[SunkenCiv]

It may look simple, but it is a highly complex tool: a Bushman's bow from Botswana. (Credit: Image courtesy of Universitaet Tübingen)

[Joe 6-pack]

As I recall, the Mongols pioneered a laminated bow, the outer surface of which was sinew, and the inner layer horn. When the bow was drawn, the sinew would stretch and the horn would compress. Upon release, both materials would snap back to their original shapes, thus enhancing the acceleration of the arrow.

Pretty clever stuff if you think about it.

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

A couple of days ago, my five year old twins made a working bow and arrow by themselves! I made them unhappy because I had to take it away ... the arrows were really quite sharp and they could really shoot with it! (I got them some rubber-tipped arrows instead. This “raising young primates” stuff is difficult! LOL!)

[ClearCase_guy]

This is an example of Intelligent Design. By itself, a bow doesn't do much. By itself, an arrow doesn't do much. But, an intelligent being with a vision can put them together and make something really special.

We see Intelligent Design all the time. The modern world is built on Intelligent Design. Then, we look at the web of life and some folks think ... "I guess it just kinda happened."

I don't think so.

[varmintman]

The atlatl is termed a spear-thrower but in actuality an atlatl dart is much more of an arrow than anything you’d call a spear, just a bit bigger. If you assume humans had been using small bows to start fires for some time after they had atlatls, then all you’re really talking about is somebody putting two and two together for four.

[Bratch]

[mamelukesabre]

the arms race went like this:

rock
club
club with a rock attached
club with a sharp pointy rock attached
long pointy stick
thrusting spear(pointy stick with a stone tip)
throwing spear(lighter, works from a distance)
atlatl(mini spear that flies further)
simple bow and arrow(mini mini spear that is thrown with little effort)
recurve
composite bow
cross bow and bolt

The arrow is easy to understand how it came about. The bow is a little puzzling. There must’ve been a use for a springy piece of wood prior to the bow and arrow. But I don’t know what it was.

[Oatka]

A bit off topic, as usual, but there was a scene in “Quest for Fire” where the cavemen ran into some Aborigines. The cavemen had their “magic” (fire) get quenched and were looking for a new source. This Abo girl starts twirling a stick between her hands and after a few minutes smoke, and then flame appeared. The look of amazement and awe on the cavemens’ faces was something to see. One wept at the wonder of it.

I imagine at some point, one genius thought to make a bow and wrap string around the stick and play it like a fiddle to get a higher rotational speed. Then, at some point, another genius said, “Hey, wait a minute!” - and we were on our way to the A-Bomb.

[Mormon Cricket]

Complex thinking American style. Pie plates @ 120 yards.

[wildbill]

It is impossible that primitive man without a physics textbook could reason out the idea that by putting a sinew between the two ends of a stick and then putting another stick on the sinew you would send the second stick outward with enough force to do something like kill an animal.

Does anyone really believe that Man was capable of this kind of creative reasoning—putting sinew and sticks together— thousand of years ago? HAH!

If not, could the bow and arrow be caused by three items combining in some happy accident of Fate? What are the odds on that? Triple Hah!

If any of these scenarios were reasonably possible, then “Oogah the Bowmaker” would be the parent of us all since he’d have owned all the women. And DNA would show it.

No, the only logical and reasonable answer is that Ancient Aliens provided primitive man with primitive weapons like the bow and arrow. No sense in starting us early hominids off with the Atomic Bomb.