Hi all,

There are a few technologies that fundamentally shifted human relationships with the natural world and with each other. The advent of bow and arrow technology is one of those. The earliest evidence of archery yet discovered is 64,000 years ago in South Africa where several stone points were found showing signs of being hafted to shafts and used to kill game. Recently archaeologists found evidence of bow and arrow use in southern France in the Rhone valley 54,000 years ago. Stone points have also been found in Sri Lanka that date to 48,000 years ago.

64,000 Year Old Tools from Subudu Cave, South Africa

Source: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0098359

This evidence demonstrates that archery was an early adaptation and that it spread widely. It never reached Australia, but it did eventually replace the old atlatl and dart technology that once dominated the earth everywhere but Australia, Mesoamerica, and parts of Florida.

An arrow was just a smaller version of the dart, and the stone points required the same flintknapping skill. The bows were more specialized as the limbs had to flex without breaking, but the principles of the atlatl and dart technology are quite similar. Eventually, folks in areas without good wood for bows developed composite bows of wood, horn, and sinew.

The reason bows and arrows superseded atlatl and darts was that they permitted attack from ambush and could be loosed from a kneeling position in addition to standing. They also allowed the archer to carry more projectiles and to shoot them more rapidly. After thousands of years, the smaller composite bows facilitated shooting from horseback. All of this meant that bows and arrows made hunters more efficient in hunting smaller game and more lethal in combat.

Unless your ancestors hail from Australia, the chances are they used the bow and arrow in their daily lives. This might be one reason why so many find archery so fascinating, and why we so love to watch movies or read books with archery in them.

Deliverance, the first book in the Archer of the Heathland series is still on sale for $1.99.

You can also read my most recent interview with Mike DeAngelo at Tellest.com https://tellest.com/interview-with-j-w-elliot/

Cheers,

James