Once the world’s prairies, grasslands, steppes and tundra teemed with massive herds of game: gazelle, wild ass, bison, caribou and antelope. Humans seeking to hunt these large fast-moving herds devised a range of specialised traps that share many characteristics across all continents. Typically consisting of guiding walls or lines of stones leading to an enclosure or trap, game drives were designed for a mass killing. Construction of the game drive, organisation of the hunt and processing of the carcass often required group co-operation and in many cases game drives have been linked to seasonal gatherings of otherwise scattered groups, who may have used these occasions not only to hunt, but also for social, ritual and economic activities.
The Gazelle’s Dream: Game Drives of the Old and New Worlds is the first comparative study of game drives, examining this mode of hunting across three continents and a broad range of periods. The book describes the hunting of bison in North America, reindeer in Scandinavia, antelope in Tibet and an extensive array of examples from the greater Middle East, from Egypt to Armenia. The Gazelle’s Dream will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of hunting and wildlife management.
Figures
Tables
Preface
Introduction by Alison Betts and W. Paul van Pelt
- Communal Bison Drives of the Northern Plains of North America by Jack W. Brink
- The Bison Hunting Complex in the Northern Rocky Mountain Foothills by María Nieves Zedeño and Anna M. Jansson
- Ancient Reindeer Hunting in Oppland, Norway by Lars Pilø and Espen Finstad
- Hunting with Kites in Armenia by Olivier Barge, Jacques Élie Brochier, Jwana Chahoud, Christine Chataigner, Emmanuelle Régagnon and Rémy Crassard
- Kites in Syria, Southern Turkey and Western Iraq by Marie-Laure Chambrade and Alison Betts
- Kites in the Black Desert, Eastern Jordan by Alison Betts and David Burke
- Kites in the South-Eastern Badia, Jordan by Wael Abu-Azizeh, Mohammad Tarawneh, Rémy Crassard and Juan-Antonio Sánchez-Priego
- Kites in the Negev and Sinai: Small, Sparse and Effective by Dani Nadel, Dan Malkinson, Guy Bar-Oz, Amnon Nachmias, Uzi Avner, Liora Kolska Horwitz and Naomi Porat
- Kites in Saudi Arabia by David Kennedy
- Kites in Southern Arabia by Ueli Brunner
- In the Land of Gazelles: Ancient Game Traps at Gharb Aswan and Across Lower Nubia (North-East Africa) by Per Storemyr
- Desert Kites of the Ustyurt Plateau by Vadim N. Yagodin, W. Paul van Pelt, Shamil S. Amirov and Alison Betts
- Dzaekha Game Drives for Antelope Hunting on the North-Western Tibetan Plateau by Toni Huber
Works cited
About the contributors
Index