The Gazelle's Dream

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.

Alison Betts FSA, FAHA (University of Sydney) specialises in the archaeology of the lands along the Silk Roads: and the nomadic peoples of the Near East. Since 2012, she has been Professor of Silk Road Studies at the University of Sydney.

W. Paul van Pelt (University of Cambridge and McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research) focuses on the interplay between technology and culture, and the material and biological conditions that result from intercultural contact and colonialism, and the various ways in which these impact expressions and experiences of identity.

Figures
Tables
Preface

Introduction by Alison Betts and W. Paul van Pelt

1. Communal Bison Drives of the Northern Plains of North America by Jack W. Brink
2. The Bison Hunting Complex in the Northern Rocky Mountain Foothills by María Nieves Zedeño and Anna M. Jansson
3. Ancient Reindeer Hunting in Oppland, Norway by Lars Pilø and Espen Finstad
4. Hunting with Kites in Armenia by Olivier Barge, Jacques Élie Brochier, Jwana Chahoud, Christine Chataigner, Emmanuelle Régagnon and Rémy Crassard
5. Kites in Syria, Southern Turkey and Western Iraq by Marie-Laure Chambrade and Alison Betts
6. Kites in the Black Desert, Eastern Jordan by Alison Betts and David Burke
7. Kites in the South-Eastern Badia, Jordan by Wael Abu-Azizeh, Mohammad Tarawneh, Rémy Crassard and Juan-Antonio Sánchez-Priego
8. 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
9. Kites in Saudi Arabia by David Kennedy
10. Kites in Southern Arabia by Ueli Brunner
11. In the Land of Gazelles: Ancient Game Traps at Gharb Aswan and Across Lower Nubia (North-East Africa) by Per Storemyr
12. Desert Kites of the Ustyurt Plateau by Vadim N. Yagodin, W. Paul van Pelt, Shamil S. Amirov and Alison Betts
13. Dzaekha Game Drives for Antelope Hunting on the North-Western Tibetan Plateau by Toni Huber

Works cited
About the contributors
Index

Format: paperback
Size: 250 × 176 × 29¼ mm
480 pages
1 colour table, 166 b&w illustrations, 33 b&w tables, 86 maps, and 9 colour illustrations
Copyright: © 2021
ISBN: 9781743327593
Publication: 01 Dec 2021
Series: Adapa Monographs