Introduction, discussion and summary: raptor and human - falconry and bird symbolism throughout the millennia on a global scale - cic wildlife

Introduction, discussion and summary: raptor and human –
falconry and bird symbolism throughout the millennia on a
global scale

By Oliver Grimm and Karl-Heinz Gersmann

Human evolution, the history of hunting and the role of falconry

Africa was the cradle of humanity, and human evolution is yet another word for hunting. For most of
human history, hunters and gatherers had led a nomadic life, adjusting to the landscape and seasons
in a way that enabled their survival. They were exposed to dramatic climate change and an animal
kingdom that could be life-threatening. Among the early testimonies for hunting are the wooden
spears from Schöningen (Lower Saxony, Germany), approximately 300,000 years old, found together
with the bones of large mammals, mainly wild horses, in a context that suggests actual hunting
(Conard et al. 2015). The first true companion of humans, still in the period of hunters and gatherers,
was the dog; a result of the natural closeness between human and wolf (Schmölcke 2013). Dogs were
also the first animal hunting assistants of humans, whereas birds of prey surely came later. Exactly
when and where this happened is one of the classic falconry research questions (cf. below: book struc-
ture and key questions).
   A major turning point in human history, first in the so-called Fertile Crescent (half-moon shaped
area from Egypt in the West to Iraq/Turkey in the East), was the change from the nomadism of the
hunters and gatherers to permanent farming and husbandry, which also led to a general decrease
in hunting. In that same area, the first early urbanized advanced civilizations emerged (ch. 3; 12).
However, in other less favourable environments, the inhabitants followed different ways of life, as
is the case, for example, with the nomads of the Eurasian steppe, who had seasonal movements, on
horseback, throughout the year with their large flocks of animals (ch. 7). So, the question is, from
which kind of society does falconry originate?

Birds of prey in their natural environment (chapter 2)

Birds of prey are a species-rich group, whose more than 300 species have a global distribution besides
Antarctica. They belong to two different orders and, although they look similar, they are not even
related: firstly, the Accipitriformes (including hawks and eagles) and secondly the Falconiformes
(family Falconidae). Surprisingly, the latter are more closely related to parrots (Psittaciformes) than
they are to Accipitriformes.
   Birds of prey, in particular peregrine falcons, have suffered much from the 20th century’s use of
the pesticide DTT; owing to steps taken towards bird protection, including breeding programs and
the release of birds into the wild, the populations have increased considerably. Raptor populations

are adapting to the modern world: once shy and forest-bound, goshawks are nowadays found in
the cemeteries of European cities; a phenomenon that is well documented for Berlin in Germany
(Artmann et al. 2015).

R aptor and human: a special relationship (chapters 3–4)

Raptors were much admired by humans for traits like the piercing look, the mastery of the sky and
the ability to take prey in spectacular manoeuvres. The admiration of raptors led, probably during
the period of the hunters and gatherers, to religious beliefs such as the power to be able to turn one-
self into a bird or to assume its abilities. There is no doubt that falconry represents a more recent
development.
   In the history of domestication, birds of prey hold a special position. Strictly regarded, they are
not domesticated; they can only be trained to grow accustomed to the presence of humans, which
is time-consuming and calls for patience. Interestingly, this patience played a role in philosophical
thinking in the period of Emperor Frederick II in the first half of the 13th century. Simply put, only
the patient ruler, as patient as the falconer manning (training) the bird, was considered a good ruler.

Falconry in action and raptor propagation (chapters 1 & 3)

Falconry has gained much attention recently, owing to its acknowledgement as an Intangible Cul-
tural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO and the book “H is for Hawk” by Helen MacDonald,
which has been translated into many languages. Falconry is defined, by the International Association
for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey (IAF), as the taking of quarry in its natural state and
habitat by means of trained birds of prey (www.iaf.org). The book title chosen by Frederick II, “the
art of hunting with birds”, leads to a further understanding of falconry, not only as a form of hunting,
but as a lifestyle and art form.
   Falconry has many facets, from Europe and North Africa to Arabia, central and eastern Asia;
America included. There is not just one falconry, but several kinds that are adjusted to different land-
scapes and old traditions. To name an example: the hunting of foxes with trained golden eagles, once
widespread in the Eurasian steppe, enabled the acquisition of furs. In turn, Europe is a good example
of how falconry changed over time since falconry in its early days kept to goshawks whereas it was
only post 1000, due to considerable deforestation, that falcons became more and more popular.
   Owing to their closeness to nature and birds, North American and European falconers have, since
the late 1960s, had an active role in raptor propagation, in order to counteract the drastic decline of
peregrine falcon populations as a result of DDT use (see above).

