Talk:Bow and arrow

Proposed new article structure
Lead Construction /* Already in article */ History Earliest Middle Late (height) Modern Use Range and effect Warfare Hunting and sport In fiction See also etc. please discuss. - brenneman  06:34, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Good idea, and I'd also like to see a structure that avoids unreasonable duplication between this page and Archery. Crudely, the bits on the present archery page that give details on the hardware could be moved here, leaving only links and very brief descriptions; correspondingly any bits from this page on the use of bows could be moved to Archery. We should also try to make sure that the amount of duplication between this page and the pages on, for example, composite bow, recurve bow, and longbow is kept to a minimum; this page I suggest should be an overview of the hardware. (Most of the text is probably written already.) Does this seem a reasonable idea? Richard Keatinge (talk) 09:51, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Goodness, I hadn't even gotten to the satellite pages like Archery yet. I had imagined this page as the "centre" of this set of articles, but now that I look at Archery, it appears to me it might be a more appropiate choice.  There's going to be some places where the overlap is 100%, though... History of archery == History of bows for the most part.
 * With respect to the "links and very brief descriptions": These are jumping off places frm the more general subject. Since, for example, bowhunting is a rational next step from both the bow and archery pages might it make sense to have a similar (or even identical) sections for it in both articles?
 * brenneman 00:08, 18 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Seems good to me. (It is a bit difficult to draw a sharp line between the hardware (Bow) and the methods of using it (Archery), and you've stimulated me into toying with the idea of merging the pages - but then they'd be very long, and the concepts are separable to a large extent. I'd suggest that we could leave them on two pages, with a bit of self-discipline on what goes where.)


 * Do you fancy having a go? Richard Keatinge (talk) 09:42, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

July 2011
This article had fallen off my list, but now I'm again interested in improving it. However, the more I look the more I think that this should be merged into Archery. Any thoughts? - Aaron Brenneman (talk) 02:45, 13 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Entirely different subject. It would be like merging lance with jousting. If anything, archery would need to be merged into this article. — kwami (talk) 13:42, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

Let the merge and purge begin
Deflex bow, Reflex bow‎ Decurve bow‎ and Recurve bow‎ all now redirect to Bow types - brenneman  07:20, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Please add detailed diagram
This article could really use a diagram, there are any number of descriptions of the parts of the bow that are not clear. Also, the term 'string bridge' which appears in the article on the Mongol Bow needs to be included. --BooksXYZ (talk) 10:30, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

law
I would be helpful to add a section on the laws in various countries on owning and/or carrying a bow --UltraMagnus (talk) 20:33, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

On the 60 000 year old African arrowhead
My edit was probably not well formulated.

However, the source for that ancient arrowhead is more careful than the formulation in the Wikipedia text:



A slender point is consistent with a pin or needle-like implement, while a larger point, reminiscent of the single specimen from Peers Cave, parallels large un-poisoned bone arrow points from LSA, Iron Age and historical Bushman sites. Additional support for the Sibudu point having served as an arrow tip comes from backed lithics in the HP compatible with this use, and the recovery of older, larger bone and lithic points from Blombos Cave, interpreted as spear heads. If the bone point from the HP layers at Sibudu Cave is substantiated by future discoveries, this will push back the origin of bow and bone arrow technology by at least 20,000 years, and corroborate arguments in favour of the hypothesis that crucial technological innovations took place during the MSA in Africa.

I find "has been identified as arrowhead" much stronger than the original claim, so I think the text should be adapted a bit.

Also, the link to the Discovery page should be changed to the link to the original paper. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Erik Springelkamp (talk • contribs) 16:39, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Talk:Bow
The description of the bow and the description of each part of the bow is well written. The history section is lacking in every single way. It only describes the bow in early B.C. times, and has no information on development and improvement after that. Illustrations are very good in proving its existence in history, but do not apply to what is currently written in the article, maybe an illustration that specifies the different parts of the bow would be better. Only 1 contribution has been made, but it has not been approved or applied to the actual article. The sources given are lacking substantial information and are very little for a subject of this magnitude. There are 3 links present. The first link does not seem to be a reliable source, the second link does not work, and the third is an article about the mathematics involved in ancient archery (which does not apply to what is currently written). This article complements what is written on Encyclopedia Britannica, because it explains much of the workings of the bow, while Britannica only talks about its early history. HIST406-10rgomez (talk) 14:56, 4 October 2010 (UTC)HIST406-10rgomez, Oct. 4, 2010

As you'll see from the above discussion, it can be a bit tricky to know what to put in this article, what in Archery, what in Bow shape, and what in History of archery, to all of which this page has wikilinks. it seems good to avoid significant duplication between these various pages. How would you suggest improving these articles? Richard Keatinge (talk) 15:23, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Strain is a fractional change in a length; draw weight is a force. They cannot be compared.
"A rule of thumb is that a string should withstand a strain at least four times the draw weight of its bow" This sentence makes no sense. Strain is change in dimension (eg., length) divided by the original dimension under force. Draw weight is a force. One cannot multiply strain by four and arrive at a force. So what is this potentially useful sentence trying to say? Is it that the string should be able to withstand a TENSION (which is a force) that is at least four times the draw weight? Or is it that the string should be able to withstand a strain that is at least four times the strain it experiences when under the full draw weight? Two different things. Or is it even trying to say something else?

