XXIII

Title

XXIII

Description

View of a deer hunting arround 1800.

ca. 1749

Artist

Fleming

Historical Description

Hunting is one of the most primitive activities in human history and is older than anatomically modern humans themselves. The oldest undisputed archaeological evidence for hunting dates from the Old Pleistocene and coincides with the emergence and spread of Homo erectus about 1.7 million years ago. Hunting enabled significant steps in human evolution through the associated need for specialization, division of labor, and advance planning among hunters, such as in the production of tools and hunting weapons. Jointly conducted hunting promoted social and communicative skills and formed one of the foundations of human culture. With the spread of sedentarization of man in the course of the Neolithic Revolution and the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandry, hunting became of secondary importance as a source of nutrition for large parts of the population. At the same time, the changed living conditions in the protection of cultivated land from game damage and the control of predators to protect livestock also resulted in new uses for hunting. In the course of time the most different kinds of hunting have developed, which are adapted to special situations or the hunting of certain animal species. There are several ways to systematize at least some of the hunting types. One of the most common classifications distinguishes according to the number of hunters involved, especially in individual and social hunting.