http://users.skynet.be/fa057790/Rosendahl.pdf
interested to know what the other bow people think
it's not all in french and there are some interesting photos.
given the excellence of the holmegaard design it would seem probable that the bow was the result of a fairly long archery tradition.
My personal theory is that the bow came to promenance when the forests started to dominate the northern ecosystems. The spearthrower and dart uses similar technology to the bow, atlatl darts look very similar to new guinean and amazonian arrows.
the spearthrower may well have been suited to hunting large game (reindeer, horses) in huge herds in an open environment. While the bow may have been more suited to hunting small groups of animals (boar, deer) in a closed forest setting.
interested to know what the other bow people think
it's not all in french and there are some interesting photos.
given the excellence of the holmegaard design it would seem probable that the bow was the result of a fairly long archery tradition.
My personal theory is that the bow came to promenance when the forests started to dominate the northern ecosystems. The spearthrower and dart uses similar technology to the bow, atlatl darts look very similar to new guinean and amazonian arrows.
the spearthrower may well have been suited to hunting large game (reindeer, horses) in huge herds in an open environment. While the bow may have been more suited to hunting small groups of animals (boar, deer) in a closed forest setting.