CAVE ART AS A REPOSITORY FOR THE SPIRITS OF HUNTED ANIMALS:

Animal frieze from Chauvet Cave, France. Online image, public domain.

An approach that turns the old idea of cave art as ‘hunting magic’ on its head imagining the art after the fact instead of before the hunt.

“During the first half of the twentieth century Abbé Breuil’s interpretation of cave paintings as simple hunting magic prevailed. His idea was that the paintings tried to bewitch the animals to ensure success in hunting. According to French archaeologist André Leroi-Gourhan, this idea originated from some extremely rare paintings depicting wounded or speared animals in European caves. Some prehistorians believed that the depicted animals were painted to encourage fertility of the game.” (Ijäs 2017:72)

Horses and rhinoceros, Chauvet Cave, France. Online image, public domain.

Many groups of indigenous hunters feel that the animals they harvest are willingly sacrificing themselves to the hunter to provide food and raw materials for his well-being, and they have customs of thanking the animal for giving itself up. For instance there are records of Inuit hunters not only thanking the dead game animal for sacrificing itself, but also pouring a little water in its mouth to give it a drink. “When Inuit kill an animal in the traditional way, they give it a drink of water or, if there is no water, they melt snow with their mouths.” (Laugrand and Oosten 2015:210) This act is a way of giving back to the animal who gave itself up to the Inuit hunter.

Such an act of giving back illustrates the attitude of honor, respect, even kinship that an indigenous hunter feels toward his quarry. “For hunter-gatherers, occupying environments where animal protein is essential to subsist, the hunt is an act of necessity. Such events, however destructive and aggressive as they tend to be, are commonly associated not with the hunter’s sense of malice, disdain, or even casual disinterest, but an abiding sense of respect and honor for his prey.” (Buckner 2020)

Horses, Chauvet Cave, France. Online image, public domain.

“Respect for animals was organized by many rules that varied for each animal. Some basic principles applied to all animals. An animal should not be abused, or ridiculed. Unnecessary suffering should be avoided.” (Laugrand and Oosten 2015:66) They did not need a local chapter of the SPCA, basic human decency was apparently enough.

Among indigenous cultures, hunting is more than just a way to procure meat. Hunting also has deeply meaningful cultural and spiritual significance governing the relationships of the hunter to the animals he is pursuing.

Horse, Axial Gallery, Lascaux, Image from Lewis-Williams, 2002, The Mind in the Cave, Fig. 23.

“Hunting is not just a means of survival for indigenous peoples; it also plays a significant role in their cultural and spiritual practices. Many hunting rituals are deeply intertwined with indigenous ceremonies and belief systems. These rituals often involve prayers, songs, and offerings to show gratitude to the animals for their sacrifice. The animals are seen as kin and are honored accordingly.” (Thomas 2023) This is pretty much at the core of their culture; their ceremonies and rites are often centered on hunting success and the relationship with the animals.

The interaction of the hunter and the hunted is seen as a reciprocal relationship. “Among the Cree Indians of northern Canada, it is believed that animals intentionally present themselves to the hunters to be killed. The hunter consumes the meat, but the soul of the animal is released to be reclothed with flesh. Hunting there, as among many northern peoples, is conceived as a rite of regeneration: consumption follows killing as birth follows intercourse, and both acts are integral to the reproductive cycles, respectively, of animals and humans. However, animals will not return to hunters who have treated them badly in the past. One treats an animal badly by failing to observe the proper, respectful procedures in the process of butchering, consumption and disposal of the bones, or by causing undue pain and suffering to the animal in killing it.” (Ingold 1994:9) So, the hunter not only has to behave correctly in respect to the animal he is hunting, the animal’s soul also has to be given due respect in order for the compact between hunter and prey to be properly fulfilled.

Auroch, horses and deer, Lascaux Cave, France, Online image, public domain.

“The animals in the environment of the hunter do not simply go their own way, but are supposed to act with the hunter in mind. They are not just ‘there’ for the hunter to find and take as he will, rather they present themselves to him. The encounter, then, is a moment in the unfolding of a continuing – even lifelong – relationship between the hunter and the animal kind (of which every particular individual encountered is a specific instance). The hunter hopes that by being good to animals, they in turn will be good to him.” (Ingold 1994:14-15) In other words, it is a reciprocal relationship with both human society and the animals having roles to play, and if the roles are played well success is expected to follow.

