HISTORY

A Brief History of Archery

The hunting bow seems to have been invented in the late Paleolithic (early Stone-age) or early Mesolithic (middle Stone-age) periods. The oldest indication of their use in Europe comes from the Stellmoor region of the Ahrensburg valley north of Hamburg, Germany and dates from the late Paleolithic, about 10,000–9,000 BC. The arrows were made of pinewood and consisted of a mainshaft and a 15–20 centimetre (6–8 inches) long foreshaft with a flint tip. There are no confirmed earlier bows; earlier pointed shafts have been found by archeaologists, but may have been launched by atlatls rather than bows (see image on the right) The oldest bows known so far come from the Holmegård swamp region of Denmark. Bows eventually replaced the atlatl as the predominant means for launching shafted projectiles on every continent except Australia (which had no indigenous form of bow), although the atlatl persisted alongside the bow in parts of the Americas, notably Mexico (from which its Nahuatl name comes) and amongst the Inuit.

Bows and arrows have been present in Egyptian culture since its pre-dynastic origins. In the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean), artefacts which may be arrow-shaft straighteners are known from the Natufian culture, (c. 12,800–10,300 BP (before present)) onwards. The Khiamian and PPN-A shouldered Khiam points may well be arrowheads.

Classical civilizations, notably the Assyrians, Hungarians, Persians, Parthians, Indians, Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese fielded large numbers of archers in their armies. Indeed the Sanskrit term for archery, dhanurveda, came to refer to martial arts in general.

Archery was highly developed in Asia and in the Islamic world. The Mongol armies led by Genghis Khan were famed for the skill and devastating effectiveness of their mounted archers; using short but powerful composite bows they were excellent skirmishers. In East Asia, ancient Korean civilizations, such as the Shilla, Baekje, and Goguryeo were well known for their regiments of exceptionally skilled archers. American Plains tribesmen were extremely adept at archery on horseback - an exceptional achievement when One considers that horses are not native to the Americas and were brought by Europeans in the 16th century.

 Decline, last uses, and survival of archery

The development of firearms rendered bows effectively obsolete in warfare, although it was common for medieval armies to field both gunners and bowmen until the invention of the safer, more reliable and more accurate musket in the 17th century. Despite the high social status, ongoing utility, and widespread pleasure of archery in Britain, Korea, China, Japan, Turkey, Armenia, America, Egypt, and elsewhere, almost every culture that gained access to even early firearms used them widely, to the relative neglect of archery (an interesting exception to this rule was Japan, to whom the Dutch and Portuguese first brought firearms in the 17th century. They were later outlawed largely because the Samurai warrior class - who devoted their lives to learning and practising the arts of war using swords and bows -  did not want to be beaten in combat by untrained and unskilled peasants! Japan was closed to the outside world for almost 200 years, until the arrival of a heavily-armed American fleet in the 1850's - demanding that they open their ports to trade - caused the government to once more see the usefulness of fire-arms!)  Early firearms were vastly inferior in rate-of-fire, and were very susceptible to wet weather and damp conditions. They also had the habit of frequently exploding in the faces of their wielders. However, they had a longer effective range and were tactically superior in the common situation of soldiers shooting at each other from behind obstructions. They also required significantly less training to use properly, in particular penetrating steel armour without any need to develop special musculature. Armies equipped with guns could thus provide superior firepower by sheer weight of numbers, and highly-trained archers eventually became almost obsolete on the battlefield. However, archers are still effective and have seen action even in the 21st century. Traditional archery remains in use for sport, and for hunting in many areas.

 Modern primitive archery

In the United States, competition archery and bow-hunting for many years used English-style longbows. The revival of modern primitive archery in the US may be traced to Ishi, who came out of hiding in California in 1911. Ishi was the last of the Yahi Indian tribe. His doctor, Saxton Pope, learned many of Ishi's archery skills, and passed them on. The Pope and Young Club, founded in 1961 and named in honour of Pope, is one of North America's leading bow-hunting and conservation organizations. Founded as a not-for-profit scientific organization, the Club is patterned after the prestigious Boone and Crockett Club. The Club advocates and encourages responsible bow-hunting by promoting quality, fair chase hunting, and sound conservation practices.

From the 1920s, professional engineers took an interest in archery, previously the exclusive field of traditional craft experts. They led the commercial development of new forms of bow including the modern recurve and compound bow. These modern forms are now dominant in modern Western archery; traditional bows are in a minority. In the 1980s, the skills of traditional archery were revived by American enthusiasts, and combined with the new scientific understanding. The sport of modern game archery owes much of its success to Fred Bear, an American bow hunter and bow manufacturer. He was born March 5, 1902, in the town of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. Although he did not start bow hunting until he was 29 and did not master the skill for many years, he is considered a  pioneer in the bow-hunting community. Bear was a world traveller, film producer, and the founder of Bear Archery, an outdoor company that still exists.

 Archery in Mythology

Archers are depicted as deities and heroes in several mythologies, including Greek (Artemis and Apollo), Roman (Diana and Cupid), Germanic (Agilaz). This trend continued in legends like those of William Tell, Palnetoke, or Robin Hood. Armenian Hayk and Babylonian Marduk, Indian Karna, Arjuna and Rama, and Persian Arash were all archers. Earlier Greek representations of Heracles normally depict him as an archer. In East Asia, Yi the archer features in several early Chinese myths, and the historical character of Zhou Tong features in many fictional forms. Jumong, the first Taewang of the Goguryeo kingdom of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, is claimed by legend to have been a near-godlike archer.

(Original content courtesy of Wikipedia.org; substantial modifications and additions have been made.)

Our site is still quite new, so if there's anything you'd like us to include, please feel free to contact us . We hope you enjoy our site and will find it useful.