In Central Asia, kites have been discovered around the Ustyurt Plateau. This plateau stretches between the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea, over large areas of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The people here have developed a more compact form of these game traps, which do not require kilometre-long guide fences. Instead, they are much larger and have diameters of around 400 to 500 metres. In front of the large gate there is a short funnel with an opening of between 50 and 150 metres.
The main difference to the desert kites in other regions are two relatively small final "catch baskets"(?), which are located right at the front, at the two outer corners. Most of these structures differ not only in their form from the kites in other parts of the world. According to the latest findings, they are also the youngest among them. There are indications that they were used until the 19th century.
Scientific publication by Olivier Barge et al.>
Images courtesy of Google Earth™