History of falconry: pioneers of research, basic research and new angles (chapters 5–6)

Among the pioneers of research is the German industrial and hunting historian Kurt Lindner (1906–
1987) who has, for his entire life, been interested in the history of falconry, mainly in central Europe,
as author, book editor and book collector, even though he was not a falconer himself. The most in-
fluential paper on the history of falconry ever written by an individual is without doubt the one by
Hans J. Epstein (1920–1986) from the early 1940s which, in a few pages, sketches the early history of
this kind of hunting from western Europe to eastern Asia. Even today, this paper is highly inspiring
and the present book owes much to it.

Book: Structure

-- Karl-Heinz Gersmann & Oliver Grimm (eds.), Raptor and human – falconry and bird symbolism through-
   out the millennia on a global scale
-- Extended workshop publication (workshop in March 2014 at the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archae-
   ology [ZBSA], Schleswig, Germany)
-- Cooperation between falconers and scientists as contribution to the preservation of falconry as an Intangible
   Cultural Heritage of Humanity (UNESCO)
-- Four volumes, hardcover, two slip cases
-- Roughly 2000 pages, English language, in colour
-- 101 articles in twelve chapters, written by authors from c. 20 countries: from Spain and Portugal in the West
   to Japan in the East and including the United Arab Emirates and North America
-- Short summary in, respectively, Arabic, English, German and Russian

   Book: K ey questions

-- What is so special about the raptor-human relationship in falconry, and what impact has raptor breeding had
   on falconry and bird preservation?
-- How old is falconry, where does it come from, how is it practiced and how has it become so widespread?
-- What methodological problems exist for identifying skeletons of trained birds of prey, and from which
   archaeological find contexts do the bird bones originate?
-- To what extent does falconry in historical accounts, literary descriptions and depictions really reflect actual
   hunting practices? Which sources reflect a stereotypical noblesse oblige in terms of hunting, and which
   sources carry an allegoric meaning independent from or beyond falconry?
-- Is the practice of name-giving with a reference to raptors proof of the same person acting as a falconer or
   bird catcher and what about place and field names related to birds of prey and, more specifically, falconry?

                                                               Fig. 2. Figurine (redrawing), standing man/fal-
                                                               coner with bird, including falconry bell. Grave
                                                               find, c. 1500 years old, Japan (cf. K aku in this
                                                               book, Fig. 12).

                                                   Fig. 1. Mosaic (redrawing), rider/falconer, early Islamic (8th
                                                   century CE), Syria (cf. Yule in this book, Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Mosaic (redrawing), standing person/falconer with bird and
falconry equipment, c. 1500 years old, Tunisia (cf. Fradejas Rueda in
this book “Iberian Peninsula”, Fig. 3).

Fig. 4. Mosaic (redrawing), rider/falconer with bird, including falconry
equipment, c. 1500 years old, Portugal (cf. Lopes in this book, Fig. 8).

Fig. 5. Grave wall painting (redrawing), rider/falconer with bird, China, almost 2000 years old (cf. Wallace in this
book, Fig. 9).

                                                                        Fig. 6. Belt mount (redrawing) showing
                                                                        rider/falconer with bird in the background.
                                                                        Grave find, c. 2200 years old, northeastern
                                                                        China (cf. Wallace in this book, Fig. 15).

The innumerable traces of falconry history can only be dealt with by means of detailed studies in
different scientific branches, but there is also a chance to elaborate upon new angles. This includes
basic research (e.g. on the potential of isotope analysis for studies into falconry) or long-term studies
that enable us to see lines of continuity or changes through many centuries (e.g. with regards to legal
regulations or depictions).

Invention of falconry: three basic points of view (Gersmann in this book)

In both its ambitious outline, covering western Europe to eastern Asia, and in its launching of an
overall explanation of falconry’s place of origin, the short paper of Hans J. Epstein has found an
equivalent in the much less known ethnographic dissertation of Jürgen Warmbier, delivered in the
late 1950s in eastern Germany.
   Epstein has argued that falconry as an advanced way of hunting belonged to the sphere of early
advanced civilizations; he pointed to Mesopotamia (parts of Syria and Iraq) for the 3rd and 2nd millen-
nium BC. In contrast, Warmbier considered falconry as traditional element of the Eurasian nomads
in the steppe, with the horse being the mandatory requirement for the development of falconry. The
area in question yields no hiding opportunities for hunters which is why, while hunting, riders on
horseback had to rely upon hunting assistants: hounds and raptors. From the steppe, falconry is sup-
posed to have spread to sedentary populations (to Japan in the Far East and Europe and northern
Africa in the remote west).
   From a practitioner’s point of view, falconry is easily learnable by observing nature and becom-
ing part of the hunt as ‘comrade’ of the bird (‘comrade’ following Konrad Lorenz; cf. Bednarek in
this book). Falconry equipment could easily be invented on the spot. Thus, in contrast to Epstein’s
and Warmbier’s point of view, who both pointed to one area of invention, falconry could have been
forged more than once, in different periods and regions.

