Kossaima (Kusseima) Sinai Kite Field (North Sinai, Egypt)
Kosseima Gateway Kites · Sinai–Negev gateway traps
Late Neolithic to Early Bronze I (Timnian–Beersheva)·Sinai–Negev Late Neolithic (Timnian, Ghassulian)·🇪🇬 North Sinai Governorate, Kossaima Plateau, Gebel Halal foothills / Negev fringe, Egypt
About
About Kossaima (Kusseima) Sinai Kite Field (North Sinai, Egypt)
Critical Sinai–Negev gateway kite swathe on the Kossaima limestone hamada: 20 kites and 30 'dove-hole' navamis-adjacent cairns documented via BGU–Egyptian Antiquities 1995–2008. Kites are small (arms 60–140 m) with 6–10 m apex cells of upright slabs, characteristic 'Sinai-Negev small kite' typology, targeting Sinai Ibex and Dorcas gazelle migrating between Gebel Halal and Negev Highlands through the Kossaima pass. Entrances face north to funnel winter migrations. Navamis (4,000 BCE burial cairns) cluster within 200 m, showing ritual–hunting co-location on the gateway. Most walls bulldozed for military berms in the 1970s; 8 survive intact.
Why it mattersSinai–Negev migration-bottleneck kite typology linking Egyptian and Levantine deserts.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01North-entrance winter bias
Theories
- 01Isthmus ecology trapping
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.4500 – 3000 BCE (Late Neolithic–Early Bronze)
- Period
- Late Neolithic to Early Bronze I (Timnian–Beersheva)
- Culture
- Sinai–Negev Late Neolithic (Timnian, Ghassulian)
- Builders
- Sinai–Negev dryland pastoralists
- Purpose
- Ibex/gazelle gateway trapping at isthmus pass
- Abandoned
- c.2800 BCE
- Rediscovered
- 1972 S. Rosen survey; 1995 BGU preservation
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
4500 BCE
Earliest slab-cell foundation
1972
Rosen records 20 kites at gateway
On the ground
Structures & features
30.6000° N · 34.3000° E · 420 m · 2 mapped features
Slab-Cell Apex (8 m)
kite8-m upright slab cell at apex of kite 9
30.6020° N · 34.3020° ENavamis Cairn Row
cairnRow of 5 navamis cairns 120 m from kite 3
30.5980° N · 34.2980° E