A petroglyph from Newspaper Rock along Indian Creek in southeastern Utah shows a warrior atop a horse using a bow.David Hiser/Environmental Protection Agency
Posted on 03/28/2026 6:34:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The bow and arrow were first used in western North America some 1,400 years ago, according to a statement released by PNAS Nexus. Briggs Buchanan of the University of Tulsa and his colleagues radiocarbon dated 136 weapons made of organic materials, which were recovered from glacial ice patches, dry caves, and rock shelters where they had been preserved. The researchers determined that the bow appeared in a single place, then spread rapidly across North America through cultural transmission networks. In northern British Columbia and Alberta, people adopted the bow and arrow, but continued to use the atlatl to throw darts for more than 1,000 years. In contrast, people to the south -- in California, the Southwest, and northern Mexico -- rapidly replaced the use of the atlatl with the bow and arrow. Buchanan and his team members think that people living to the north may have found some advantages to throwing darts with the atlatl during the colder months or while hunting certain prey. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PNAS Nexus. To read about a rock art panel in central Montana that depicts an archer, go to "A Very Close Encounter."
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
A petroglyph from Newspaper Rock along Indian Creek in southeastern Utah shows a warrior atop a horse using a bow.David Hiser/Environmental Protection Agency
1400 years ago? Bow and arrow was in use elsewhere in the world up to 65,000 years ago. This reminds me of the "camels weren't around in Biblical times" fiasco.
Selections from the 'precolumbian' keyword, sorted:
IMHO bows were used in North America much earlier than 1400 years ago.
The Asian migrants to America from the West would have imported the use of the bow and arrow thousands of years ago.
Sounds like a clear case of.....CULTURAL APPROPRIATION!!
Amazing that there was such a technology as the bow and arrow. Sombody must have figured it out because it doesn’t look like it would arrive by chance.
They were around way before that, but then they passed a law banning assault weapons and then everybody had to turn them in to be destroyed. But the ban only lasted for a couple thousand years and somebody discovered you could make them at home.
The largest indoor archery tournament in the world is on its 2nd of 3 days in Las Vegas today, it’s 60th year.
I shot it 6 times and won money in 2007.
Great time.
Nice!
When did Robinhood arrive?
When Columbus arrived... They were still using bows and arrows and that cave painting is not north American... It shows a wheel... Something native north Americans didn’t have when Columbus arrived.
How is there a mounted warrior in that petroglyph? Were petroglyphs still being done after the Spaniards came to the Americas with horses?
These images indicate post-Spanish contact (after the 1600s)
My Dad’s BSA manual, about 1920, showed how to make bow and arrow. Detailed, serious, not a flakey stick and string.
So, yes, they are old.
Yes, they do-and petroglyphs produced in the late 1600’s to 1700’s are rare-hence my inquiry. Grok pointed out the areas that had those petroglyphs-and that part of Utah is one-which answered my question...
The Archery merit badge gave me fits.
L
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
