Oh, I misread it my first time through it. I thought they said it was the oldest bow ever found in europe, which would make it the oldest ever found in the world. That just isn’t the case. Still pretty cool though. It makes a person wonder why the oldest bows are found in europe when common knowledge says civilization started in the fertile crescent...or the indus valley, or china...depending on your personal bias. But why is the oldest bow not found in one of these 3 places?
Hmmm?
Germans always make good stuff...........
Seriously though, wood does not fare well in those places. The Bible speaks of burning the enemies weapons so it must have been common practice in those areas. I would imagine that any bows that were used back then were eventually burned as firewood. Unless someone finds a long lost tomb, well preserved and sealed, any bows and arrows from those ares will not be forthcoming any time soon.
The Chinese have barely scratched the surface of excavating the tomb of Emperor Qin and may take a hundred years to do so.
But that would only date back to the 3rd century BC.......
I can recall reading about the early use of ochre and shell beads in South Africa some 85,000 ya. In the same cave system they found arrowheads at the 60,000 year level but no wood had survived. Arrowheads are so constructed that they would not be of any use in a larger tool like a spear or smaller throwing spear. Based on that logic, arrowheads have been found in the Middle East, Europe, India and the Far East from periods far before this bow. The Arians had bows and arrows when they came south into India and their religious myths tell of bows and arrows in their ancient past.
The atlatl (and "heavy caliber" 'dart points') served very well for a long span of time. As long as heavy game predominated, I would think there was little incentive to abandon the "30.06" (atlatl dart) for the ".223" (tiny arrowpoint)...
(It is enlightening and worth the exercise to look up the distance record for an atlatl dart throw...)