SATURDAY JANUARY 26 2002

Hunt on the wing dates back to ice age

BY VALERIE ELLIOTT

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002042435,00.html

... Some academics think that falconry dates back to the
last Ice Age when food was scarce. Keith Dobney, of
the University of York [England], believes that the
consistent presence of bones from large raptors such
as eagles on Middle Eastern archaeological sites up
to 12,000 years old suggests "the taming, management
and training of birds of prey was developed by
pre-agricultural societies as a hunting strategy".

He refers to Ctesias the Cnidian, a Persian writing
in the 5th century BC who describes Central Asian
pygmies hunting fox and hare "not with hounds, but
with crows, kites, rooks and eagles".