Paul Comstock
Picture a time before the invention of the wheel, before civilization, the written word, or the development of cloth or metal. On such an ancient day, skin-clad tribesmen wandered the primordial landscape of Europe, armed with cleverly engineered, highly effective bows and arrows. Skilled and resourceful archery technicians, these people found creative solutions to archery challenges.
We know today that many recent so-called innovations in natural archery were first used by European bowyers of the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. American archery publications of the past have covered in great detail bows and arrows of Native Americans. Archery of medieval Europe, in particular the English longbow, has also been the topic of many writings. The world of ancient European archery has drawn less attention. It deserves a close look. There are surprises and mysteries waiting for us. And opportunities. The modern craftsman can duplicate the design concepts of the ancient Europeans and return these weapons to their rightful place in the woods and fields.
This chapter is not intended to be the definitive catalog of prehistoric archery artifacts. Instead, we will discuss the basic bow types of ancient Europe with emphasis on how the modern bowyer can use these old designs to his advantage. We will also offer — here and there — a little speculation on why the ancient bowmakers did what they did.
Many of those interested in historical bows — particularly Native American bows — feel they need to duplicate the old weapons' precise length, width, and thickness. They feel that unless they can perfectly match the old bows' dimensions, their efforts are failures. This approach has its place, but for the amateur craftsman it is of limited use.
If the modern bowyer succeeds in duplicating the artifact precisely, the only thing he will have learned is what draw weight and draw length were used by the man who made the artifact. And this is a useless piece of information. If the bow pulled past 20 inches or so, an aborigine could have shot it well enough. And if it pulled 30 pounds or more, it would be powerful enough to kill people and deer-sized animals. So who cares how far it pulled and how strong it was?
If we examine a group of bows made by the same group of people, we find that dimensions are not consistent. There will be variations in bow length, width, and thickness. These variations were caused by bowyers using different pieces of wood, and building bows to pull different weights, possibly at different
Lengths. This is the case when examining ancient European bows. No two are exactly the same dimensions.
Instead of concentrating on precise measurements, we would be better served by studying the designs of ancient European bows. We need to ask ourselves; What was the fellow who made this bow trying to accomplish?
It is very important to remember that the requirements for a deadly, reliable, and accurate wooden bow are surprisingly low. The most crude, crooked, ghastly-looking, and inefficient stick imaginable will shoot an arrow as straight as a bullet and kill you dead. Making such a hideous bow long enough is all it takes to increase durability. And making it wide enough will go a long way toward increasing efficiency.
The point is this: People tend to stop experimenting when they have found something that works. And almost any wooden bow will work.
Was the bowyer most interested in economy — producing a bow quickly and easily? Was he most interested in cast per pound? Was he most interested in durability? These questions can best be answered by trying to decide what prompted the bowyer to select the design he used. And specific measurements down to the thousandth of an inch are going to be of very limited help.
What information we can obtain on ancient European bows comes from books written in Europe. Our sources on statistics and dates on ancient European bows are mainly:
• Neolithic Bows from Somerset, England, and the prehistory of Archery in Northwestern Europe, by J. G.D. Clark of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge in Creat Britain. This was actually a paper published as part of the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society for 1963 — Vol. XXIX. It is particularly valuable because it contains photographs of several ancient bows and arrows.
• The Bow: Some Notes on its Origin and Development, by Cad Pausing, published in Germany and Switzerland, no date listed. This work borrows from earlier academic works, including Clark. But it is quite comprehensive and contains many details. It is often lacking in specifics, particularly dates. But many of the artifacts have not been or cannot be dated.
Clark does some speculating on the origin of the bow. He says all available evidence points to the bow emerging from Africa about 15,000 years ago. Pausing believes the bow is at least 50,000 years old, but admits this date is speculation.
A writer for a mainstream archery magazine once made the preposterous statement that bows and arrows have been around 100,000 years. His point was political. He was attacking the so-called "traditional" anti-compound bow movement. Anything less than the 100,000-year old bow, he argued, isn't traditional. This 100,000-year-old bow exists only in his fertile imagination.
A big archery business used to distribute a lot of written material which often implied that the bow and arrow were a critical factor in primitive man's survival. This is another hoax. Plenty of primitive hunting-gathering people have gotten along just fine with no bows and arrows.
This raises an important question; Did primitive people really need archery at all?
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There is not the tiniest shred of proof bows and arrows existed during the majestic Ice Age, when hunters brought down mammoths, mastodons, wooly rhinos, and other giants. Certain cave paintings show darts that appear to be feathered. Other artifacts look like arrowheads. But feathered darts and arrow-head-shaped points are also used with the atlatl.
It is accepted that for bringing down an animal like a mammoth, an atlatl would yield consistently better results than a bow and arrow. An atlatl dart weighs at least 1,000 or 1,500 grains — much heavier than the average weight for arrows of between 300 and 600 grains. Some Africans have gone after elephants with big, heavy bows and heavy arrows, but there is no evidence this was done in the Pleistocene.
Paleolithic spear-throwers may have been of a form not familiar to most primitive technology buffs. For example, the speed of a hand-thrown spear can be increased by using a cord, with one end held in the hand and the other twisted
A spear-throwing cord and handle are shown at top, with the cord twisted around the center of the dart. The cord is held in place on the shaft by being twisted over a knot in the end of the cord.
Below are two copies of Paleolithic baton de commandement artifacts, each of which can send a 1,500 grain dart over 65 yards.
Around the spear to aid thrust and fall from the spear as it is released. Speed of the cord-assisted spear can be improved by using a handle tied to the cord, instead of holding the cord in the hand. It is well for this handle to have some fork or indentation to rest against the spear during the throw. It is also well to have the cord pass through a hole in the end of the handle, to assure straight flight. Such a handle will resemble the baton de commandement artifacts first created by Ice Age hunters 9,000 years before the atlatl was invented.
The advantages of archery increase when hunting smaller, deer-sized animals. With a bow, the hunter can shoot from concealment, and it is easier to carry a lot of arrows, compared to atlatl darts. But it is also important to remember primitive people have hunted deer-sized animals successfully with no bows. The Hopewell and Adena Indians of Ohio used atlatls. Atlatls were also widely used in Australia, where there is scant evidence bows were used at all. When Europeans found them, native Tasmanians did all their hunting with throwing spears.
We can only conclude that archery has proved quite valuable for those who have learned to use it. Those who have not have managed to cope in other ways.
World History