Early history of falconry: sketch (chapters 7–12)

The following reconstruction of falconry history is based on only six images, representing western
Europe, northern Africa, Arabia, central and east Asia (Figs. 1–6). The evidential value of the images
is further supported by the fact that there are written records from the areas in question in the same
period of time.
   Some years ago, the ruins of a princely seat (hunting lodge) of early Islamic times (first half of the
8th c. CE) came to light in Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi (Syria; cf. Fig. 1). A mosaic from the site shows a
rider with a bird of prey on the right fist. The position of the bird in relation to the rider seems a bit
awkward, but a falconry-related interpretation seems likely. The oldest Arabian poetry that testifies
to falconry has a similar age to the mosaic. Thus, Arabian falconry has an ascertained age of almost
1500 years.
   Some burials from Japan, dating back c. 1500 years, have yielded figurines: men with a bird of prey
on the fist (Fig. 2). A connection with falconry can be taken as given since, in one case, a bird wears
a falconry bell. The oldest Japanese written sources point to a comparable age of origin of falconry
in that country.
   A mosaic from Tunisia – one of several such finds – shows a man with a bird of prey on his fist
and includes a depiction of actual falconry equipment (Fig. 3). The image is roughly 1500 years old.
Possibly slightly younger is a mosaic from Portugal: a rider with a bird of prey on the fist, again with
actual falconry equipment (Fig. 4). By their very age, the mosaics from Tunisia and Portugal point

towards the so-called Migration Period of Europe, which belongs to the middle of the 1st millennium
CE. This era saw the migration of tribes in Europe, some of which came from the East, in areas of
contact with Eurasian nomads, and which took land in northern Africa and western Europe (see
below). More or less contemporary to the mosaics are law texts of related tribes in central Europe
which testify to falconry.
   Thus, the consideration of the four mentioned falconry images – mosaics from Syria, Tunisia and
Portugal, a falconer figure from Japan – leads to the surprising result that falconry in all the men-
tioned areas dates back more or less 1500 years. This assumption is further strengthened by the fact
that parallel to the images there are contemporary written testimonies for falconry.
   Let us turn to China with its yet older testimonies. This relates firstly to a series of grave wall
paintings from the so-called Han period; the oldest are almost 2000 years old (Fig. 5). Their testi-
monial value is beyond doubt since falconry equipment and actual hunting scenes are portrayed and,
furthermore, there are contemporary written testimonies about this kind of hunting.
   Again from China, from its north-east, originates a belt mount from a burial with an estimated
age of 2200 years (Fig. 6). The depiction shows two riders; the one in the background carries a bird
of prey on his right fist. As was the case with the Syrian mosaic, the bird is in a somewhat awkward
position in relation to the rider but there is reason to believe that a falconry motif is given here. The
archaeological find comes from an area that saw a population of Eurasian nomads that have left no
written records of their own. In the present case, however, a text passage from Ktesias’ lost writing
Indica (c. 2500 years old), which is known only from later quotations, deserves our attention. Ktesias
who lived at the Persian court has left a description of wrongly understood falconry that may relate
to the Indus valley, an area that knew influence from Eurasian nomads in the period in question.
Thus, possibly, Ktesias might have been referring to falconry by Eurasian nomads.
   Owing to the mentioned testimonies, the falconry of the Eurasian nomads can be considered as
being particularly old and widespread (see above) and, via the nomads, this hunting type spread in
the first centuries CE to the South-east (China and, finally, Korea and Japan), the South-west (Ara-
bia) and the West (Europe, North Africa). In these areas, falconry lay in the hands of an upper class
that employed professional falconers to take care of the birds. However, the nick-name ‘kitchen bird’
for goshawks in Europe indicates that falconry did contribute to the menu card and, possibly, that a
larger part of society hunted with these birds.
   With a high degree of probability, though with only little evidence so far, Persian falconry also
belongs to the mentioned period of time, being at least 1500 years old. Thus, early falconry in central
and western Europe was almost contemporary (see above), whereas the one in northern and eastern
Europe came into being only later.
   In contrast, there is no strong evidence that falconry had its place among ancient, urbanized,
advanced civilizations in Mesopotamia (Syria, Iraq) or Turkey (Hittite Empire), covering the period
from the 3rd to the 1st millennium BCE. It is likewise questionable that Indian falconry has a high age
(Wilhelm 1987; K rottenthaler 1996, 117–119), whereas we can be certain that ancient Greece and
Rome (Konstantinople), at the very core of the Empires, had no knowledge of falconry. This also
relates to North and Meso-America in the period before the discovery of the ‘New World’.
   The presented sketch for early falconry history will have to stand further examination. Falconry
could be older or have been invented more than once without any proper proof so far. To trace
falconry terms back to a supposed area of its origin, on linguistic grounds, has proven mostly impos-
sible. However, it has to be kept in mind that a cultural import like falconry would not necessarily be
recognizable in the language. In fact, the Arabian language shows the strong impact of Persian with
regards to falconry and raptor terms; something similar, to some extent, is also given for the influ-
ence of the Turkic languages (including speakers from among the Eurasian nomads) on east Slavonic.

