# Ancient archers



## Stuka1166 (Oct 19, 2006)

Watched another show on THC about ancient archers and how they put the bows together...The similarities between the ancient ingredients and what we use today are quite interesting.

Back in the day of the Egyptian ruler "Ramses", the egyptians used wood, horn, sinew and resin to make their "composite" bows.

Wood we of course use today...Horn is essentially carbon...The animal sinew is very similar to fiberglass, and resins today are used on everything. Back then the resin was made from fish, although I am not sure how they made it.

The ancient archers could attain speeds of 300 FPS...But I am not sure how heavy the bows were ??

Just thought I would shine a little light on the subject !!!


----------



## NRen2k5 (Mar 30, 2007)

Mass? I don't have a clue.

Draw weight? Well, English war bows were typically 70-120#. I think those composites would be about the same. Materials don't really limit the strength of a bow. What really limits the strength of a bow is the strength of the archer who'll be using it.


----------



## toxo (Jun 19, 2002)

*Archers in Days gone by*

Remember that most archers were trained in warfare. Arrows went up in masses by the hundreds. You did not have to be that good. But the English archers under law had to practice archery every Sunday afternoon and shoot out to 60 yards. You had to be,and I could be wrong on this, 12 years and up. Robert Hods Men would shoot at a willow wand. If you missed the man behind you got to hit you. If you hit the wand you did not get hit. Then the next man in back of you got to shoot and the same rules applied to him.
So you either got good or you had a lot of teeth knocked out/and or bruises.


----------

