Falconry or hawking is the art of rearing, training and
using birds of prey, like falcons, hawks and eagles.
Falconers were commonly in the employ of major households,
but falconry was seen as a sport or recreational activity
in a similar way to hunting. Period art displays the
lords and ladies walking and riding with a bird on
their glove. The bird would be released to hunt for
other birds or small animals to the joy of the nobility,
but it was the falconer's job to look after and train
the raptor. The chief falconer was a respected position
within the household. Birds were given as gifts between
royalty and prey was bred to hunt with.
Traditional views of falconry state that the art started
in East Asia, however archaeologists have found evidence
of falconry in the Middle East dating back to the 1st
century BC. In 680 BC the first Chinese reference to
falconry is found. Historically, falconry was a popular
sport, and status symbol, among the nobles of both medieval
Europe and feudal Japan, where it is called takagari.
Eggs and chicks of birds of prey were quite rare and
expensive, and since the process of raising and training
a hawk or falcon takes a lot of time, money and space,
it was more or less restricted to the noble classes.
In Japan, there were even strict restrictions on who
could hunt which sorts of animals, and where, based on
one's ranking within the samurai class.
In art, and in other aspects of culture, such as literature,
falconry remained a status symbol long after the sport
was no longer popularly practiced. Eagles and hawks displayed
on the wall could represent the noble himself, metaphorically,
as noble and fierce. Woodblock prints or paintings of
falcons or falconry scenes could be bought by wealthy
commoners, and displayed as the next best thing to partaking
in the sport, again representing a certain degree of
nobility.
The first artistic views of falconry come not from the
Far East, but from Turkey. Several carvings from around
1500 BC show a large bird on the fist of a human figure.
Grasped in the same fist is the figure of a hare (presumably
the quarry) held by the back legs.
Another, somewhat later, example has been found in northern
Iraq. Dated to the period of King Sargon II (722-705
BC), this bas-relief depicts a small bird of prey on
the wrist of a man. Significantly, this carving seems
to show ‘jesses’ (leather thongs used to
secure the bird to the human fist), tied to the bird’s
feet and passing between the thumb and forefinger of
the falconer. If so, it may indicate that falconry
(and its paraphernalia) was well developed by the eighth
century
BC in the Middle East.
In both cases, some researchers have interpreted these
carvings as purely religious or symbolic scenes. But
if these examples do indeed depict hawking, then the
sport is at least 3,500 years old in Western Eurasia.
|
