Arab. arch. epig. I: 1990: 24-28

Camel hunting or camel raiding? M.C. A. Macdonald University of Oxford, Oxford, England

Recently, several depictions of camels pursued by horsemen with spears have been interpreted as hunting scenes. References to ethnographic descriptions of bedouin life in the 19th and early 20th centuries suggest these may in fact be scenes of raiding rather than hunting.

There are a number of rock-drawings of uncertain date which show clearly that at some period the camel was hunted in Arabia, at least in the southwest of the peninsula (I). There are, however, other drawings which have led some writers to suggest that camel

Fig. 1. LP 325.

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CAMEL HUNTING OR CAMEL RAIDING?

hunting continued into the first century AD (2) and it is these which are the subject of this note.

In his description of camel raiding among the North Arabian bedouin, Burckhardt explains that ”whatever these Arabs take in a successful expedition, is shared according to previous agreement. Sometimes every horseman plunders for himself; at other times, an equal division is to be made. In the former case, whatever an Arab first touches with his lance is regarded as his sole property” (3). Musil also describes how the raiders “throw themselves on the herds without paying attention to the herdsmen. Every one tries to reach an animal with his spear, calling at the same time on his comrades to witness that it was he who captured it; he then drives it before him to a second and third, which he also makes his own. A long spear is very useful in this kind of work” (4).

Fig. 2. CSNS 1190.

Thus, camel raiding, rather than camel hunting, is surely the explanation of those Safaitic drawings (5) (see Figs. 1-3) in which a horseman is apparently “spearing” a camel, something which has

in other drawings, not attached to inscriptions, for instance in the Wadi Ramm area of southern Jordan (7), and in Wadi a1-Faw, in Central Arabia (8).

Representations of raiding can also be found in more unlikely places. It would seem that success in this activity could be a source of pride even among those living among the sedentaries, though there is no way of knowing whether these pictures record actual raids or a desire to claim links with a real or imagined nomadic past. Thus, on CIH 445 (Fig. 4), the lower relief must surely show

971.

I? -7 ’b- 9

puzzled some previous writers (6). The same activity can be seen

s d + q (DD+

Fig. 3. CSNS 972.

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M.C.AMACDONALD

Fig. 4. CIH 445. (Photograph courtesy of Muske du Louvre, A.O. 1029).

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CAMEL HUNTING OR CAMEL RAIDING?

the deceased in the act of raiding; his spear-head can clearly be seen touching the camel's side. Interestingly the Sabaic inscription records that it is the picture and grave stela of a man with en- tirely North Arabian names (9). Again, the wall paintings in the "artist's shop" at Qariyat al-Faw, which show similar scenes, must surely represent raiding rather than "camel hunting" as suggested by the excavator (10). It is less surprising perhaps that, in H%'il, when the Rashidi Prince Magid wished to show off his artistic skills to Julius Euting, the first picture he drew was of just such a scene (Fig. 5) (11).

m3 Zaiohnung dcs Prinzrn Hkyd.

Fig. 5. Prince M@ids drawing.

References 1. See, for instance, Zarins, J, Murad A & Al-Yish KS. The Com- prehensive Archaeological Survey Program: (a) The Second Pre- liminary Report on the southwestern Province. Atlal5: 1981: 35 and PIS 34e and 39b; and Anati E. Rock-Art in Central Arabia, 11: Louvain: BibliothGque du Muskon, 50: 1968: 59, PIS. 4 and 6 (Expi.- dition Philby-Ryckmans-Lippens en Arabie Ikre partie, tome 3), where spears which have been thrown are shown sticking into the camel. The grounds for dating these drawings to the third millennium BC seem to me somewhat tenuous, though they clearly pre-date those attached to inscriptions. 2. For instance Knauf EA Midian: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte Palastinas und Nordarabiens am Ende des 2. Jahrfausends v. Chr. Wies- baden: Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palastinavereins, 1988: 14, n. 76, "Gejagd wurden Wildkamele in Arabien vom 3. Jahrtausend v. Chr. ab ... bis in die ersten Jahrhunderte AD." This view is based on that of Ansary AR. Qayat al-Fau: A Portrait ofPre-Islamic Civili- sation in Saudi Arabia. London: Croom Helm, 1982: 130-133, see below. 3. Burckhardt JL. Notes an the Bedouins and Wuhhbys, callecfed during his Travels in the East, I. London: Colbum and Bentley, 1831: 140. 4. Musil A. f i e Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins. New York: Oriental Explorations and Studies, 1928: 6: 524. 5. LP 325, CSNS 972 and 1190. In the first, the words w dmy lh 'bh must surely mean "and his father drew a picture for him", rather than "and there appeared to him [a vision of] his father" as trans- lated by Littmann. I would suggest a similar interpretation of LP 403, which is drawn by the same artist, this time for his nephew. 6. See, for instance, Clark VA A Study of New Safaific Inscriptions fvornJordan. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1979:

7. Campetti S & Borzatti von Lowenstem E. 1IAltr-cl. Umanifh. 47-48.

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M.C.A. MACDONALD

Origini storia e arte dei nomadi della tenda nera. Florence: Sansoni, 1983: P137b. The authors interpret the scene as "caccia a1 dromedario selvatico con cavallo e lancia". 8. Field H. Rock-drawings from Saudi Arabia. Miami: Field Research Projects Occasional Paper, 1970: 11: Pls. 2 and 3. 9. kl bn s'dlt qryn. .k1 is known from Taymanite, Thamudic E, Safaitic, and in a diminutive form (bpylw) from Palmyrene; s'dlt in Thamudic E, Palmyrene (Fiema ZT. An Inscription from the Temple of Be1 in Palmyra Reconsidered. BASOR 263: 1986: 82) and Nabataean (i.e. it is borne by two Nabataeans in the Palmy- rene text CIS ii 3973); qryn in Palmyrene and possibly Safaitic (qvn). It is also interesting that though in the second line a South Arabian deity, Itr, is invoked, the request for the destruction of anyone who erases the picture is very similar to the curses protecting Safaitic inscriptions and drawings in the North. 10. Al-Ansary, Qaryat al-Fatt: 130-133. 11. Euting J. In: Littman E, ed. Tagbuch einer Reise in Inner-Arabien, 11. Leiden: Brill, 1914: 25. Euting, who was not impressed, remarks that it "sich indess uber die Flache der seit Jahrhunderten von den Beduinen geubten Kunstart keineswegs erhoben" and "diesen Leistungen die erhoffte Anerkennung zu zollen, im Gegenteil ver- sicherte, man wurde in Europa derartige Schanden-Machwerke einem Schiiler hochstens ein paar Ma1 um den Kopf schlagen ..." (2 5 -26).

Sigla CSNS, Inscriptions and drawings in Clark VA A Study of New Safaitic Inscripfions from Jordan. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1979. LP, Inscriptions and drawings in Littmann E. Safaitic Inscriptions. Leiden: Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904-1905 and 1909, Division IV, Section C, 1943.

Address: M.C.A. Macdonald Merton College Oxford England

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