“For many Native Americans, the act of hunting was about more than just acquiring food. It was a way to connect with the natural world and to show respect for the animals that were being hunted. Hunting was also a way to teach young people about the ways of their culture and to instill in them the values of their people. ‘We should be grateful for the gift of the animals because they were created to feed the Anishnaabe people, giving them strength.’ It was important for hunters to pray and express gratitude when they took the life of an animal, as taking that life would allow them to feed their own families.” (Mika 2023)

For the Anishnaabe people “They believed that the animals were created to feed the Anishnaabe people, to give us strength, and we should be thankful for that gift. It was very important for the hunter to pray and give thanks when taking the life of an animal, as taking that life meant that he could feed his own family. It was also said that if we stopped hunting and fishing, that we were no longer grateful for the gifts that the creator had given us – therefore it is an act of cultural tradition to not only hunt and fish, but to give thanks by placing sacred medicines when an animal life has been taken for the survival of the tribe.” (Tribal Trade Co. 2020)

Aurochs, horses and deer, Lascaux Cave, France, Online image, public domain.

“The Native American Hunting Practices are based on the unity of nature and humans. They recognize that nature is not only a sustainer of life, but it is also an essential part of human beings. Also, hunting is a way of life and a sacred act of honoring the animal’s spirit. However, with the encroachment of colonization, these practices were misunderstood, exploited, and became a pain point for Native Americans.The primary aim of Native American Hunting Practices was to provide food for the community while ensuring that every part of the animal was utilized to avoid wastage. The practice was done in reverence for the animal’s life and the understanding that its sacrifice would provide for the community.” (Justo 2023)

To the north Inuit beliefs were much the same. “Many Inuit believed that animals offered themselves to the hunter in order to be killed. If the animals were hunted they would multiply; if they were not hunted, they would feel neglected and disappear. - Animals were thus often described as giving themselves to the hunters who would make good use of their meat.” (Laugrand and Oosten 2015:41)

Among the Inuit again “When departing from a hunting area the heads of the caribou must always face in the direction in which the party is setting out. The soul of the animals slain will then follow the same course and good hunting will result.” (Laugrand and Oosten 2015:241)

The Inuit believe that the game animals want to give themselves to the hunter. By doing so their soul is released to be, in effect, reborn. A hunter who passes up an opportunity to harvest a game animal risks insulting it and being shunned by all game thereafter. “Killing game is not only a necessity to survive, it is also an obligation placed upon the hunter by the animals themselves. Hunting is not a matter of choice, but a moral obligation one cannot escape. Only by hunting can the Inuit as well as the animals prosper. (Laugrand and Oosten 2015:343)

While most of the examples I have cited refer to Native American or Inuit peoples, the situation is essentially the same among indigenous people worldwide. The relationship between hunter and hunted is one of respect, often even courtesy. And, if the proper attitude and rituals are maintained, the soul of the animal is freed to be reborn, to come back to the hunter again in the future. In the Inuit belief, the soul of a sea mammal such as seal or walrus that is killed returns to Sedna, the ‘Sea Woman’ to wait for its rebirth.

So, to return to the proposition that the cave art might have been produced after the successful hunt instead of before it, there could be a couple of motives involved. The first, of course, might be bragging rights, to commemorate the success of a difficult hunt. The cave picture might have been the visual equivalent of a fisherman’s tale. The second might well have been to serve as a repository for the soul of that animal until it can be reborn. In a number of ways this would seem to make more sense than the “Increase Theory” of hunting magic, that multiplying images of a certain animal would result in the increase of the numbers of the actual animal in the landscape.  Keeping in mind that for many indigenous peoples the soul of an animal taken by a hunter will recycle, will be reborn as a new animal if treated properly and with respect. What if, after a successful hunt, the hunter returned and produced the picture of the animal on a cave or cliff wall to provide a repository for the soul of his dead prey until it could be reborn. In the same way that the soul of an Inuit hunter’s sea mammal victim returned to Sedna to await rebirth, then, the animals, knowing their souls would be provided for, would be more likely to be willing to give themselves to him in the future. The artist would then be part of the natural recycling of the soul of this animal. This could also an explanation for the palimpsests of large numbers of some animal images, each soul would need a new representation. Finally, this also might explain the spiritual and ritual nature of cave art.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on this subject you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Buckner, William, 2020, The Psychic Toll of Severing the Hunter-Prey Relationship, 14 October 2020, Nautilus, https://nautil.us. Accessed online 20 April 2024.

Ijäs, Mikko, 2017, Fragments of the Hunt, Persistence Hunting, Tracking and Prehistoric Art, Doctoral Thesis, School of Arts, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.

