Iron age style archery kit - any good places for info?

[John Fenna]

The title says it all realy - does anyone have a source of info on the style of bows and equipment that your average Iron Age archer in Britain might have used?
All my sources tell me is that bows were used more for hunting than for war ... and that is all!

 

[mountainm]

Hi John

You may get the answer you seek here:
http://paleoplanet.net/

Cheers

Mike

 

[Colin.W]

If I remember my school days correctly mind you it was a few years ago, Iron age settlements were built so they could be defended so I guess they had to have something to defend against against. They were obviously pretty switched on people and if any of us had bow technology and were being attacked I'm fairly certain the bow would be used to defend my home not just for putting meat on the menu. but as there are no accurate records of wars or fights around that era it is only speculation as to the percentage of hunting vs fighting
Bow tech had been around for quite a few years and well advanced by the time iron age man came around The bronze age bows were quite well on their way to being what we now recognise as fairly modern self bows

 

[palmnut]

Sorry John, but bows and arrow heads almost disappear totally from the UK archaeological record by the middle of the Bronze Age (as you'll remember John, I'm studying early Bronze Age kit and bows at the moment, so I was only reading up on this last night). There is the odd sporadic arrow head found in Iron Age contexts, but it is often hard to disprove these as background/residual rather than truly Iron Age.

Evidence for archery only reappears in the ground as the weapons that the Romans brought with them (and they were mainly balllista type heavy weapons rather than hand bows - that said I do see references to short composite bows used as a Roman cavalry weapon). Evidence for hand bows reappears in this country with the Saxons and Vikings and really started to come back in strength after the Norman invasion.

Pretty much the one period not to chose to be an archer from is the Iron Age - if you want weapons then you're looking at spears and/or swords

Edit: Or slings, of course - plenty of evidence for sling ammo stockpiles...

Final edit: A good debate on this, with some very good points made, here: http://www.kelticos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1911

Peter

 

[Skaukraft]

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php
You might also want to contact this guy: http://kviljo.no/bue/
He's an archeologist who specialise in bows, and is an extremely skilled bowyer.
You find his contakt information under "Kontakt".

 

[HillBill]

Longbows were used as hunting tools long before they were ever used in warfare. It was because of their range and power that they were adopted, but they were a very specialised hunting tool back then, not many could use them and those that did, will have had close relatives that did and taught them from a young age.

 

[palmnut]

Bows were used in warfare (or at least skirmishes) back in the mesolithic. There is a cave painting from a rock shelter at Las Dogues, East Spain showing two groups of bowmen in combat and flint splinters/arrow heads turn up in corpses from this period.

Say it again though: no secure UK archaeological record for archery in the Iron Age.

Peter

 

[John Fenna]

OK ... time for me to rethink then
A pity realy as I am rediscovering an interest in archery as well as discovering an interest in Iron Age experimental archeology/dressing up....

 

[palmnut]

Go Bronze Age! Go Bronze Age!

Have you seen some of those incredible bronze swords? For a deadly weapon, they're a thing of incredible beauty!

Plus, casting basic bronze stuff is something just about in the grasp of a dedicated amateur with a bit of guidance. Lost wax clay molds. Clay furnace. Leather or hair-on-skin bellows. Charcoal. Fire. Glowing hot metal. Lots of opportunities to injure yourself horribly. What more can you want from a weekends pastime?

;-)

Peter

 

[John Fenna]

Go Bronze Age! Go Bronze Age!

Have you seen some of those incredible bronze swords? For a deadly weapon, they're a thing of incredible beauty!

Plus, casting basic bronze stuff is something just about in the grasp of a dedicated amateur with a bit of guidance. Lost wax clay molds. Clay furnace. Leather or hair-on-skin bellows. Charcoal. Fire. Glowing hot metal. Lots of opportunities to injure yourself horribly. What more can you want from a weekends pastime?

;-)

Peter

Casting is a bit beyond me ... plus I will be working at an Iron Age site....

 

[boatman]

Longbows were used as hunting tools long before they were ever used in warfare. It was because of their range and power that they were adopted, but they were a very specialised hunting tool back then, not many could use them and those that did, will have had close relatives that did and taught them from a young age.

How else would somebody learn to use a bow in the past but from an older relative? Nothing specialised about the longbow, just a bow anyone could learn to use, probably by having successively stronger bows as they grew as is the case with the Hadza (see Mears Wild Food).

Danish Iron Age bows exist worth looking at but would agree that the Bronze Age is probably more fun.

 

[dwardo]

Longbows were used as hunting tools long before they were ever used in warfare. It was because of their range and power that they were adopted, but they were a very specialised hunting tool back then, not many could use them and those that did, will have had close relatives that did and taught them from a young age.

Some say the beginning of archery was the beginning of the end. Prior to this the atlatl would have been used to get enough food for your family. Then comes along the new fangled bow and arrow that can then take multiple game with much greater ease, more than you need and so begins consumerism.

 

[Wayland]

Casting is a bit beyond me ... plus I will be working at an Iron Age site....

We did a little bit of bronze casting a Henllys a few years ago.

Just an experiment really but we got a pour, although the casting was a bit poor.

Did you see what I did there...

 

[palmnut]

Ohhhh soooo shiiiiney!

http://www.bronze-age-swords.com/British_and_European.htm

You know you waaaaannnnntttt one!

Peter

 

[ateallthepies]

No clue about the Iron Age but earlier Neolithic bows took the shape of man sized flat bows like the Meare Heath bow found in Somerset. So the knowledge was around long before metal was used. It's hard to see such a good weapon as a bow being not used in certain periods, maybe the evidence has yet to be discovered in the Archaeological record?

Steve.

 

[John Fenna]

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" eh?

 

[dwardo]

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" eh?

Considering how many bows we have actually found compared to how many there must have been.
But that's wood for you, its designed by nature to decay.

 

[palmnut]

True. Depends on whether you want to be an Iron Age man whose kit you can justify with evidence or one that is plausible by the extension of the known technology over, what shall we say, a 700+ year gap in the UK record.

The British LN/EBA bows were generally narrow, man-height, D section (with the curved part of the D at the back of the bow, not on the belly as per the medieval long bow), made of yew and may or may not have had a defined handle section - it seems to be personal choice on the handle form. Meare Heath is currently a one of a kind. Better to look to the finds from Edington Burtle or the Cambridge Fens (in 1895) as direct examples.

Peter

 

[John Fenna]

So... a convincing argument could be made for an EBA style bow being used in the Iron Age ....
One would be beyond my skills at the moment (I have only made a Father/son bow and a Bhutanese Bamboo bow - both with help) but I wonder if some cunning friends could help....

 

[ateallthepies]

Iron Age bows have been found in Denmark and Northern Germany though I am unsure if any have been found in Britain? Discoveries in Vimose, Kragehule, Thorsbjerg, Heechterp and Nydam of Long Bows dated to between 100 and 350 A.D. They resembled the later English Long Bows in they were of a D section profile with one ring followed on the back. Made of Yew and possibly Fir the lengths ranged from 66 to 76 inches. Some bows had one set of nocks others two. some were cut into the back others in the side. The Vimose bows had the Yew sapwood left on the back and some of the limb tips were entirely sapwood.

Traditional Bowyers Bible volume 2 page 100.

Steve.