The History of Archery

by Bartholomew Delcamp

The bow and weapon is one of the oldest weapons of mankind. Generally, the club was first, then the knife, spear (including atlatl), sling, and then the bow. Today there are various categories of bows: compound bows (which use pulleys to hold the drawback weight which allows a person to draw back a more powerful shot) and traditional. There are a two types of traditional bow which includes long bows and recurve bows. These can then be broken into even smaller specific bows. A long bow is shaped with a long continuous curve while a recurve bow has a main curve in the center and two curves at the end of the limbs.

There a few important terms that should be discussed before proceeding. The handle of a bow is called the riser. This includes where the arrow rest. The arrow could be fired from a carved shelf set in the riser or on the hand. On both ends of the riser are the limbs. These are the thin flexible parts of the bow that bend and gives the arrow the potential energy. The energy it takes to pull back the arrow before flying is measured in weight and is called the draw weight. The stronger the pull weight, the more powerful the arrow is. The more powerful the arrow is, the farther it flies, the greater it's speed and distance, and the greater force it hits with. English Longbow could pull back bows with a two hundred pound draw weight. Today's modern compound archers usually pull 70 pounds.

Bows were made out of a variety of materials. Bows were usually made of wood. Ashe was popular in northern Europe while in Great Britain, the bow wood of choice of yew. In Japan, bamboo was very popular due to its strength and flexibility, although it is not as powerful as other bows. In areas where wood was scarce, such as the Gobi desert in Mongolia, archers would build composite bows made out of different materials. Usually the bows had a bamboo core, horn on the belly, and sinew on the spine. These would all be glued together. Although rare, there are even bows made out of the ribs from whales. Until synthetic materials were created in the late 19th century, the bow string was made out of animal sinew and coated in wax.

One thing that is interesting is that the bow was used by all cultures in warfare yet some revered it more than others. For instance, in Ancient Greece, archery was looked frowned upon in warfare as Greek warriors preferred to fight in close combat. Yet it would still be used of course. It was also used on hunting. There were two gods who used the bow. Apollo was chiefly the God of the Sun and medicine yet he was also the god of archery. His sister Artemis was the god of the hunt, wilderness, animals, childbirth, and virgins. One of her symbols was the bow and arrows.

Perhaps the most noted archers were those of central and east Asia from various nomadic groups. Beginning with the Scythians and then the Huns and culminating in Genghis Khan's Golden Hordes, these archers fought from horseback using composite horse bows. Composite bows are more powerful but are also more delicate. Horse bows are meant to be fired from horseback. They're usually shorter so archers can turn around the horse to aim although it's short stature limits the power. To shoot from horseback is difficult and it was these nomads who invented the stirrups. By standing on the stirrups, opposed to actually sitting on the horse, the archer can bend and sway to adjust for the horses movements. Archers usually carried two bows with them. The Golden Horde conquered the second largest empire in the world's history from the back of a horse and a bow in their hands.

Mongol Bow

In Japan, the main weapon of the Samurai was not the katana as popularly believed. It was the yumi bow. The samurai even practiced a martial arts style called Kyudo which taught the use of the bow. A yumi bow is 7 feet tall and made of bamboo. Samurais were expected to be able to hit through the face of an enemy soldier from 100 yards away. It was only in the late 18th / early 19th century during the Meiji restoration when the yumi lost its prominence. This was due to the introduction of gunpowder and muskets from Portuguese traders which replaced the bow. Also at this time, samurai began to lose political power  and they flocked to the katana as a symbol of their social status.

Man practicing Kyudo with Yumi Bow

There are a few interesting archery stories. One origin "of flipping the bird" or displaying the middle finger as a rude hand gesture may have came from archery. During the Hundred Year War between England and France, the English began to use what would become the English long bow. These bows could shoot farther than French crossbows and were powerful enough to shoot through plate armor. The French called these bowmen "the devil's harpist" the English plucked strings that would decimate the French armies. The French would try to capture bowmen and then cut off their middle fingers which prevented them from pulling back the bow. The English would taunt the French before battle by displaying their middle fingers.

People often think that the bow is no longer used except competitions and hunting. The long bow was still in use during the American Revolutionary War. Even during Worlds War II, a English soldier named Jack Churchill had the only confirmed bow kill during World War II where he took out a German sentry with a longbow. Churchill also went into battle with a claymore and bagpipes.

Archery is a fascinating topic and a wonderful hobby to pursue. It is unfortunate that many people, including today's archers, do not know the history of this weapon and tool. The oldest bows found date back to 10,000BCE, about the transition from the Upper Paleolithic to the Mesozoic period. Traditional bows are still shot today 12,000 years later and it may have helped create civilization.

Blogger Bio:

Bart earned his Master's in Public History in May, 2015. He works as a lighthouse interpreter at the Old Mackinaw Point Lighthouse, which is part of Mackinaw State Historic Parks, Michigan, until October 11th, this year. He looks to become a curator or museum specialist in the near future.