Bow and arrow
A bow is an ancient weapon that shoots arrows powered by the elasticity of the bow. Energy is stored in the limbs of the bow and transformed into rapid motion when the string is released, with the string transferring this motion to the arrow. The bow is used for hunting, sport (target shooting), and in historical times was a weapon of war.
The technique of using a bow is called archery. Someone who makes bows is known as a bowyer, and a fletcher makes arrows. 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 strength and skill of its user.
Many bow designs have been used in different cultures and time periods. Common designs are: solid wood (the English longbow), laminated wood (Japanese and Sami bows), and horn-wood-sinew composite (Middle East, India, Mongols). In modern times, the recurve and compound bows dominate for sport and hunting practices. Newer materials include flexible plastics, fiberglass, and carbon fibers, leading to increases in range and projectile velocity.
Modern-day use of bows for hunting is a matter of controversy in some areas, but common and accepted in others. Modern hunters are often drawn to bow hunting because it generally requires more practice and skill than taking game with a firearm. While modern rifles allow hunters to shoot large game (such as deer or elk) at distances of 100 yards (metres) or more, archers usually take large game within 40 yards (metres) which requires the archer to stalk the game more closely without frightening it away. Bow hunting is also still practiced in traditional cultures worldwide.
History
The bow seems to have been invented in the late Palaeolithic or early Mesolithic. The oldest indication for its use in Europe comes from the Stellmoor in the Ahrensburg valley north of Hamburg, Germany and date from the late Paleolithic Hamburgian culture (9000-8000 BC). The arrows were made of a pine and consisted of a mainshaft and a 15-20 centimetre (6-8 inches) long foreshaft with a flint point. There are no known definite earlier bows; previous pointed shafts are known, but may have been launched by atlatls rather than bows.
The usage of bows in warfare is described in the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata.
The oldest bows known so far come from the Holmegård swamp in Denmark. In the 1940s, two bows were found there. They are made of elm and have flat arms and a D-shaped midsection. The center section is biconvex. The complete bow is 1.50 m (5 ft) long. Bows of Holmegaard-type were in use until the Bronze Age; the convexity of the midsection has decreased with time.
Mesolithic pointed shafts have been found in England, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. They were often rather long (up to 120 cm [4 ft]) and made of hazel (Corylus avellana), wayfaring tree (Viburnum lantana) and other woody shoots. Some still have flint arrow-heads preserved; others have blunt wooden ends for hunting birds and small game. The ends show traces of fletching, which was fastened on with birch-tar.
Bows and arrows have been present in Egyptian culture since its predynastic origins. The nine bows symbolise the various peoples that had been ruled over by the pharaoh since Egypt was united. Egyptian composite bows are known from the ancient tombs, some dating from the early New Kingdom, indicating possible introduction by the Hyksos. Some bows were made with horn strips incorporated into the belly.
Most Neolithic European bows are made of yew. Ötzi the Iceman found in the Ötztaler Alps carried an unfinished yew longbow, with a bowstring of nettle or flax fibre.
In the Levant, artifacts which may be arrow-shaft straighteners are known from the Natufian culture, ca. 12.800-10.300 BP) onwards. The Khiamian and PPN A shouldered Khiam-points may well be arrowheads.
Native Americans used longbows (especially on the east coast) and flatbows (especially on the west coast), often recurved, made from various hardwood species, such as hickory. Likewise, the Fenno-Ugrian nations in Eurasia have traditionally used ash, maple or elm flatbows. The bow was a late invention in the Americas.
The bow became the main weapon of war used in the Middle East by the Assyrians and Egyptians, whose warriors shot it on the ground and from chariots to great effect. War chariots fell entirely out of fashion by approximately the beginning of the Common Era, but development of horse archers by the people of the Eurasian Steppe, brought highly mobile archers back to the fore. Using composite bows, Steppe peoples such as the Scythians, Huns, Turks and Mongols became a dominant force.
In the Middle Ages, European powers made effective use of the longbow as a major weapon of war. It was an extremely effective weapon in battle and could penetrate armor from a considerable distance. The longbow however is a difficult weapon to master and requires years of training for effective use in war. A longbow which can pierce later medieval armour also requires a very strong man to draw it. In Medieval England and Wales, the longbow became a popular weapon and archery a popular pastime. When the quality of English archery began to decline in the 16th century, English monarchs went so far as to mandate by law longbow training for males of military age, and placed restrictions on other physical sports such as football and ninepins so that people would practice archery.
The development of gunpowder, muskets and the growing size of armies slowly led to the replacement of bows as weapons of war, causing them to be relegated to sport and hobby. See archery for the modern sport of shooting bows. Crossbows still see some use by special forces and assassins due to their comparative silence when compared with guns. Bows are found all over the world, except for Australia where the main projectile weapons were spears and boomerang.
Types of bows
Composite bow
A composite bow is laminated from different materials to produce a bow. The Asiatic traditional composite bows use horn on the belly and sinew on the back, often with a wooden core to provide a gluing surface. The bows are backed with sinew because it is very elastic. Sinew will also shrink and pull a bow into reflex. The horn on the belly is very strong in compression, and can handle a high draw weight without taking a set. These Asiatic bows were often highly recurved and reflexed, giving a short bow the ability to store lots of energy and shoot nearly as fast as a much longer bow.
Modern, non traditional "composite" bows use laminated wood, plastic, and fiberglass.
