This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Bows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Around the time Neanderthals were becoming extinct in Europe, more than 20,000 BP, stone arrowheads were being used in Africa. By 18,000 BP flint arrowheads were being bound by sinews to split shafts. Fletching was being practiced, with feathers glued and bound to shafts.
Around 3,300 BC a Similaun man died in an area on the present-day border between Austria and Italy and was mummified. Among his preserved possessions were bone and flint tipped arrows and an unfinished yew longbow 72” tall.
The technique of using a bow is called archery. Someone who makes bows is known as a bowyer, and one who makes arrows a fletcher. Together with the atlatl and the sling, the bow was one of the first ranged weapons or hunting tools which used mechanical principles, instead of relying solely on the strength of its user.
The development of gunpowder, muskets, and the growing size of armies (and their consequent demand for less-trained levies) slowly led to the replacement of bows as weapons of war, supplanted by firearms, which were simpler for conscripts to learn and use, causing bows to be relegated to sport and hobby use.
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