Falconry treatises: Frederick II and beyond (chapters 3, 6, 11–12)

Apart from central Asia, treatises on falconry, initially mostly focused on bird medicine, are known
from the main areas of historical falconry: Europe, Arabia, Persia, east Asia and, to some extent,
India. The oldest preserved texts, from the late 1st millennium CE originate from Arabia, as it seems.
Among all manuscripts, the one from Frederick II is a contribution in its own right, even though it
suffered a regrettable fate, inasmuch as chapters remained unrealised or were lost and it was soon
forgotten without having been given proper credit. It is telling that it had next to no influence on
younger falconry treatises. Owing to the exactness of the observations and the conclusions based
thereon, Frederick’s book is a milestone in early scientific thinking and at the same time is the first
ornithological book ever.

Symbolism of falconry in images and literature (chapters 3, 9–12)

Falconry was never just hunting. The peculiar bond between bird and human was always a matter
of charged multilayered symbolism. This is reflected in the works of respected artists, such as Shake-
speare and Rembrandt. It is tempting to consider the changes that have taken place over time as
regards the way in which falconry was viewed. Simply put, during the period of Frederick II only the
patient ruler (mirrored as patient falconer) was considered a good ruler. In later periods, however,
falconry became associated with the youth of the successors to the throne, whereas in later years, e.g.
when in political power, the king (emperor) was depicted with a sword. Falconry of courtly women
is attested not least by seal depictions. A prominent case is Mary of Burgundy from the second half
of the 15th century, who is known to have been a passionate hunter (cf. older European burials of
women furnished with birds of prey: Ludowici and Vretemark in this book). Courtly love was also
linked to falconry: the raptor on the fist symbolizes the loved one that is longed for. For the future,
it would be highly desirable to compare motif cycles in performing arts and literature with one an-
other in order to realize changes in motifs over time, including negative associations of falconry as
being profuse/pompous. The 16th and 17th centuries deserve particular attention as being the climax
of European falconry, expressed – inter alia – by heron hunting, consisting of spectacular air battles
between heron and falcons.

Bird-catching, bird trade and falconry in a premodern, proto-globalised world (chapters 8–12).

“The art of hunting with birds” has crossed countries and continents: falconry has been adopted,
possibly transmitted by Eurasian nomads, in an area spanning from western Europe and north
Africa to eastern Asia. A climax of early globalism is marked by Frederick II, who gathered falconry
experts from different continents at his court, had falconry literature translated from Arabic to Latin
and imported the hood from Arabia to Europe. Apart from that, bird-catching and the trade of the
much-sought-after gyrfalcons from Norway, Iceland and Greenland show an even earlier global net-
work of actors in different European countries (early post 1000s) but, notably, traded birds reached
far beyond Europe. In fact, raptor trade may have been yet older in Europe, dating back to a network
of coastal emporia established in the 7th /8th centuries. In the present book, bird catching and bird
trade have been considered mostly as a European phenomenon; a wider study would be both desir-
able and profitable; this also relates to other aspects in the book.

Final remarks

The main weakness of the present book, despite its oversize, lies in its incompleteness since worthy
topics or entire regions remain unconsidered or hardly appreciated. Surprises are waiting for us, be
it, for example, older studies in diverse languages, which are in need of translation into English or
be it archaeological investigations. In this respect, 40 burials from central Sweden deserve particular
attention. These burials testify to the practice of falconry by an upper class in the period from the
(late) 6th to 10th century CE. Among the deceased there are high ranking members of warrior retinues,
but women of an upper class are also involved (Vretemark in this book). The Polish Sokolniki farm
names are of interest too; by their very name they seem to indicate an entire network of falconer
villages, established by the Polish kingdom early in the post 1000s. Place and family names are a
valuable resource that has hardly been used in the book (see Udolph and others, in this book).
    The present, considerably extended publication goes back, at its core, to a workshop hold by the
Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA) in Schleswig, northern Germany, in March
2014. Almost exactly four years later a follow-up conference was held in March 2018 at New York
University Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. In this context, falconry and raptor depictions
were analysed throughout the millennia on a global scale, framed by considerations of the history of
religion, social history, raptor biology and actual falconry. Thus, another book is to follow. It is to be
hoped that research into falconry history can go on in a sustainable, coordinated way by a network
of both falconers and scientists. A lot of work remains to be done.

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