Ingold, Tim, 1994, From Trust to Donimation, An alternative history of human-animal relations, pp.1-22, in Animals and Human Society, Changing Perspectives, Audrey Manning and James Serpell (editors), 1994 Rutledge, New York.

Justo, 2023, Exploring Traditional Native American Hunting Practices: A Cultural Legacy, 31August 2023, https://nativetribe.info. Accessed online 20 April 2024.

Laugrand, Frederic, and Jarich Oosten, 2015, Hunters, Predators and Prey, Inuit Perceptions of Animals, Berghahn Books, New York and Oxford.

Mika, 2023, The Sacredness of Hunting in Native American Culture, 1 March 2023, https://www.indiancountryextension.org. Accessed online 17 April 2024.

Thomas, Connor, 2023, Exploring Hunting Traditions of Indigenous Peoples, 11 September 2023, https://www.findahunt.com. Accessed online 15 October 2023.

Tribal Trade Co., 2020, Cultural Traditions of Native American Hunting & Gathering, April 2020, https://tribaltradeco.com. Accessed online 17 April 2024.

GROCERIES OR METAPHOR? - RARE ROCK ART IMAGES OF BUTCHERING GAME:

 

Bighorn sheep with arrows, Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, New Mexico. Photograph 1988, John and Esther Faris.

Back in 2011 I posted a column titled “Bighorn Sheep Petroglyphs – Groceries or Metaphor?”  on RockArtBlog. This was to argue against LaVan Martineau’s nonsense in his book “The Rocks Begin to Speak” that bighorn sheep petroglyphs were actually metaphors for travel. My evidence (aside from common sense) was that not only are there many rock art images of bighorn sheep with arrows sticking in them, but also that an Alibates flint knife from Baca County, Colorado, had proven to have bighorn sheep blood on it when tested for blood protein residues by Dr. Richard Marlar.

Alibates flint knife from Baca County, Colorado, with bighorn sheep blood protein residue. Drawn by Peter Faris, 1994.

At that time I wrote that “Back in the 1980s I was invited to speak about rock art at a meeting being held in the town of Springfield in southeastern Colorado. As part of the presentation I was talking about bighorn sheep petroglyphs which are very common in that area. I don’t honestly remember exactly what I was saying about them, but I was rudely interrupted from the floor by someone who stood up and loudly proclaimed that LaVan Martineau had solved the question of bighorn sheep petroglyphs. ‘They are a metaphor for travel.  The clues needed to understand their meaning are that the length of the legs represents the distance to be traveled, and the contour of the belly of the sheep represents how rough the country to be crossed is. Bighorn sheep petroglyphs with a deeply rounded belly show the contour of the country to consist of deep valleys, in other words rough country with plenty of mountains and valleys to cross.’(Martineau 1973).” (Faris 2011)

Hunters Shelter, New Mexico. , From Billo, Mark and Greer, 2011, Figure 2, page 52.

Hunters Shelter with panels marked, New Mexico. , From Billo, Mark and Greer, 2011, Figure 4, page 53. The butchery scene is Panel A.

A 2011 paper (which I had not seen at the time of my previous column) by Billo, Mark, and Greer presented pictograph panels from two different sites in the Guadalupe Mountains of Southern New Mexico which include scenes of anthropomorphs butchering deer, in other words suggesting that animal portrayals are indeed groceries, not metaphors. These scenes are painted in a general geographical designation that they call the Pecos Miniature Style. These are intimately related to the pictographs known as the Red Linear Style (RLS). “Late Archaic rock art known as the Red Linear Style (RLS) in the Lower Pecos River region of Texas, 400 km to the southeast (Mark and Billo 2009). Attributes of the Guadalupe imagery, such as size, body shape, hairstyles, tools, animals, nets, interaction between figures, general overall action, and technology of the paintings, show a strong similarity between pictographs at Hunters Shelter, White Oaks Spring, and other sites in the mountains.” (Billo, Mark, and Greer 2011:49) (The 400 km cited in the above quotation equals 230 miles.)

Robert Mark recording Hunters Shelter pictographs, New Mexico. , From Billo, Mark and Greer, 2011, Figure 3, page 52.

The first panel is in Hunters Shelter. “Hunters shelter is a 4 x 4 meter room-like shelter (Figure 2) high on a steep slope of an interior canyon back in from the eastern escarpment and commands a view of the valley below.” (p. 52) They designated three panels in the interior on the back wall of this space.

