Archery

Archery

Archery is one of the oldest sports, and art forms, known to man. Dating back to before 25,000 BC, archery has evolved and grown from simply a means of killing food and warfare, to more of an art form. Today, archery is a very common sport present in many areas of the world and throughout many different cultures.

In Africa, there have been arrow heads that have dated back to before 25,000 BC, and may be dated as far back as 50,000 BC. This suggests the use of a bow and arrow at this time. Archery was probably developed in accordance with the spear thrower, or atlatl. To the prehistory human, archery was the most effective means as to kill their food. The best hunters used this method to subdue prey from long distances, which was a great innovation of their time. No bows from this time period have been recovered as a result of the material from which the bow was made, wood. When a bow would become old or broken, it would simply be thrown into the fire and burned as firewood or simply left to decompose. Hence, the shape of the first bow can only be hypothesized.

Over the next few thousand years, many improvements began to occur. Between 25,000 and 18,000 BC, fire hardened arrowheads were used, along with the gluing of feathers to the shaft of the arrow. The first bow dating to around 7,000 BC was discovered in Denmark. It was made out of a solid piece of elm. Dating to 2,800 BC, the first composite bow was made by the Egyptians using wood, animal innards, and ...