The Art and Archaeology of Human Engagements with Birds of Prey

Robert J. Wallis is Senior Lecturer and Staff Tutor in Art History at the Open University, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction (Robert J. Wallis, The Open University, UK)

Part 1 The Materiality of Human Engagements with Birds of Prey

1. Raptors as companions: comparative deep-time forays in multispecies archaeology (Shumon T. Hussain, Aarhus University, Denmark)
2. Gods, Kings and Offerings: Raptors in Ancient Egypt (Salima Ikram, American University in Cairo, Egypt)
3. Ghosthawk Worldings: Raptor Haruspicy During the North European Bronze Age (Joakim Goldhahn, University of Western Australia, Australia)

Part 2 Visualising Human Relations with Raptors

4. Golden Eagles: Raptor Imagery Biographies in Kazakhstan During the Early First Millennium BCE. (Kenneth Lymer, Independent Scholar, UK)
5. Visual Hybridity, Political Power and Cultural Contest: Kitan Liao (916-1125 CE) and Jurchen Jin (1115-1234 CE) Textiles with Falconry-Related Imagery (Leslie Wallace, Coastal Carolina University, USA)
6. ‘The Falcon-Cloak Whistled’: Bird Fibulae, Falconry and Powerful Women in Seventh Century Scandinavia (Kristina Jennbert, Lund University, Sweden)

Part 3 Post-Humanist Ontologies of Human-Raptor Relations

7. Relating to Raptors: The ‘upper part of a hawk’s head and beak’ in a Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age ‘Beaker’ Grave, Driffield, East Yorkshire (Robert J. Wallis, The Open University, UK)
8. Raptors in Precolumbian North America: An Ontology of Art (Max Carocci, The American University in London, UK)
9. Birds of Prey in Ancient Amazonia: Predation and Perspective in Ceramic Iconography (Cristiana Barreto, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Brazil, and Marcony Alves, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil)
10. ‘Now I Am a Bird, and Now I Am a Man’: Post-humanism, Raptors and the Rus’ (Neil Price, University of Uppsala, Sweden)

Part 4 Indigenous Knowledges of Birds of Prey

11. Birds of Prey, ‘Our Mothers’ and Women of Power: The ‘Spirit Bird of Night’ Masquerade in Yoru`ba´ Art and Thought (Henry John Drewal, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
12. Pouakai: Rock Drawings of Haast’s Eagle or New Zealand’s Legendary Bird? (Gerard O’Regan and Emma Burns, Tuhura Otago Museum, New Zealand, and Te Maire Tau, University of Canterbury, New Zealand)
13. Ancestors, Messengers and ‘Good Country’: Birds of Prey, Rock Art and Indigenous Knowledge in the Kimberley, Northwest Australia (Ana Paula Motta and Martin Porr, University of Western Australia, Australia)