The Beginning of the Bow

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Why was the bow and arrow so widely used to replace the atlatl? To address this question, I present a study on the creation and use of the longbow and arrow in its early use, as well as the transition from the atlatl with focus on the effectiveness of both tools in penetrating power and accuracy at varying ranges to determine which is the overall more effective weapon. Using modern bow-making tools and techniques with the materials of yew, hickory, and ash wood, I re-created both kinds of tools from the Woodland period in eastern North America to test against whole meat products that represent prey animals of the time and ballistic gel molds for a consistent measure of the penetrating power. These tests are currently ongoing and I will be presenting my findings at the SAA conference.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36750.0