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".