Hunters Shelter panel A, New Mexico. , From Billo, Mark and Greer, 2011, Figure 5, page 53. Seven anthropomorphs butchering a deer.

“Panel A, the deer butchering panel (Figure 5), is a unified scene that depicts a specific event or refers to a specific action, story, or concept. The scene covers an area 20 cm wide, 15 cm tall, and extends from 44 cm. above the floor. Seven people surround a reclined deer on its back and presumably dead. Six of the people, with weapons set aside on the ground, work on the deer. Three hold the legs, one holds the tail, and the remaining two are in the body cavity apparently removing internal organs.” (Billo, Mark, and Greer 2011:53) The figures wear unique head ornamentations, and the authors recognize that this suggests identifiable individuals. “The seventh person, again with a distinctive hairdo and holding hooked sticks, is at the right side of the scene, standing apart as in a kind of observer or instructor.” (Billo, Mark, and Greer 2011:54) Toward the upper right of the grouping there are objects shown lying on the ground which appear to be an atlatl with a pair of darts and lower down another possible pair of atlatl darts along with a more problematic decorated stick or pole. Another probable atlatl is seen at bottom center with a possible dart, and at the top, left of center, two more lines may represent darts.

White Oaks Spring rockshelter, New Mexico. From Billo, Mark and Greer, 2011, Figure 9, page 55. The red arrow points to the pictograph panel.

The second panel is at a site called White Oaks Spring Pictograph site.  “White Oaks Spring Pictograph site (LA157206), has more recently been discovered further west in the mountains. Rather than a relatively obscure site situated at the top of a high dry canyon (like Hunters Shelter), this small shallow rockshelter (Figure 9) is in a relatively protected recess in the canyon bottom, near a stream channel with permanent water nearby. Paintings are located about 1.6 meters above the bedrock floor in an area 60 cm wide and 30 cm tall.” (Billo, Mark, and Greer 2011:57)

White Oaks Spring pictographs, New Mexico. From Billo, Mark and Greer, 2011, Figure 10, page 56. The deer butchering scene is in the center.

“In the center is the deer capture or processing scene with hunters holding the four legs of an antlerless deer and an overseer with a long staff (perhaps a typical digging stick for agave extraction) and the same kind of double-recurved club as in the rabbit scene. – Two humans associated with the captured deer are clearly males, with the penis shown, suggesting that portrayal of gender was important, and the individuals perhaps were not wearing pants or loincloths.” (Billo, Mark, and Greer 2011:58)

White Oaks Spring pictographs, New Mexico. From Billo, Mark and Greer, 2011, Figure 10, page 56. Closeup of the deer butchering scene.

“Scenes that depict active capture, butchering, dressing, or processing of game animals are rare, and we know of no other examples in rock art or on pottery of butchering actually in progress. The examples at these two shelters, which almost certainly have the same referent and tell the same story, are essentially unique in this extended region.”  (Billo, Mark, and Greer 2011:59)

Interestingly, in both locations, the butchering panels are associated with pictographs portraying rabbit hunts shown as rabbit drives involving groups of hunters. Possibly the rabbit drives turned lucky and rounded up a deer as well.

“Panels at Hunters Shelter and White Oaks Spring are so similar that they and some other nearby sites – appear likely to have been painted by the same artist. Such images at several sites in the Guadalupe Mountains are strongly similar in content and manner of expression to much of the Lower Pecos Red Linear Style. Turpin (1984:195, 1994:76) suggests that the Red Linear painters were intrusive into the Lower Pecos region and likely represent a different population from the earlier Pecos River Style.” (Billo, Mark, and Greer 2011:68)

The fine details of these miniature red painted panels seem to fit into the Lower Pecos Red Linear Style giving this particular style quite an expansive distribution. “If additional sites can be identified, especially along the Pecos corridor, and perhaps dated (without destroying the art), it could add significantly to our knowledge of the movement of an early hunter-gatherer population who left this intriguing, generally carefully executed imagery on rock walls over such a great distance. We have proposed the term Pecos Miniature Art to encompass in a descriptive sense this kind of small, fine-line rock art along the greater Pecos River corridor from southeastern New Mexico to the Lower Pecos region of Texas.” (Billo, Mark, and Greer 2011:68)

I would suggest that the fact that in neither scene does the deer have antlers would suggest that either, 1. the deer are females, or, 2. if they are males the scenes take place in Spring shortly after they have shed their antlers.

