 I saw the talk scheduled for this session. I was a bit stunned by the few number of talks about caves. Because I will speak about something totally different, obviously. Let's say, to contrast with a bit of a more open-spaced view, I will talk about delimitation and demarcation of sacred spaces without any visible boundaries. Or in other words, I speak about an iconic standing stones of the band. So erecting an iconic stones for cultic purposes seemed to be an over-regional phenomena, which was common all over the world at some point of prehistoric times. So if you have a look at the topic of an iconic, but cultic venerated stones in the eastern Mediterranean, you quickly stumble by denominations like Sikharum, Mashba, or Bertül. And most likely, the publications were focusing on philological aspects, like nominations, in-text sources, and parallelism in function and meaning. But archaeological data, like information about their context of discovery, possibly classifications, and so on, were missing in most cases. So I started collecting data from excavation reports and publications about cult and religion. And I was concentrating on Syria and the Levant. It got obvious that the standing stones in this area are nothing but the tip of the iceberg. The focus on the investigation of this topic is concentrating in this area with a written tradition dating back to the time of erection and usage of such installations till 2015. I was able to identify at least 37 sites with cultic venerated stones in Syria, the Levant, and southeast in Anatolia. This is absolutely outnumbered by at least 142 sites, open-air sites dating from the 14th millennium BCE in the desert area of the Negev and Eastern Sinai, which were documented by Uzi Avner till 2001. These are only the prehistoric till Iron Age sites. It doesn't consider Nabataean or later features. Also, there is an uncertain number of erected stones known from the Arabic peninsula. They had to learn information about them as cars and mainly in Arabic. These installations in a barely inhabited area have been clearly erected with the purpose, yet the data set available for their interpretation is thin. Only 10 of the sites in the deserts have been excavated and more intensely investigated while dating as, obviously, a big issue with complex was completely your stone. So to understand the intention of their erectors, it is most practical way to have a closer look to the features north with a more stable set of information. So the terms betelai and mashba are both well known from historical sources. And so it's also the topic of cultic venerated stones, familiar from late antique and biblical sources, like Damascus and phyllo of Biblas reported the common belief of ensouled stones inhabited of gods worshipped and with the abilities of oracles in Syria and the Levant. The most famous one was the so-called El Aghabal of Emessa, nowadays Homs, and it was described as a plaque cone-shaped stone which was fallen from sky by Herodian. El Aghabal could be translated as the Lord of the Mountain, El Al-Jabal. The authors passed on that these raw stones, probably methylites, were called beteloi. This destination seems to be the Greek version of the Hebrew betel translated as House of God. Also well known has been the veneration of stones in passages of the Old Testament, they are named as mashbars, which is most likely going back to the Hebrew root for nestship for erected stone. One of the passages referring with a reference to Betul is early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a mashbar. And put oil on the top of it, he named that site Betel, House of God. There's quite a number of information about the use and meaning of mashbars in this passage, that they could be raw stones, that they were erected, that this was done in the name of Aditi, and that they were a receiver of ritual benefits like sacrifices or liquids or oil. At least 34 references named the word mashbar in the books of the Old Testament, and quite a number more could be interpreted as synominons like pilar, amoudd or stone even. With the beginning of archeological excavations in Israel at the middle of the 19th century, the investigation of pre-Jewish and early Jewish cultic sites was one of the main interests. And in 1871, a French campaign led by Clermont Garnaud discovered an alignment of 10 formerly erected stones at Tegucerre. First seen as a representation of a fertile cult, depending on their conic shape. And they have been identified as part of a so-called barma or high place, containing cultic venerated stone soon. Since then, an increasing number of such mashbars have been found in different contexts. Quite a number of them at locations which could be referred to as places mentioned in the Biblical texts. Another perception of the same type of object is passed down from a Syrian fine spot. This is early 3rd millennium Mari, where in 1933, Paro discovered conic shapes down in the courtyard of a temple. Paro identified it as a petil and at the same excavation and archive with the cuneiform tablets was found. And some of them identified the building as the temple of Ninisasa and at least three of them seemed at the need to erect a zikhanatum. For festive acts for different gods. Zikhanum could be ascribed to the akkad zikhan which is translated into inhabited. These texts indicate that these objects were created of stone and were referred to an individual god. None of them mentioned zikhanum as an imagination of one of these deities so that they seem equal and iconic as the mashbars and the petil. Other cuneiform texts of the same period for example one from Emaar that sacrifices like sheep and oil were offered through the zikhanatum. As we already have seen, one typical place for these installations is a building with a cultic meaning. The Somerian type of the zikhanatum appears in front of Selle like in the Middle Bronze Age a sanctuary of Eblath, Tehmerdich or in separate rooms as like this uncommon round