Development of bows and arrows abroad

Prehistoric humans invented bows and arrows 30,000 years ago. There are many bows and arrows, deer and bison on the murals in many caves in Spain and France. These murals prove that the ancients used bows and arrows to hunt for a living. Even to this day, there are still many races in the jungles of South America and Africa who rely on bows and arrows for hunting. It is said that the ancient Egyptians were the first people to use bows and arrows extensively. Other peoples who used bows and arrows in the early days included the Assyrians, Indians and Persians.

▲The situation of the Assyrians using bows and arrows to attack the city

Relatively speaking, the bows of ancient Egypt were relatively sophisticated. The bows of the New Kingdom were mainly made of round wood strips and were 5 to 5.5 feet long. There are also bows made of composite materials such as wood, antelope horns covered with tendons and palm bark, which have a longer range. The arrows are generally 22 to 34 inches long, with metal arrowheads, wood or reeds as the arrow shaft, and three feathers as the tail. The length of the Assyrian bowstring is slightly shorter than that of the Egyptians, with a maximum of 4 feet. There are angled bows and curved bows, with knobs at both ends (later carved into duck heads), and grooves near the knobs for hanging strings. Assyrian arrow shafts are mainly made of reeds or light wood, with metal flat diamond-shaped arrowheads, a bulge in the middle to increase strength, two tail feathers, and grooves at the end of the arrows for stringing.

A brief discussion on the development of bows and arrows abroad

▲Egyptian archers

The Assyrian archers were very well organized, and often caused heavy casualties and chaos to the enemy during combat. India has discovered bronze arrowheads from the ancient Indus Civilization period (about 2300-1750 BC). The "Arrow Parable Sutra" in the Indian "Middle Agama Sutra" has a detailed description of the materials required for arrowheads, arrow shafts, bows, bowstrings, feathers, and arrow wraps. According to historical records, in the war between Persia and Alexander, the bows used by Indians were customized according to the height of the archer. When drawing the bow, one end needs to be supported on the ground, the left foot pushes the bow and the two hands draw the string. The bow with an arrow as long as three elbows has extremely strong penetrating power! In the 10th century, the Turks developed advanced bows and arrows. Their bows were made of firewood, animal horns and tendons, with two ends bent outward, much like modern back-bend bows, with an effective range of 300 yards. By the 12th century, the crossbow became the most common war weapon in Europe. In the Hundred Years' War, the "longbow" was the main weapon of the British army. In the 16th century, after Britain defeated the Spanish Armada, the bow and arrow were replaced by firearms, and its position in the army gradually declined. In general, the use of bows and arrows in the West is not as good as that in the East.

A brief discussion on the development of foreign bows and arrows

▲ British longbowmen

The ancient Roman bow was 4.5 feet long and the arrow was 2.3 feet long; while my country's "Zhou Li*Kaogongji" stated that there were three types of bows and arrows, large, medium and small, the large one was 6 feet 6 inches, the medium one was 6 feet 3 inches, and the small one was 6 feet, which is equivalent to 5.28 feet, 4.96 feet, and 4.8 feet today respectively. Because my country's bows are longer, the corresponding range is also longer. Since the bow can only use the strength of a person's arms, its penetration ability is not strong. The Western army likes to use dense formations to attack. Its soldiers have thick shields and thick armor, and the formation is dense and coordinated. When attacking, it is like a copper wall and iron wall advancing forward. Therefore, the bow has a poor killing effect on them, so it did not become the main weapon of the soldiers at that time.

A brief discussion on the development of foreign bows and arrows

▲The scene of the archers attacking the city in the movie "Hero"

In the famous Battle of Marathon, the Persian bows and arrows were helpless in front of the large Greek phalanx, and the position was quickly penetrated, leaving 6,400 corpses and a great defeat! Greece only lost 192 people, which is related to the weak penetration ability of bows and arrows. There were not many archers in the ancient Roman legion, and ordinary soldiers did not even carry bows and arrows. They only carried a heavy and penetrating throwing weapon with a maximum range of no more than 60 feet. So at that time, Western soldiers had almost no long-range combat ability. During the Crusades, European knights were killed by Muslim crossbows, and thick armor could not help them. The knights were horrified to find that this terrible weapon from the East could actually shoot steel arrows into stones! They thought it was a weapon of the devil! They asked the Pope to ban the use of crossbows. In 1139, the Vatican issued a decree prohibiting the use of crossbows in wars between Christians, but the ban did not work. Instead, a catapult with marble projectiles instead of arrows appeared, which was more like a rifle. At that time in Europe, if a soldier could become a crossbowman, his value would be a hundred times higher! The crossbow is actually just a smaller crossbow. The simplest one is to add a small stirrup in front of the crossbow. The archer steps on it with his feet, bends over and hangs the bow on the hook on the belt. As long as he stands up straight, he can draw the bow. Although the crossbow is powerful, its range is relatively short, with an optimal range of only about 150 yards, and a slow rate of fire, which limits the use and development of the weapon. No one has used it since the 16th century.

A brief discussion on the development of foreign bows and arrows

▲Crossbow is the name of the Chinese crossbow in Europe

A special case of Western bows and arrows - longbows. The power of the longbow is vividly demonstrated in "Brave Heart"! The longbow is a kind of single-material bow, which is almost geometric in shape, about 6 feet long, the arrow is 3 feet long, and the grip on the bow is about 1.5 inches wide. The range is the longest among all bows and arrows (twice that of a crossbow). The longer the bow, the greater the power. And the shooting speed can reach 10~12 rounds per minute. A good arrow can shoot through the close-fitting armor and the thigh of a person, then kill the mount or penetrate an inch of oak board! This kind of bow is most handy for the British. The legendary famous thief Robin Khan is a longbow master, because the longbow is usually about 2 meters long, and people under 1.75 meters tall cannot use it. The longbow requires very high arm strength (tension up to 170 pounds) of the archer. It takes a lot of training to train a longbowman, but a well-trained longbowman unit is the eternal nightmare of any enemy.

A brief discussion on the development of foreign bows and arrows

▲Stills of the protagonist holding a bow and arrow in the movie "Brave Heart"

In the Battle of Crécy, 20,000 British troops fought against 60,000 French troops. The British longbowmen made the armor on the French heavy infantry and cavalry seem useless. As a result of the battle, 15,000 French heavy cavalry and infantry and 1,542 lords and knights died in battle, while only 200 British soldiers were killed or wounded! When excavating the battlefield ruins at that time, people found an arrow that penetrated both sides of the metal helmet. In other words, this arrow pierced the helmet and skull of the unfortunate soldier twice! When shooting at the enemy's dense formation, longbowmen usually set the arrow's shooting angle at about 30 degrees, so that the arrow can accurately hit the enemy formation 300 yards away and maintain a strong lethality! The secret of the longbow is in the arrow shaft used. The bow body of the longbow is made of a special European cedar wood with excellent elasticity, which is the same as in other European regions, but the strange thing is that even the arrow shaft is the same