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archaeologist in Saudi Arabia have excavate eight ancient " stand stone rotary " that they say were used as homes .
About 345 of these social structure were describe through aery surveys across the Harrat ' Uwayrid , a lava field of view near the city of AlUla in northwesterly Saudi Arabia , the team report July 2 in the journalLevant . The roach range from 13 to 26 foot ( 4 to 8 meters ) in diam and have at least one stand stone at the center .
An illustration showing what the structures may have looked like 7,000 years ago.
The circles go out back around 7,000 twelvemonth and have the corpse of Harlan Fisk Stone walls and at least one doorway . They would have had roof made of either stone or constitutive materials , the team write .
During their excavations , the archaeologist discovered the remains of many Lucy Stone putz made of basalt . Five of the standing circles alone yielded nearly 500 Pound ( 225 kilo ) of stone tools or debris , the team wrote . The archeologist also found the remains of bones from sheep , laughingstock and cows .
Also among the uncovering were a diversity of seashells , all of which come from the Red Sea , which is settle about 75 miles ( 120 kilometers ) to the west . The presence of the seashell " propose developing networks of barter and exchange , cooccurring with mobility , " the team wrote .
A standing stone circle after excavation; notice the doorway leading in.
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The artifacts found in the circles , combined with the circles ' law of similarity to ancient homes unearth in Jordan , paint a picture that many , if not all , of the standing stone circles are also domesticated structures , the squad noted .
While advanced - sidereal day people may sometimes associate stone circles like those atStonehengewith a ritual purpose , it ’s important to note that many early domesticated structures were circular .
Some of the stone tool remains the team found by AlUla.(Image credit: RCU/University of Western Australia/University of Sydney)
" Globally , early domesticated architecture was always round , and rectangular houses only appear in the later Neolithic,“Jane McMahon , an honorary inquiry fellow at the University of Western Australia and lead author of the paper , told Live Science in an e-mail .
Different landscape
Around 7,000 year ago , the surroundings in northerly Saudi Arabia was much surfactant than it is today , butfarminghad not yet amount into use . " There ’s no evidence of farming domesticated mintage of plant like pale yellow and barley , but gathering wild works in all likelihood took place , and perhaps manipulating the landscape to increase the likelihood and yield of godforsaken species , " McMahon say .
When these standing Oliver Stone circles were in use , another form of stone structure , bed today as a mustatil ( Arabic for " rectangle " ) , was being build as well . Excavations at the mustatils suggestthey had a ritual purposethat may have let in the sacrifice of cows . The coetaneous consumption of the mustatils and resist stone circles indicates that it is " probable that these two megalithic anatomical structure types are aspects of a single cultural entity , " the team wrote .
Gary Rollefson , a professor emeritus of anthropology at Whitman College and San Diego State University who was not involve in the research but has conducted across-the-board archaeological work in the realm , said he thinks the the great unwashed who built the standing stone circles and mustatils are derive from mass who lived in Jordan and Syria about 500 years earlier .
More of the stone tools discovered by the team include arrowheads and spear points used for hunting.(Image credit: RCU/University of Western Australia/University of Sydney)
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This photo, taken from a drone, shows the team excavating standing stone circles near AlUla, Saudi Arabia.(Image credit: RCU/University of Western Australia/University of Sydney)
He told Live Science that the architecture of the support Harlan Stone roofy is exchangeable to that of anatomical structure found in Jordan date to about 500 class in the first place , and the citizenry who built the structure in Jordan also herd sheep , Goat and cattle . The migration may have been spur by an increase in universe brought about by Modern hunting engineering , such as the"kite , " a series of gemstone wall used to coerce godforsaken animals into a kill geographical zone . These hunt advances dramatically increased the supply of food , which , in turning , led to an gain in the human population in the Jordan / Syria domain .
" They were building up a large population in easterly Jordan and [ part of ] Syria , " Rollefson said , and they needed to find young hunting grounds , which would have led them to gradually go in the south , into what is now Saudi Arabia .
One of the standing stone circles the team is excavating dates back around 7,000 years.(Image credit: RCU/University of Western Australia/University of Sydney)
An aerial shot of a standing stone circle.(Image credit: RCU/University of Western Australia/University of Sydney)