one in an otherwise retangular building in the early Bronze Age Arata or also like in Mari in courtyards. In the Israeli areas they are found aligned along walls in Selle in most cases as for example in the Middle Bronze Age a temple in Hasor or as in the so-called Holy of Holies of Iron Age Arat. In many cases there are accompanied by altos and Libitation basins. This could lead to another to the maybe the original open airsides sanctuaries known from the negative desert area an example from a hilltop of the Otfa valley is shown on the right and also further north we find such hill stop installations and alignments as for example and there are assumptions that some of the cultic areas could also be found as such so-called barmas. These barmas are also mentioned in passages of the Old Testament like and Syria we also have at least one example of an alignment at Middle Bronze Age where the stones may have accomplished a street which is thought to have a reference in its route towards the temple. This leads to another possibility of location on which standing stones were erected. In Marri three more standing stones have been found at the so-called Sontre Monumentale in 2004. Two of them at the north eastern corner of an artificial elevation the temple area was erected on and they seem to face a street which could be observed in a stratigraphy so for that this arrangement have been interpreted as a sacred street without the edge of a temple area. A couple of examples of standing stones of the periphery of sacred areas one is from Late Bronze Age, Tel-Mumbaka it could be assumed that they marked the border between a sacred and a profane area. Also citigates perform as borders between two contrasting areas so kind of the border between the regularity of the civilization and the autonomy of nature just go over that very fast. So how could that different types of objects could be sequenced? Batils, mascots and a zekanum are often titled as Stela but most of them aren't shaped in a Steloid form or aren't worked at all. Their appearance differs also not after their origin or in the chronological matter we find raw examples from theolithic evidence in the desert not as in Middle Bronze Age Tehruera and in the same period also very fine shaped ones like in the Holiest of Holies in Tel-Hassar. They are also defined as strictly an iconic representation of housing of GTs but quite a number of the work ones are also decorated for example the famous piece in the middle of the Hassar enlightenment which appears also in combination with the Sandalion post. One reason why the most of the standing stones were unworked may be found in Biblical sources again but if you make for me an altar of stone do not build it of unstone for if you use a sizzle upon it you will profane it. The preference of the natural unworked surface as evaluation of what the gods or deities have created is obvious. This might not have been the main reason for the early historic ones especially because the numbers of work stones is much higher in the Neolithic presumably Neolithic pieces but might have been an explanationary model for the dominance of unworked ones in Bronze and Iron Age. So back to the Negev desert and as it seems the origin of an iconic standing stones in the eastern Mediterranean was the apne claims that the oldest installation stating back to the Natuvia 14th millennium BC but as I already mentioned there are major problems dating such features in case of Rojcin associations with flint tools where the point for dating. Another example is a composition of erected small stones in a late pre-pottery Neolithic building in Angersal, Jordan interpreted as ritual building and while evidence is still thin in the early Neolithic at the late Neolithic in a 6th millennium BC the custom of erecting anachronistic stones for ritual purposes has been established and whereas the Neolithic and Calculative examples concentrate at the desert areas of the Negev and the Jordan in the Sumerian early city states of the 3rd millennium BC a rising number of them appear. The mashbars of the israelic areas are dating to the middle Bronze Age up to the early Iron Age at this time it seems that this custom is also spreading to neighboring areas as to create the Aegean and the Italian kingdoms. The most constant tradition is though still found in the desert zone of southern Levant where also features dating to early Islamic and probably even modern times exist. In the Navitean area more than 2,000 mashbars now also denominated as Nefish where erected most of them in correlation to graves and partly inscripted with commemorial texts. So what's the reason people started to erect anachronic stones? The Negev-desert area in the eastern Sina is a relatively barren and thin inhabited area. Though very arid the area holds a number of ways it is and the climate might be more humid in the Neolithic. The landscape is mountainous and structured by canyons and valleys with uncertain number of caves and their flanks. Caves are also artificial and man-made underground structures were induced as habitats since at least in the culture. In this landscape it is most likely that the standing stone sites were erected open air for a reason. In many cases even on hilltops the structures are easily visible so most likely they were thought of to have a demarcation function. Following the interpretation of the Levantine sites they might be marking and eliminating secret spaces. The fact that these secret spaces have been erected open air instead of taking advantage of natural borders like using caves may have the background that the necessary contact to the DTs would use them as a contact zone with their worshippers needed easy access or preferred to open sky. This might be underlined by the fact that at least 89% of these assemblies in the Negev sites are facing east. If this is taken as a reference to the rising sun it would be also a valid explanation for their open air site. Thank you for your attention.