Additionally, I realize that I began with this with arguments based on bighorn sheep, and these scenes are of deer being butchered. To me, however, these scenes of animal butchery as food procurement, added to the fact I cited above of bighorn sheep blood on the Alibates flint knife and a great deal of rock art of bighorn sheep with arrows in them strengthens the argument that animal images in rock art portray food resources, not metaphors for travel as claimed by Martineau (1973:123)

NOTE 1: I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Evelyn Billo, Robert Mark, and John Greer, for their excellent work, and to thank Robert Mark for permitting me to use their material in this paper. - Any errors in this presentation are solely my responsibility.

This, and many other fascinating papers are available at the Rupestrian Cyberservices website - http://www.rupestrian.com/index.html - then click on their Publications tab.

Bisected bighorn with ten anthropomorphs. Photograph provided by Evelyn Billo.

NOTE 2: As I was finishing the writing on this, Evelyn Billo generously sent another pertinent photo seen just above, which appears to portray ten anthropomorphs grouped around a bisected bighorn sheep – definitely groceries, not a metaphor!

PRIMARY REFERENCES:

Billo, Evelyn, Robert Mark, and John Greer, 2011, Hunters Shelter and White Oaks Spring Pictographs: Pecos Miniature Art in the Guadalupe Mountains of Southern New Mexico, American Indian Rock Art, Volume 37, Mavis Greer, John Greer, and Peggy Whitehead, editors, American Indian Rock Art Research Association, pp. 49-74.

Faris, Peter, 2011, Bighorn Sheep Petroglyphs – Groceries or Metaphor?, 22 May 2011, https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7760124847746733855/4578003363830180535

Martineau, LaVan, 1973, The Rocks Begin To Speak, KC Publications, Las Vegas, Nevada.

SECONDARY REFERENCES:

Mark, Robert, and Evelyn Billo, 2009, Pictographs at Hunters Shelter: Possible Extensions of the Red Linear Style into the Guadalupe Mountains of Southern New Mexico, Plains Anthropologist 54 (211), 201-210.

Turpin, Solveig A.,1994, Lower Pecos Prehistory: The View from the Caves, In The Caves and Karst of Texas, edited by W.R. Elliot and G. Veni, pp 69-84, National Speleological Sociaty, Huntsville.

Turpin, Solveig A.,1984, The Red Linear Style Pictographs of the Lower Pecos River Region, Texas, Plains Anthropologist 29 (105):181-198.

ROCK ART OF ANCIENT KYRGYZSTAN, PART 2 – HUNTING WITH EAGLES:

Eagle hunter petroglyph. Cholpon ata, near Issyk-kul lake, Kyrgyzstan.

The former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan is possessed of a great deal of rock art, especially beautiful petroglyphs of ibex. Kyrgyzstan has been known as a land of mounted nomads for pretty much all of recorded history. Recently I was conducting an online search for public domain photos of Kyrgyzstan rock art. Among the many ibex petroglyphs that came up was the one above which, at first, I could not identify. It took me a couple of minutes to realize what this is. The other main thing that the Kyrgyz people have been known for is falconry, or more specifically hunting with trained eagles. This is a crude petroglyph of a Kyrgy eagle hunter.

Kyrgy eagle hunter. Internet photograph, public domain.

“The history of the Kyrgyz people and the land now called Kyrgyzstan goes back more than 3,000 years. Although geographically isolated by its mountainous location, it had an important role as part of the historical Silk Road trade route. In between periods of self-government it was ruled by Gokturks, the Uyghur Empire, and the Khitan people, before being conquered by the Mongols in the 13^th century; subsequently it regained independence but was invaded by Kalmyks, Manchus and Uzbeks. In 1876 it became part of the Russian Empire, remaining in the USSR as the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic after the Russian Revolution. Following Mikhael Gorbachev’s democratic reforms in the USSR, in 1990 pro-independence candidate Askar Akayev was elected president of the SSR. On 31 August 1991, Kyrgyzstan declared independence from Moscow, and a democratic government  was subsequently established.” (Wikipedia)

Mounted eagle hunter. Internet photograph, public domain.

