Page 45 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

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Levantine rock engravings recall accounts of hunting equids in Uzbekistan, describing the

use of dragon-like (funnel-shaped) traps for this purpose (cf. Betts and Yagodin, 2000:
37). Possible dating goes back to the 5th millennium BC.

These animal species are suited to such a hunting method because they live in small
groups. Nets have also been set up in place of the stone fences. This is reminiscent of

reindeer husbandry in northern Eurasia, although there too we observe that not all the
captured animals are killed, but only some are taken from the herd. So the question is
justified whether there were always only killings of the captured game, or whether the
“kite” or “dragon” was also used to capture live game? These live removals of game could
be seen as the beginning of an attempt at taming.

Ground plan with location of the cut through the “kite” (funnel-
shaped stone gate), in “Desert Kites”, A. Holzer et al.