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ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1963 



it originally appeared on all of the slabs forming a continuous design 

 inside tlie enclosure. The motif consists of at least three broad lines, 

 each forming a crenelated design (fig. 3 : a). These lines are usually 

 pecked with a hammerstone, but on at least one slab, they are incised. 

 Also noteworthy is a group of graffiti carved on the outer face of one 

 of the enclosure slabs, which shows that the slab was in situ when the 

 graffiti were engraved, and that the structure dates no later than the 

 date of the graffiti. Other features of this complex include a separate 

 dolmen which is also surrounded by large horizontal blocks, a row of 

 10 large stones, and 2 stone circles, one of which is formed of tall 

 standing slabs. Numerous chert artifacts were collected around this 

 complex ; a few sherds and glass fragments of recent date were also 

 found which attest to recent Bedouin encampments. 



Figure 3. — a. Crenelated design on the inner face of most slabs in the Wadi Sarr 

 megalithic structure; h, Natufian B design on a bone plaque from Mugharet el-Wad in 

 Palestine (after Garrod and Bate, 1937 pi. 13:2:17). 



Wliat is the purpose, the cultural affinities, and date of this complex ? 

 Perhaps none of the questions can be answered with certainty. 

 Clearly the elaborate construction and the carefully worked design 

 inside the structure point to a special function. If dolmens are indeed 

 tombs as is commonly held, then this may have served as a burial 

 complex for a distmguished family, the leading members of a tribe, 

 or other important persons. So far as cultural relationships are con- 

 cerned, we know of no similar complex anywhere in Arabia or in the 

 entire Near East. The nearest dolmen fields known to the senior 

 author are in the Jordan River valley, where several hundred dolmens 

 survive on the terraces to the east of the river. There, they are 

 usually considered to belong to the Neolithic period. The closest 

 parallel that we have been able to find thus far to the crenelated deco- 

 rative motif is a Lower Natufian (Mesolithic) design that appears on 