This also could do with... a citation. 86.148.76.1 (talk) 21:35, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

Tension. Suitably changed. There will be a citation somewhere in the Traditional Bowyer's Bible, but it's too late to look it up tonight. Richard Keatinge (talk) 21:53, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

Critique of Bow and Arrow Wiki page
The Bow and Arrow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_and_arrow

The Wikipedia article on “bow and arrow” has much to be desired. The opening summary simply states, “The bow and arrow are a projectile weapon that predates recorded history and is common to most cultures.” The importance of a weapon used throughout most of history deserves a bit more of an introduction. I would suggest adding a statement in regards to the era in which the bow and arrow was most used. Something else worth suggesting would be how deadly and important the weapon was to warfare throughout history.

The article is organized into sections: description, history, and bow construction. Bow construction is further broken down into limbs, strings, and crossbows. The description is very technical, and could use some work on how it is written. The different types of bows and arrows would be a good use of the description section. Introducing the cultures that used bow and arrows as a form of hunting and as a form of warfare would be something else of use in the section. The article should describe the impact on society and warfare. The cost effectiveness should be included in one of the sections. The history section lacks anything after 3300 BC. The importance of bow and arrows throughout Greece, Rome, and the middle ages needs to be included in the history section, as well as many other cultures. There will be lots of work to be done on the history of bow and arrow.

The illustrations lack context and are irrelevant to most of the discussion. The pictures on the page consist of, a modern day bow and arrow, two sculptures depicting the use of bow and arrow, and a coat of arms with a bow and arrow in it. I would suggest showing pictures of paintings from the time. The addition of drawings from the time would be helpful, possibly from the renaissance era, when it would be more likely that there is a publication of some sort. Depictions of the medieval archery corps would lend to the discussion of medieval warfare.

The article has been changed many times a month for the last 3 years. It does not appear that any of the changes has been significant. The article is still lacking and could use quite a bit more information. I will focus my work on the history section. There are only 7 sources for the entire article, which 4 of them are from the same book. I plan to add more resources from scholarly journals that focus more on the history of the bow and arrow. The Wikipedia page is lacking in comparison to that of a real encyclopedia article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by HIST406-11smcgrath (talk • contribs) 00:33, 4 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I have done some research on the Japanese bow (History of the yumi) Yumi but do not have any information on other types. Samuraiantiqueworld (talk) 04:09, 4 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Also looking forward to your ideas. You may wish to check the articles History of archery, longbow, English longbow and Composite bow which may be useful as main articles on specific subjects. The references are indeed a bit lacking here; the source for most of the facts is the Traditional Bowyer's Bible as per the Further Reading list. We could have a reference to this work after almost every sentence. Richard Keatinge (talk) 16:22, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

Improvements...
I'm planning on working on this article throughout August for the WP:Core Contest - and just figured I'd give a heads up to everyone that some cleanup and major expansion are probably headed forward. Ealdgyth - Talk 18:36, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Fragments vs bow in one piece
In the history section, the article says the bow in one piece was older than the bow fragments, so are the fragments noteworthy? 66.66.149.221 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 18:38, 9 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Good question. They seem to have similar notability in the sources that I recall. The Stellmoor fragments are no longer available, and were never dated by modern methods - they might even be older than the Holmegaard bow. From ten thousand years later they're pretty much part of the same cultural milieu. Richard Keatinge (talk) 22:19, 9 November 2012 (UTC)

Age of bows vs other weapons
16,000 BCE is considerably older than the oldest sling we've found; the oldest atlatl is only from 17,500 BCE, though they are believed to have been in use since ~30,000 BCE. The Woomera is actually of more recent vintage according to its article, only originating around 3,000 BCE.

Is there a source on the age of slings? Titanium Dragon (talk) 01:46, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
 * The oldest I can find is Çatalhöyük, which is 7,500 BCE. Titanium Dragon (talk) 01:50, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Few Miscellaneous points
The article reads like a novice wrote it. Teachers and students of early man, refer to the paleolithic era. A very primitive era which predates bows. And the experts use the term "lance blade" or "lancelate." Which basically is a spear, but thats the specific term used. Early specimens suggest very rudimentary design more suited for a spear, not a bow and arrow. Very Large specimens are knives, as opposed to spear points. 206.192.35.125 (talk) 12:36, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

History - New World
The history section currently says the B&A spread to all continents except Australia by the end of the Ice Age. The citation for this is an article that only talks about Australia. I know of no literature indicating the presence of bows in North or South America until much later. I have not done literature research in this area for many years, so it's possible that older material has been found in the last score years or so, but a quick search on scholar.google and Jstor turned up no such material. The best reference I ran across was one to this one. It's not new but not extremely old: "Adoption of the Bow in Prehistoric North America," North American Archaeologist Volume 9, Number 2 / 1988  	Pages:  	123 - 145 by John H. Blitz, DOI: 	10.2190/HN64-P1UD-NM0A-J0LR /http://anthropology.ua.edu/reprints/22.pdf.

