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The bow and arrow are known to have been invented by the end of the Upper Paleolithic. Projectile points (used on spears or atlatl darts) are known from earlier prehistory, dating to the Middle Paleolithic. Bows eventually replaced spear-throwers as the predominant means for launching sharp projectiles on all continents except Australia. Archery was an important military and hunting skill before the widespread and efficient use of firearms, throughout classical antiquity and the medieval period. Arrows were especially destructive against unarmoured masses and the use of archers often proved decisive. Mounted archers combined range with speed and mobility. Archery is also featured prominently in the mythologies of many cultures. ==Stone Age and Bronze Age archery== The bow seems to have been invented near the transition from the Upper Paleolithic to the Mesolithic, roughly 10,000 years ago. Spears or darts are much older; it has been suggested that some early points from Africa might have been arrowheads.〔(dated to at least 64,000 years ago; Early Weapon Evidence Reveals Bloody Past. Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News 31 March 2008 )〕〔 "Explicit tests for distinctions between thrown spears and projected arrows have not yet been conducted, and many of the segments could have been employed equally successfully as insets for spears or arrows (Lombard & Pargeter 2008)." 〕 The oldest indication for archery in Europe comes from Stellmoor in the Ahrensburg valley north of Hamburg, Germany. They were associated with artifacts of the late Paleolithic (11,000-9,000BP). The arrows were made of pine and consisted of a mainshaft and a 15-20 centimetre (6-8 inches) long foreshaft with a flint point. They had shallow grooves on the base, indicating that they were shot from a bow.〔McEwen E, Bergman R, Miller C. Early bow design and construction. Scientific American 1991 vol. 264 pp76-82.〕 The oldest definite bows known so far come from the Holmegård swamp in Denmark. In the 1940s, two bows were found there, dated to about 8,000 BP.〔Charles E. Grayson, Mary French, Michael J. O'Brien. Traditional Archery from Six Continents: The Charles E. Grayson Collection. University of Missouri Press 2007. ISBN 978-0-8262-1751-6 p=1〕 The Holmegaard bows are made of elm and have flat arms and a D-shaped midsection. The center section is biconvex. The complete bow is (5 ft) long. Bows of Holmegaard-type were in use until the Bronze Age; the convexity of the midsection has decreased with time. Mesolithic pointed shafts have been found in England, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. They were often rather long, up to (4 ft) and made of European hazel (''Corylus avellana''), wayfaring tree (''Viburnum lantana'') and other small woody shoots. Some still have flint arrow-heads preserved; others have blunt wooden ends for hunting birds and small game. The ends show traces of fletching, which was fastened on with birch-tar. In the Levant, artifacts which may be arrow-shaft straighteners are known from the Natufian culture, (ca. 12,800-10,300 BP) onwards. The Khiamian and PPN A shouldered Khiam-points may well be arrowheads. Bows and arrows have been present in Egyptian culture since its predynastic origins. The "Nine Bows" symbolize the various peoples that had been ruled over by the pharaoh since Egypt was united. Archery seems to have arrived in the Americas via Alaska, as early as 6000 BCE, with the Arctic small tool tradition, about 2,500 BCE, spreading south into the temperate zones as early as 2,000 BCE, and was widely known among the indigenous peoples of North America from about 500 CE.〔Brian Fagan. The first North Americans. Thames and Hudson, London, 2011. ISBN 978-0-500-02120-0〕 An archery game was widely practiced among the societies of the Southern US which involved shooting at a hoop rolled with a forked stick. Points were scored based on how the arrow landed. The competition was popularly related to notions of fertility.〔Hodge, Frederick Webb (1907). ''Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Vol 1'' pg 485. Government Printing Office〕 After the introduction of horses to the Americas, tribesmen of the Great Plains became extremely adept at archery on horseback. The oldest Neolithic bow known from Europe was found in anaerobic layers dating between 7,400-7,200 BP, the earliest layer of settlement at the lake settlement at La Draga, Banyoles, Girona, Spain. The intact specimen is short at 1.08m, has a D-shaped cross-section, and is made of yew wood.〔(accessed The oldest Neolithic Bow discovered in Europe, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2012. 1 July 2012 )〕 European Neolithic fortifications, arrow-heads, injuries, and representations indicate that, in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Europe, archery was a major form of interpersonal violence.〔Bronze Age Warfare. Richard Osgood and Sarah Monks with Judith Toms. The History Press 2000. pp.139-142〕 Stone wrist-guards, interpreted as display versions of bracers, form a defining part of the Beaker culture and arrowheads are also commonly found in Beaker graves. Chariot-borne archers became a defining feature of Middle Bronze Age warfare, from Europe to Eastern Asia and India. However, in the Middle Bronze Age, with the development of massed infantry tactics, and with the use of chariots for shock tactics or as prestigious command vehicles, archery seems to have lessened in importance in European warfare.〔 In approximately the same period, with the Seima-Turbino Phenomenon and the spread of the Andronovo culture, mounted archery became a defining feature of Eurasian nomad cultures and a foundation of their military success, until the massed use of guns. In China, crossbows were developed, and Han Dynasty writers attributed Chinese success in battles against nomad invaders to the massed use of crossbows, first definitely attested at the Battle of Ma-Ling in 341 BCE.〔Needham (1986), Volume 5, Part 6, 124–128.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of archery」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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