 Editor in Chief Bill   | 31 Oct 2014 1:24 p.m. PST |
Huge stone circles in the Middle East have been imaged from above, revealing details of structures that have been shrouded in mystery for decades.Archaeologists in Jordan have taken high-resolution aerial images of 11 ancient "Big Circles," all but one of which are around 1,312 feet in diameter. Why they are so similar is unknown but the similarity seems too close to be a coincidence" said researcher David Kennedy. The Big Circles (as archaeologists call them) were built with low stone walls that are no more than a few feet high. The circles originally contained no openings, and people would have had to hop over the walls in order to get inside… link |
| Sigwald | 31 Oct 2014 2:33 p.m. PST |
|
 ochoin  | 31 Oct 2014 2:37 p.m. PST |
I'm going to fall back on the archaeologist's old standby & say they have "religious significance". Alternatively they are a pre-video game. |
| RavenscraftCybernetics | 31 Oct 2014 2:50 p.m. PST |
|
 Parzival | 31 Oct 2014 2:54 p.m. PST |
|
| Coyotepunc and Hatshepsuut | 31 Oct 2014 2:55 p.m. PST |
|
| Sigwald | 31 Oct 2014 3:38 p.m. PST |
Ancient minimum security prison? |
| Cold Steel | 31 Oct 2014 3:52 p.m. PST |
A big practical joke by one of Lot's nomadic cousins? |
| Winston Smith | 31 Oct 2014 4:29 p.m. PST |
Ask the aliens who built them. I have no idea. |
| Schogun | 31 Oct 2014 5:55 p.m. PST |
They're stone circles outlining the perimeter of a flying saucer. Or they're circles inviting the flying saucers to land there. Obviously… |
| skippy0001 | 31 Oct 2014 7:30 p.m. PST |
Atlantean Free Fire Zones. |
| Chuckaroobob | 31 Oct 2014 8:23 p.m. PST |
Oldest sport in the world…. Wrestling!! |
| Chortle | 31 Oct 2014 8:49 p.m. PST |
Very interesting. Glad they are not in Saudi Arabia. Pre-islamic sites are in danger of being trashed. |
| TKindred | 31 Oct 2014 9:02 p.m. PST |
Since they are not mortared stone walls, but rather "dry" stone walls, I'd bet that they were stone corrals. Easy enough to pull down a shot section of wall and drive the herds in, then set the stones back into place. Simple design, lasts a LONG time. Either that, or Alien landing zones.  |
| Bellbottom | 01 Nov 2014 3:28 a.m. PST |
How about pens for exposing the bodies of the dead to be consumed by time and birdlife. The walls are to keep out ground predators like jackals who would dismember the corpse and spread the carcass widely. Just a thought. |
| CeruLucifus | 01 Nov 2014 4:54 p.m. PST |
The article states the walls are too low to corral animals and I assume that would also mean too low to keep jackals out. The article also says stone structures in other shapes have been dated to the same era, so the regular circular shape must have some meaning. Whatever their function, it depended on a circle. Low stone walls would have kept wheeled vehicles in or out. Perhaps this is an inverted arena? The spectators stood inside the circle, and chariots raced outside the circumference? This would explain the consistent size. 1312 feet diameter gives about 4120 feet circumference. Perhaps that was a standard distance measurement, and there was an ancient sport of racing chariots that distance? (Like 1-mile race today or multiples of that.) |
| Cardinal Ximenez | 02 Nov 2014 8:25 a.m. PST |
We'd better get NASA right over there with their newly decreed mission statement. DM |
| Socalwarhammer | 02 Nov 2014 1:06 p.m. PST |
|
