matières premières, réseaux d’échanges, culture matérielle...) ou la démarche (terrain, documentation), la localisation est une donnée fondamentale et la production de documents (carto) graphiques est une constante. Pour autant, si le positionnement dans l’espace est un préliminaire indispensable, il ne constitue pas à lui seul une réflexion sur la dimension spatiale des questions archéologiques. L’application des méthodes de l’analyse spatiale est intervenue en archéologie dès les années 1970. Elle est maintenant indissociable des Systèmes d’Information Géographique (SIG) dont les premières utilisations en archéologie ont vu le jour dans les années 1990. Dans le même temps, les archéologues ont bénéficié des progrès de la télédétection et des analyses issues des sciences de la terre. Le point de vue sur l’information spatiale développé dans cet ouvrage est résolument archéologique. Il s’agit bien sûr d’identifier précisément les caractéristiques génériques de l’information spatiale utilisable, mais surtout de distinguer ce qui est spécifique à l’archéologie ou plus généralement aux sciences historiques. Si certains considèrent que la manipulation des outils de traitement de l’information spatiale est l’affaire de spécialistes, la position des auteurs, radicalement différente, consiste à former les archéologues, qui sont les seuls à maîtriser les tenants et aboutissants de la démarche. Cet ouvrage s’adresse donc moins au spécialiste qu’à l’ensemble des acteurs qui entrent, de près ou de loin, dans la construction ou l’utilisation d’un SIG archéologique. Il s’adresse aussi à quiconque est curieux de voir comment fonctionne l’archéologie moderne.