In it, the author says that the earliest known bow (in 1988, citing a 1970 article) was from Africa, ca. 11,000 B.C. (p. 126). Mesolithic bows were common in parts of Europe and in Africa (ib.). On the same page, he laments that the N.E. Asian data are "uncertain."

He then goes on to establish a tentative chronology for North America (p. 127). The Paleoarctic Tradition provides his earliest examples. These date to 9K~6K B.C. (citing Dumond 1978), derived from N.E. Asian industries for which he offers no dates. In the interior, there is equivocal evidence from 6KBC, with the first definitive evidence not coming from before 3KBC.

Moving into the temperate part of the continent, he finds no-where where there is evidence for the bow before 2KBC. In fact, his map of dates of distribution (Figure 1, on p. 132) shows 200 BC as the earliest date for any of what is now southern Canada and any of the U.S.

Looking at the area adjacent to Mexico, we see AD 500 (by Baja) and AD 600 as the earliest dates for bows-and-arrows. While the article does not deal with South America, barring trans-oceanic sources, the technology could not have spread thither (our article is about spread, not independent invention, which is not considered) before at least that time (mid first millennium AD) (unless we posit a band of people passing through with-out leaving a trace of their technology). In fact, some views of Meso-American pre-history see B&A technology a little later than this time as arriving and upsetting the political situation. In any case, at least based on Blitz's article, we have no basis for retaining a claim of spread after the end of the glacial period, unless we take a loose interpretation of "after," meaning any time not before or during. In that case, though, "except Australia" is wrong, since there are bows in use in Australia today. 211.225.33.104 (talk) 02:36, 30 January 2015 (UTC)


 * Many thanks for your comments and for this interesting and useful reference, which will allow this article and others to be significantly improved. I will try to find out if there's anything more recent, but in this context an article from 1988 seems perfectly acceptable. Richard Keatinge (talk) 11:18, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

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No citation is needed.
In the section titled "Parts of the bow" there is the following: "While the string is held, this stores the energy later released in putting the arrow to flight.[citation needed]" This is not controversial. It's elementary mechanics of the sort taught in an undergraduate class. No citation is needed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.223.130.32 (talk) 03:47, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Lede Section
The lede is too short. I'm considering either writing a new 2-paragraph summary of the article, or simply removing the "Description" heading so that content becomes part of the lede. Thoughts? Power~enwiki (talk) 03:46, 18 August 2017 (UTC)

Types missing

 * Is yumi the only asymmetrical bow ??


 * instinctive bow https://worldarchery.org/news/101060/important-update-definition-instinctive-bow
 * bare bow http://archery.co.nf/?page_id=88
 * standard bow http://archery.co.nf/?page_id=88
 * traditional bow
 * hunting bow
 * recurve
 * traditional recurve https://targetcrazy.com/archery/resources/bow-types/
 * modern recurve https://targetcrazy.com/archery/resources/bow-types/
 * Specialist Bow Types https://targetcrazy.com/archery/resources/bow-types/
 * flight bows
 * foot bows
 * horse bows
 * survival bows
 * flat bow https://targetcrazy.com/archery/resources/bow-types/
 * by construction material https://targetcrazy.com/archery/resources/bow-types/
 * wooden bows
 * fiberglass bows
 * composite bows
 * laminated bows
 * (solid) glass bows  213.149.61.120 (talk) 18:57, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

additions to archery technique

 * arrow guide (tong-ah ,)
 * "bow magazine" made by Jörg Sprave;

First picture shown in article
Is there a reason for the picture to show parts A,B,C,1,2,3,4 but with no accompanying legend in the description that lists what those 7 parts are? It seems a bit incomplete to show the labels but nothing attached to those labels in the picture. Would a different picture work better, should there be a reason to have the picture description as it currently is shown? --boldblazer 05:12, 14 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Actually came here to ask the same thing; as I'm not the first, I've boldly changed it to an alternative. Hopefully someone more familiar with bows than I can clarify what sort of bow is depicted there. BilledMammal (talk) 04:33, 17 October 2021 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 19:37, 24 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Arrow bow.png

Bows and arrows in warfare
Given the prominence of bows and arrows in warfare for a thousand years or so, this article is very sparse on the matter (pretty much a single sentence) and needs to be expanded. DJ Clayworth (talk) 14:42, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

"Shortbow" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Shortbow and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 April 14 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Steel1943 (talk) 06:33, 14 April 2022 (UTC)