History

The history of falconry stretches back over 4000 years, and is practiced across the globe today.

Timeline

  • 2000 BC - Evidence suggests that the art of falconry may have begun in Mesopotamia
  • 722–705 BC – An Assyrian bas-relief found in the ruins at Khorsabad during the excavation of the palace of Sargon II (Sargon II) has been claimed to depict falconry. In fact, it depicts an archer shooting at raptors and an attendant capturing a raptor. A. H. Layard's statement in his 1853 book Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon is "A falconer bearing a hawk on his wrist appeared to be represented in a bas-relief which I saw on my last visit to those ruins."
  • 680 BC – Chinese records describe falconry.
  • 355 AD – Nihon-shoki, a largely mythical narrative, records hawking first arriving in Japan as of the 16th emperor Nintoku.
  • 2nd-4th century – the Germanic tribe of the Goths learned falconry from the Sarmatians.
  • 5th century – the son of Avitus, Roman Emperor 455–56, from the Celtic tribe of the Arverni who fought at the Battle of Châlons with the Goths against the Huns introduced falconry in Rome.
  • 500 – a Roman floor mosaic depicts a falconer and his hawk hunting ducks.
  • early 7th century – Prey caught by trained dogs or falcons is considered halal in Quran.[12] By this time falconry was already popular in the Arabian Peninsula.
  • 818 – The Japanese Emperor Saga ordered someone to edit a falconry text named "Shinshuu Youkyou".
  • 875 – Western Europe and Saxon England practiced falconry widely.
  • 991 – The Battle of Maldon. A poem describing it says that, before the battle, the Anglo-Saxons' leader Byrhtnoth "let his tame hawk fly from his hand to the wood".
  • 1070s – The Bayeux Tapestry shows King Harold of England with a hawk in one scene. It is said that the king owned the largest collection of books on the sport in all of Europe.
  • c. 1240s – The treatise of an Arab falconer, Moamyn, was translated into Latin by Master Theodore of Antioch, at the court of Frederick II, it was called De Scientia Venandi per Aves and much copied.
  • 1250 – Frederick II wrote in the last years of his life a treatise on "The Art of Hunting with Birds": De arte venandi cum avibus.
  • 1285 - The Baz-Nama-yi Nasiri - a Persian treatise on falconry was compiled by Taymur Mirza - an English translation of which was produced in 1908 by D. C. Phillott.[13]
  • 1390s – In his Libro de la caza de las aves, Castilian poet and chronicler Pero López de Ayala attempts to compile all the available correct knowledge concerning falconry.
  • 1486 -See the Boke of Saint Albans
  • early 16th century – Japanese warlord Asakura Norikage (1476–1555) succeeded in captive breeding of goshawks.
  • 1600s – Dutch records of falconry; the Dutch town of Valkenswaard was almost entirely dependent on falconry for its economy.
  • 1660s – Tsar Alexis of Russia writes a treatise which celebrates aesthetic pleasures derived from falconry.
  • 1801 – James Strutt of England writes, "the ladies not only accompanied the gentlemen in pursuit of the diversion [falconry], but often practiced it by themselves; and even excelled the men in knowledge and exercise of the art."
  • 1864 – The Old Hawking Club is formed in Great Britain.
  • 1927 – The British Falconers' Club is founded by the surviving members of the Old Hawking Club. Today, it is the largest and oldest falconry club in Europe.
  • 1934 – The first US falconry club, The Peregrine Club of Philadelphia, is formed; it became inactive during World War II and was reconstituted in 2013 by Dwight A.Lasure of Pennsylvania
  • 1941 – Falconer's Club of America formed
  • 1961 – Falconer's Club of America defunct
  • 1961 – North American Falconers Association (NAFA) formed
  • 1968 – International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey (IAF) formed [14]
  • 1970 – Peregrine falcon listed as an endangered species in the U.S., due primarily to the use of DDT as a pesticide (35 Federal Register 8495; June 2, 1970).
  • 1970 – The Peregrine Fund is founded, mostly by falconers, to conserve raptors, and focusing on peregrines.
  • 1972 – DDT banned in the U.S. (EPA press release – December 31, 1972) but continues to be used in Mexico and other nations.
  • 1979 - NYSFA formed and bylaws adopted.
  • 1999 – Peregrine falcon removed from the Endangered Species List in the United States, due to reports that at least 1,650 peregrine breeding pairs existed in the U.S. and Canada at that time. (64 Federal Register 46541-558, August 25, 1999)
  • 2003 – A population study by the USFWS shows peregrine falcon numbers climbing ever more rapidly, with well over 3000 pairs in North America
  • 2006 – A population study by the USFWS shows peregrine falcon numbers still climbing. (Federal Register circa September 2006)
  • 2008 – USFWS rewrites falconry regulations virtually eliminating federal involvement. {Federal Register: October 8, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 196)}
  • 2010 – Falconry is added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)[15][16]

Timeline courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falconry