[Renfield]

Ping

[varmintman]

The original super weapon on the planet was the atlatl, not the bow. The task to hand was killing hominids, particularly Neanderthals, and arrows would not have gotten them killed quickly enough...

(www.themandus.org)

[varmintman]

The original super weapon on the planet was the atlatl, not the bow. The task to hand was killing hominids, particularly Neanderthals, and arrows would not have gotten them killed quickly enough...

(www.themandus.org)

[riverrunner]

And we needed these two to tell us that better weapons changes things.

[KarlInOhio]

The invention of the bow and arrow allowed users to shoot projectiles more rapidly and more accurately than with the traditional spear.

I think the politically correct term is "assault bow".

[PapaBear3625]

Another aspect of the bow, is it takes time to master it. This gives full-time warriors a big advantage over farmers who don’t have much time to practice archery.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***These villages often were surrounded by a palisade or a ditch, and bodies buried at these sites frequently have arrowheads lodged in their bones, indicating that the bow and arrow were used as military weapons.****

But, but we’ve been taught for the last thirty five years that pre-Colombian culture was a paradise on earth, till the evil white men arrived!

[Sybeck1]

Some society flourished without the bow, such as the Capellans. They relied heavily on the kligat, a type of boomerang.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

There's no explicit mention in the article about how maybe the arrow allowed humans to hunt more efficiently, which in turn would have increased their food supply and allowed for larger populations.

Larger populations could have resulted in all sorts of changes to society, and the bow and arrow might have been only one of a myriad of technologies and/or social arrangements to have affected these cultures.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

There are many twists and turns to this. For example, few woods make suitable bows, and even then, most can only be used to make “short bows”. If the bows are too long, they will break.

The exception is the Welsh or English longbow, made of Yew, that first made its appearance known in the 7th Century, but was still a strategic advantage over the short bow in the Battle of Agincourt (1415), best known for the Shakespeare play, Henry V.

Unfortunately for those in warmer and drier climates, though they obtained Yew bows, the wood soon dried out and they broke in ordinary use.

Back to primitive times, the use of bows and arrows was quite different on an individual basis, compared to the tactics of a group. With spears, the emphasis on the group was, for example, a single animal. But arrows were so efficient that as soon as an animal was down, the group could concentrate fire on another animal.

In turn, this forced some degree of nomadic behavior, as once animals were killed, they had to be processed on the spot before they rotted. This included tanning hides, smoking and grinding meat, carving bones into tools, etc.

And with human conflicts involving bows and arrows, spears and other weapons still played a major part.

[dfwgator]

James Burke figured that out over 30 years ago.

Connections
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqnOo-KIh5Q

[James C. Bennett]

WATCH VIDEO: http://youtu.be/IGcYGwqb3So

Mughal Conposite Bow and Horse Archery

[RandallFlagg]

I'm kinda partial to this beauty I saw at Cabelas this afternoon:

[chesley]

Duh!