Compound bow
A compound bow is a modern bow that has pulleys or cams at the end of each limb through which the bow string passes. As the bow is drawn, the pulleys or cams turn, which in turn changes the leverage of the bows' limbs. They are normally made to give a high resistance in the middle of the draw, and significant "let-off" at the end; this enables the bow to store a lot of energy while still being easy to hold and aim at full draw. They are little affected by changes in temperature or humidity and will give high speed at a lower draw weight compared to the simple bow. Unlike traditional bows, compound bows are always made of modern materials such as aluminium and carbon fiber. They were first developed and patented by Holless Wilbur Allen in the USA in the 1960s and have become increasingly popular.
With a traditional bow, the force required to draw the bow increases as the bow is drawn. This limits the total amount of energy and means that when the archer is at full draw and aiming, they have to hold the maximum draw weight of the bow.
Crossbow
The crossbow is a small bow attached to a wooden support and drawn towards a nut or pin. When a trigger is pressed, the pin or nut releases the bow string, shooting the bolt. The crossbow required little effort to shoot, but early on took great strength to load, though this was solved by adding a windlass or crank. Another means of loading the crossbow was to use a small hook attached to the belt of the archer. The archer would then hold the crossbow still by slipping his foot into a foothold at the tip of the bow. He then pulled the bowstring back by placing the hook in the crossbow's string and standing up. This permitted the shooter to use his legs, instead of his arms, to pull back the string. This method was not long-lived in European land warfare, however, because the crossbow was soon after replaced by the musket.
The oldest remains of crossbows are found in East Asia and date back to 2000 BCE. Some crossbows are known as a bowgun. They launch stones or lead. This Chinese invention dates back to at least 300 BCE.
Arbalest
An arbalest is a large, powerful crossbow with a bow (prod) of steel, rather than of wood or horn/sinew composite. The Hussites were famous for their arbalest archers.
Ballista
A ballista is a torsion spring crossbow. Depending on size, it was used as a siege weapon (the ballista is an ancient siege weapon) or sniper weapon. It has a high degree of efficiency because of the low inertia of the torsion springs, but efficiency decreases if operated under humid conditions and needs permanent anointment. It was usually operated by one (the "Scorpion" ballista) to three men. It shoots large arrows or stones. Nowadays, ballista-bows have been constructed.
Longbow
Longbows were ideally made from yew, Italian yew being the best, but white woods elm, ash, hazel and Brazil (sp) were commonly used due to availability. Longbows were often built to be as tall as the archer and a well made bow could shoot well in excess of 300 yards (275 meters) using flight arrows. A longbow archer could shoot up to 12 arrows per minute as a crossbow man (100 year war) could only fire up to three.
The most famous example is the English longbow, carried by English armies to great effect in the Hundred Years' War. At this time it was called the "war bow." At close range the longbow was capable of penetrating all but the very best plate armor of the time. At distance, groups of archers would loose mass volleys on a high, arching trajectory at enemy formations. The arrows used were very heavy, 1 ounce (28 grams) or more, with narrow heavy bodkin pointed heads and thick arrows often made of ash. This style of bow was used up until the time of the English Civil War but was almost completely replaced by the musket, mostly because of the years of training involved with archery.
Flatbow
The limbs of a flatbow have a rectangular cross-section, rather than curved or "crowned" as with a longbow. The typical modern flatbow is made from a whitewood such as ash, hickory, hazel, or oak, with limbs about 2 inches (5 cm) wide, tapering in the last outer third of the limbs to ½-inch (1 cm) nocks. It is often made about 66 inches (1.67 m) long and tillered elliptically, with good potential for high draw weights. This is a good form of bow because it allows anyone to make an excellent bow with little expense; many suitable whitewoods are cheap and plentiful, whereas yew and osage are expensive and the supply of good material is limited.
Yumi
A yumi is a Japanese longbow used in the practice of kyudo (Japanese archery). Traditionally made from a laminate of bamboo, wood and leather, yumi are of asymmetrical design, with the grip positioned at about one-third the distance from the lower tip. It is believed the asymmetric shape was designed for use on horseback, allowing the bow to be more easily moved from one side of the horse to the other.
Unlike most archery disciplines, the yumi was not drawn with fingers alone, but with a ridge on the thumb of the leather glove worn on the back hand. This meant that the weight of the draw or pull of the bow was not limited to the finger strength of the shooter. Instead, a more relaxed and holistic technique was developed and the yumi was drawn not just with the arm, but with the whole breath and being of the archer or kyudoka. The arrow was often nocked to the "wrong" side or far side of the bow to allow quicker setting of the arrow and the string was released not by relaxing the hand, but by altering the posture of the back hand wrist, allowing the string to slip over the ridge of the glove. (The thumb becomes part of a rigid frame with the wrist piece, effectively negating finger strength in the process of shooting.) A disadvantage that causes problems more for the female archers, if the glove or yugake is damaged and the thumb and wrist became excessively articulated, the archer may have to endure pain while drawing, or indeed be unable to draw their bow.
See also
Bow construction techniques
Bow forms
References
- (1992) The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 1. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-085-3
- (1992) The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 2. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-086-1
- (1994) The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 3. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-087-X
- U. Stodiek/H. Paulsen, "Mit dem Pfeil, dem Bogen..." Techniken der steinzeitlichen Jagd.
(Oldenburg 1996).
- Gray, David (2002) Bows of the World. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-478-6
Related weapons
- Whip bow -- an arrow or dart attached via a notch in its forward end to the knotted end of a cord attached at the other end to a flexible stick. The stick is used to 'whip' or slingshot the dart forward, and the knotted cord releases from the notch. Mainly a children's toy, this "bow" is described in The American Boy's Handy Book
- Atlatl -- Spearthrower or woomera. Although the darts are often fletched, there is no bow or significant amount of stored energy before release. The atlatl relies instead on leverage.