9,000-year-old shrine found in Jordan 

9,000-year-old shrine found in Jordan 

Part of: Prelims and GS-I Culture

Context: A team of Jordanian and French archaeologists have found a roughly 9,000-year-old shrine at a remote Neolithic site in Jordan’s eastern desert. 

Key takeaways 

• The ritual complex was found in a Neolithic campsite near large structures known as “desert kites,” or mass traps that are believed to have been used to confine wild gazelles for slaughter.
• Such traps consist of two or more long stone walls converging toward an enclosure and are found scattered across the deserts of the West Asia. 
• The site is unique because of its preservation state.
• Within the shrine were two carved standing stones bearing anthropomorphic (having human characteristics) figures.

Neolithic Age

• The Neolithic Age, which means New Stone Age, was the last and third part of the Stone Age. 
• In India, it spanned from around 7,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C.
• The Neolithic Age is mainly characterized by the development of settled agriculture and the use of tools and weapons made of polished stones. 
• The major crops grown during this period were ragi, horse gram, cotton, rice, wheat, and barley. 
• Pottery first appeared in this age.

News Source: TH