Ostrich (Struthio camelus syriacus)

The Arabian ostrich (Struthio camelus syriacus) was a species native to the Arabian Peninsula. Now extinct, the bird was valued for by-products. Iconographic representations highlight its significance and religious symbolism in the region’s archaeological record.

The Arabian ostrich (Struthio camelus syriacus, Rothschild 1919) was an endemic species to the Arabian Peninsula. Genetically close to its African cousin, it disappeared only recently, i.e., in the middle of the 20th century, as a result of overhunting. It was present in all parts of the Arabian Peninsula, before prehistoric climatic changes (aridification and dewatering) considerably reduced its geographical distribution area. In historical times, two distinct ostrich populations seem to co-exist, a smaller one in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula and a larger one to the north, in a region encompassing the present borders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq and Syria (Potts, 2001).

Although its flesh is edible, the absence of ostrich bones from the Arabian Peninsula —attested in the Palaeolithic site of Umm el-Tlel in Syria (Bonilauri et al. 1990) and in the late Hellenistic and Early Mamluk levels of Tell Hesban in Jordan (Boessneck 1995)— makes it impossible to determine whether this bird was consumed. Nevertheless, it was valued for its many by-products: fat, tail feathers and leather, extensively used in handicrafts, as well as its large eggs. It is difficult to know whether the eggs were eaten but their use as containers is confirmed in the Dilmun graves (Lombard (ed.) 1999: 70). Eggshell fragments are extremely common in domestic archaeological contexts (Potts, 2001).

There are numerous iconographic representations of ostriches, which testify not only to the practice of ostrich hunting but also to the bird’s important role in the region’s symbolic and religious iconography (Tebes 2014: 182–88). The motif is found on pottery sherds from Tell Abraq, U.A.E., from the 2nd mill. BCE (Potts 2000: 61), and on Qurayyah Painted Ware from Northwest Arabia in the late 2nd-early 1st mill. BCE (Tebes 2014). The ostrich motif also appears carved in relief on the pillars of the Banāt ʿAd temples in Kamna and al-Sawdāʾ, Yemen (Arbach & Schiettecatte 2006: figs 4–7). In the region of the Jabal Kawkāb, Saudi Arabia, the motif appears frequently in the repertoire of rock engravings. It can be carved in a naive style, hardly exceeding a dozen centimetres, or in a very realistic and almost life-size way (Monchot & Poliakoff 2016). Ancient methods of ostrich hunting with a bow, arrows and dogs are also represented in the rock art of Wādī ʿUqlā, Saudi Arabia (Olsen 2013).

Hervé Monchot

References and suggested reading:

• Arbach, M. & J. Schiettecatte 2006. Catalogue des pièces archéologiques et épigraphiques du Jawf au musée national de Sanʿāʾ. Sana’a: UNESCO, FSD, CEFAS. Open archive: halshs-00120920.
• Boessneck J. 1995. Birds, reptiles, and amphibians, in Ø.S. LaBianca & A. von den Driesch (eds) Faunal remains: taphonomical and zooarchaeological studies of the animal remains from Tell Hesban and vicinity (Hesban 13). Berrien Springs: Andrews University Press.
• Bonilauri S., E. Boeda, C. Griggo, H. Al-Sakhel & S. Muhesen 1990. Un éclat de silex moustérien coincé dans un bassin d’autruche (Struthio camelus) à Umm El Tlel (Syrie centrale). Paléorient 33(2): 39–46. www.jstor.org/stable/41496810
• Lombard, P. (ed.) 1999. Bahreïn, la civilisation des deux mers : de Dilmoun à Tylos. Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe.
• Monchot H. & C. Poliakoff 2016. La faune dans la roche : de l’iconographie rupestre aux restes osseux entre Dûmat al-Jandal et Najrân (Arabie Saoudite). Routes de l’Orient, Hors-série 2: 74–93.
• Olsen S.L. 2013. Stories in the Rocks: Exploring Saudi Arabian Rock Art. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
• Potts D.T. 2000. Ancient Magan: The Secrets of Tell Abraq. London: Trident Press.
• Potts D.T. 2001. Ostrich distribution and exploitation in the Arabian Peninsula. Antiquity 75: 182–190. DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00052881.
• Tebes, J.M. 2014. The symbolic and social world of the Qurayyah pottery iconography, in Unearthing the Wilderness. Studies on the History and Archaeology of the Negev and Edom in the Iron Age (Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement, 45): 163–201. Leuven: Peeters.

_{Alternate spellings: Animal, Animals, Bird}