“Hunting with the golden eagle is an ancient tradition that dates back to the Mongol conquest of Central Asia around the 12^th and 13^th centuries, when a fine eagle and a good horse cost the same price and both lent prestige to their owner. Although the practice is gradually disappearing in this area, hunting with birds (especially with eagles) is still practiced in certain regions of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Westerners tend to think of this as falconry – and although hunting with hawks and falcons does take place, it is looked down upon by those who hunt with eagles as a pastime for children and dilettantes.” (Advantour) Far from originating in the 12^th and 13^th centuries as stated above, a burial from Subeshi, near Turfan, of a woman eagle hunter (see below) has been dated to mid-1^st millennium B.C. (Barber 1999:199)

“For thousands of years, golden eagles have been the favorite raptor to train as a hunting companion across the northern steppes from the Caucasus to China. Eagles are strong predators especially adapted to winter hunting for hare, marmot, wild goat, deer, fox (even lynx, pallas cat, and wolf, although these are unnatural prey and dangerous for the eagles). Eagles have very acute eyesight for spotting prey in snow-covered grasslands and mountains. The eagles weigh up to 12 pounds and have an extremely strong grip with sharp talons. To support the eagle on a rider’s arm, a baldak, a Y-shaped wooden rest, is attached to the saddle. Female eagles, larger, fiercer, and more powerful than males, are preferred as hunting companions by Kazakhs; Kyrgyz eagle hunters train both females and males. Several types of eagles are recognized with different abilities. Fledglings or sub-adult eagles are captured from the nest and trained to hunt. According to tradition, after 5-7 years the eagles are released back to the wild to mate and raise young. Evidence pointing to eagle hunting’s antiquity comes from Scythian and other burial mounds of nomads who roamed the steppes 3,000 years ago and whose artifacts abound in eagle imagery. An ancient Scythian nomad skeleton buried with an eagle was reportedly excavated near Aktobe Gorge, Kazakhstan. Ancient petroglyphs in the Altai region depict eagle hunters and inscribed Chinese stone reliefs show eagles perched on the arms of hunters in tunics, trousers, and boots, identified as northern nomads (1^st to 2^nd century AD).” (Mayor 2016:3)

Mounted eagle hunter with his horse and dog. Photograph by Andrey Kovelenko, from Stephen Bodio. Near Golpaygan, Isfahan, Northwest Iran.

The second petroglyph shows a mounted hunter with his dog and his eagle. This photograph was brought to my attention by Adrienne Mayor and was found on a website by Stephen Bodio, a writer and traveler. The photograph was taken by Andrey Kovalenko and was located near Golpaygan, Isfahan, in the central part of Iran.

Taigan hunting dog, Kyrgyzstan. Internet photograph, public domain.

Like the other mounted nomadic hunters of that region, a Kyrgy hunter needed a good horse, his trained eagle, and one of the local breed of hunting dogs, the taigan. A man who had all three was thought of as successful, even prosperous.

                         

Female eagle hunter, 1st millenium B.C., from a burial. Subeshi, near Turfan, Tarim Basin, Zinjiang, China. Illustration from Barber, 1999.

A final pair of illustrations shows the mummified body of an Eagle Hunter (Huntress). “From its graves the Urumchi archaeologists pulled several colorfully arrayed bodies. One woman (fig. 10.3) wore a copious woolen skirt striped horizontally in shades of red, yellow, and brown, with a dark felt hat rising high above her to two conical peaks like a twin-steepled church. The pelt used to make her long coat had the turned inward for warmth, and neat leather slippers protected her feet. A gigantic leather mitten encased her left hand, the sort of protection a falcon owner might wear, and she possessed two little pouches, one the shape of a long, narrow chili pepper and the other containing a round-topped comb.” (Barber 1999:198-9) 

Now we not only have rock art illustrating this practice, we have archaeological evidence from a burial from Subeshi, near Turfan, of a woman eagle hunter that has been dated to mid-1^st millennium B.C. (Barber 1999:199) Subeshi is a lost city located near Kucha in the Taklamakan Desert in China’s Tarim Basin on the ancient silk road. A long and honorable tradition among the steppe people living in this large region.

NOTE 1: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

NOTE 2: How the MacArthur Foundation has gone on so long without giving Adrienne Mayor one of their “genius” grants is totally inexplicable.

REFERENCES:

Advantour, Hunting with Eagles in Kyrgyzstan, https://www.advantour.com/kyrgyzstan/cultuure/hunting-eagles.htm, accessed 7 November 2021

Barber, Elizabeth Wayland, 1999, The Mummies of Urumchi, W. W. Norton and Company, New York.

Bodio, Stephen, 2013, “New” Petroglyph, 2 January 2013, stephenbodio.com

Mayor, Adrienne, 2016, The Eagle Huntress, Ancient Traditions and New Generations, 1 May 2016, mayor@stanford.edu