Mount Aragats Plateau Kites Extension (Armenian Highlands)
Aragats Southern Kite Field · Aragats 3200 m Alpine Traps
Neolithic to Early Bronze (Aratashen-Shulaveri to Kura-Araxes)·Armenian Highland Neolithic·🇦🇲 Aragatsotn Province, Mount Aragats volcanic plateau, Armenia
About
About Mount Aragats Plateau Kites Extension (Armenian Highlands)
Highest (3,200 m, 40°30′N 44°20′E) kite field in the Palearctic on the alpine plateau of Mount Aragats (4,090 m volcano). Extension beyond previously known Aragats kites (326411989 figure) adds 9 kites 60-210 m on trachyte pavement using crater rim and stone-walled funnels to seasonally flooded alpine meadow pits, hunting bezoar ibex and mouflon altitude migration. Alpine hamada, not desert; snowmelt ponds act as seasonal traps. Associated Early Bronze Karmir-Sar obsidian spread. Contemporary with Har Harif kites but 2,000 m higher elevation, testing migration model at altitude limit.
Why it mattersHighest-altitude kite field worldwide, 3,200 m.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Alpine snowmelt pit seasonality
Theories
- 01Vertical migration trap
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.6500-4800 BCE with Bronze reuse
- Period
- Neolithic to Early Bronze (Aratashen-Shulaveri to Kura-Araxes)
- Culture
- Armenian Highland Neolithic
- Builders
- Aragats alpine hunters
- Purpose
- Ibex/mouflon alpine meadow drive
- Abandoned
- c.3500 BCE
- Rediscovered
- 2018 Aragats kite map enlargement
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
2018
Aragats kite enlargement published
2020
Obsidian hunting camp at kite apex
On the ground
Structures & features
40.5000° N · 44.2000° E · 3200 m · 2 mapped features
Aragats Alpine Meadow Kite
desert kite210-m trachyte funnel to flooded meadow pit
40.5020° N · 44.2020° EAparan Crater Rim Wall
desert kite60-m crater rim kite segment
40.4980° N · 44.1980° E