576 hunting, fishing, and gathering: Asia and the Pacific tablets were those used by the upper classes of society, and the mention of venison shows that they valued game The Greek authors also mention venison when describing the diet of the Persians, and at Persepolis both antelope and gazelle are shown among the animals prepared for a feast It is also likely that rabbit and other small wild animals were hunted by the poorer country dwellers—everywhere but in Israel, where religious rule prohibited people from eating them Onagers (wild donkeys) were also hunted for their skins Other wild game, including wild oxen and wild boar, were hunted and eaten in most of the Near East Both wild bulls and wild boar were dangerous animals, and those who hunted them gained both prestige and protein after a successful hunt Hunting, especially lion hunting, became a symbolic activity of kings to promote an image of bravery Not all hunting activities were equally prestigious Birds and small game such as hares and rabbits were hunted or trapped, but without the fanfare that surrounded other game hunting Among the wild birds eaten were partridges and duck Other birds used for their meat, feathers, and eggs were sometimes raised on farms, including geese, pigeons, and chickens The chicken was a latecomer to the Near East, arriving from the Indian subcontinent around the time of the Assyrians (1813–609 b.c.e.) Even in classical Greek times chickens were sometimes still called the Persian Bird Apart from obvious food sources, such as domesticated cattle, both wild and domesticated birds, and fish, the ancient Israelites also gathered and ate insects, specifically grasshoppers and locust A taste for locusts was apparently shared by others in the Near East: Assyrian reliefs show attendants carrying long skewers of (presumably roasted) locusts or very large grasshoppers to a royal banquet These, too, were probably gathered from the fields where cultivated crops were sown Locusts and grasshoppers were not only a useful protein supplement to the diet but also reduced the depredations caused by these pests on other food sources A number of ancient Near Eastern cultures, including the Persians, ate camel Although camels were more or less domesticated by the first millennium, their use as food undoubtedly began when these animals were still wild They would have been hunted for their meat Some cultures, such as the Babylonians, also caught and ate mice, jerboas, turtles and wild hare Gazelles and similar animals (such as ibex) were hunted and eaten as delicacies The trapping or hunting of wild animals gradually evolved from a necessary means of subsistence to a source of luxury foodstuffs ASIA AND THE PACIFIC BY KIRK H BEETZ The Asia and Pacific region is vast, with many different climates that affect what sort of food is available from place to place At one time all people were hunter-gatherers, people who moved around the landscape learning what to eat and what not to eat Some of them settled in one place or chose to migrate between winter and summer homes Others chose to follow herds of animals Still others chose to press ever onward Th is last group continued until they reached Australia Their descendants remained primarily huntergatherers For the ancient Australians, the landscape offered vast, open lands where spears, arrows, and boomerangs were effective in bringing down game For other peoples of Oceania, there were small islands with big mountains, vast rain forests, and much open water One group, by far the most ancient, was ethnically similar to the Dravidians of southern Asia and to the Australian Aborigines Another group, only beginning to colonize the Pacific islands near the end of the ancient era, was the Polynesians Both groups had a dramatic effect on wildlife The migration of people through Indonesia and across the Pacific to Australia is just beginning to be studied, but one aspect of it stands out: Wherever these ancient peoples went after leaving the Asian mainland, they tended to exterminate the wildlife They would reach an island, feed off its game animals until they were gone, and then move on to the next island They used spears with fire-hardened tips, stone tips, or bone tips The ecological catastrophe such habits of hunting could cause can be seen in Easter Island (settled in the 400s b.c.e.), where the people exterminated edible native land animals and plants, leaving mostly fish to eat, and even trapped themselves by destroying the trees from which they could build boats, using the trees for timber for the roofs of their homes and as logs for rolling massive stone monuments from their quarries to the edges of the island Among the Polynesians, special hunting skills were developing during the early Christian era The Polynesians hunted game not only on land but also in the sea They made harpoons tipped with stone or coral They learned to use nets to gather in fish in shallow waters and to hunt dolphins and large fish out at sea When foraging on land, they sought out tubers, perhaps because starchy tubers were fi lling and supplied energy The people on every island in the Pacific near Asia, such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan, learned to harvest shellfish On the Japanese island of Honshū, people ate so many shellfish that they were able to pile the shells into large burial mounds The first fishhooks were used even before the last great ice age The first may have been gorge hooks—double-pointed hooks with a line attached in the middle Bone, antlers, and stone were used throughout southern Asia Fish from freshwater streams were an important source of food The earliest depictions of bows and arrows may be in rock paintings in North Africa from about 20,000 b.c.e., but some paleontologists believe that the bow and arrow developed much earlier Prior to the development of the bow and arrow, hunters used spear launchers to maximize the force of their throws These launchers were hollowed out wood, stone, or antlers in which the base of the spear would rest With an overhand motion,