History of the Bow
Bow history is a remarkable story because it is so tightly integrated with our own human history.
Worldwide there is confirmation of the use of ancient bows, they even been retrieved from areas previously believed to have not employed them such as Australia.
Evidence indicates that bows have most likely been in use since the middle of the Stone Age around 20,000 BC. But early Egyptians are accepted as being the first people to have used the bow at least 5000 years ago for both hunting and war.
Then around 1200 BC an early race of people known as Hittites who lived in an area now encompassing Turkey and northern Syria used the bow from fast, light chariots which quickly made them daunting adversaries in many Middle Eastern battles. Neighbours of the Hittites called the Assyrians who came from Iraq, Syria and Turkey also used the Bow extensively. It was the Assyrians who remodelled the bow to a recurve profile because it was shorter and considerably more efficient for their horse riding archers. They also used various forms of materials to make bows like horn, wood and tendon.
The domination of the archery bows and styles used by the people of the Middle East prevailed for centuries. Attila the Hun and his Mongolians overcame a good deal of Asia and Europe employing bows equal to those of the Parthians and Assyrians.
In China bows were used as far back as the Shang dynasty (1766-1122 BC) where war chariots carried a driver, bowman and lancer. It was the Chinese who introduced social archery to Japan around the 6th century and even today Japanese Martial Arts known as kyudo (way of the bow) is still taught the traditional way in Japan.
The first acknowledged archery competition was held at Finsbury England in 1583 and included 3000 participants. By the time of the European 30 Year War between 1618 and 1648 because of the establishment of guns, it had become evident that the bow and arrow as a weapon belonged to a prior age.
