Nearly 9,000-year-old shrine unearthed in Jordan

Brad Dress, The Hill via Nexstar Media Wire

Updated: Feb 23, 2022 / 09:22 AM EST

This photo provided by Jordan Tourism Ministry shows two carved standing stones at a remote Neolithic site in Jordan’s eastern desert. A team of Jordanian and French archaeologists said Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022, that it had found a roughly 9,000-year-old shrine. 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 corral wild gazelles for slaughter. (Tourism Ministry via AP)

(The Hill) — Archaeologists say they unearthed a nearly 9,000-year-old shrine in the desert of Jordan.

The archeologists made the discovery at a remote Neolithic campsite on the eastern side of Jordan’s desert, The Associated Press reported.

The shrine held two large standing stones carved with anthropomorphic figures as well as a hearth and altar and a miniature model of a convergence of two large stone walls that are used to trap gazelles.

The finding amazed the archeologists because it’s ancient but in good condition.

“It’s 9,000 years old and everything was almost intact,” said Jordanian archaeologist Wael Abu-Azziza, the co-director of the project, to the AP.

The oldest temple in the world, the Gobekli Tepe, is 11,000 years old, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

The structure in Turkey predates Stonehenge in England.