Maitland South Cairn-Connector Kites (Southern Cairn Chain Kites)
South Maitland Cairn Kites · Maitland Cairn Alignment Traps
PPNB Late to Late Neolithic (7000–5500 BCE)·South Maitland cairn-alignment community (Maitland Badia Late Neolithic)·🇯🇴 Mafraq Governorate, Black Desert, Jabal Maitland Southern Piedmont Cairn Chain (Maitland South), Jordan
About
About Maitland South Cairn-Connector Kites (Southern Cairn Chain Kites)
Southern piedmont (715 m) of Maitland massif where basalt table sheds to limestone plain toward Qasr Usaykhim (Umayyad). 2 km by inter-kite cairn alignment: 2-m high stone cairns (tapuli) every 45–80 m interconnect kite tails — a navigation/territory chain visible 4 km. Kites themselves 280–650 m walls to kite-shaped pens 18–24 m with cairn at tail junction. Cairn alignment is unique Maitland south feature not seen at Wisad/Qattafi — suggests coordinated communal territory marking beyond single kite.
Cairns contain Late Neolithic burials (cist) and later Safaitic inscriptions. Radiocarbon cairn burial 6200 BCE underlies cairn, kite wall postdates cairn 7000 BP — stratigraphy debated (cairn first then kite tail aligned to cairn vs contemporaneous). Wadi system adjacent feeds Azraq oasis 38 km.
Why it mattersOnly cairn-interconnected linear trap chain — 6.2 km territorial hunting landscape not isolated kites.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Cairn precedes kite or contemporaneous — stratigraphy direction
Theories
- 01Sequential drive: gazelle flushed from one kite into next tail via cairn funnel
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.7000 – 5500 BCE (wall OSL 7000 BP, cairn burial 6200 BCE)
- Period
- PPNB Late to Late Neolithic (7000–5500 BCE)
- Culture
- South Maitland cairn-alignment community (Maitland Badia Late Neolithic)
- Builders
- South Maitland cairn-chain builders
- Purpose
- Linear cairn-connected trap system — territorial chain marking communal hunting territory and linking tails for sequential gazelle drive
- Abandoned
- c.5000 BCE
- Rediscovered
- 2020 south piedmont cairn chain drone LiDAR; 2023 cairn burial C14
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
2020
LiDAR maps 9 kites + cairn chain 6.2 km
2023
Cairn cist burial C14 6200 BCE
1927
Maitland first notes southern kites
On the ground
Structures & features
32.3200° N · 37.5500° E · 715 m · 2 mapped features
Cairn Chain (2-m tapuli) Alignment
earthwork2-m cairns every 45–80 m linking kite tails 6.2 km to Qasr Usaykhim
32.3210° N · 37.5510° EKite SCM-05 Tail Cairn Pen (18 m)
desert kite18–24 m kite pen with cairn at tail junction — tapuli integration
32.3190° N · 37.5490° E