| Whenever archers get together there are | | | | appearance in Europe late in this period |
| always those among them who would have us | | | | between forty thousand and twenty-five |
| believe because our ancestors shot a bow five | | | | thousand years ago and near the end of the |
| thousand or fifty thousand years ago that we | | | | Fourth Glacial Age. |
| moderns can shoot a bow instinctively and all | | | | |
| that we have to do to hit a mark or bag our | | | | From ten thousand to twelve thousand years |
| buck is to take a deep breath, look at the | | | | ago, Neolithic man migrated to Western |
| target, draw the arrow back to the ear, and | | | | Europe. The Neolithic men of Europe were |
| let fly. | | | | white men ancestral to the modern Europeans. |
| | | | This stage in culture is characterized in |
| Well, if you buy that line, you will not be | | | | part by the abundance of stone arrow heads. |
| any better a marksman than your remote | | | | And so we conclude that at this relatively |
| ancestors. Legends about Robin Hood's merry | | | | recent stage in our human history our |
| men to the contrary, your ancestors were | | | | ancestors learned to use the bow. The origin |
| inferior marksmen by modern standards. With | | | | of the bow, however, is lost in the |
| primitive equipment, they developed the art | | | | uncertainties of fixing exact dates for the |
| of stalking game to a high degree in order to | | | | different cultures of mankind. Excellent |
| close to point-blank-range to register a hit. | | | | drawings of archers are found in the |
| | | | Palaeolithic carvings at Castellon, Spain and |
| In the thousands of years since man first | | | | elsewhere. These carvings date back according |
| stood on his feet and walked, the period in | | | | to anthropologists from fifteen thousand to |
| which he has used missile weapons is of | | | | thirty-five thousand years. |
| relatively short duration. No one can fix the | | | | |
| exact "time" of man's arrival on earth and | | | | In Asia, during the early periods of recorded |
| even as late as the year 1860, the majority | | | | history, great military nations used a |
| of scientists believed man's existence | | | | composite, reflexed bow of horn, wood, and |
| covered a span of less than 6,000 years. | | | | sinew, that had a drawing weight up to one |
| | | | hundred pounds. The ancient Greeks, |
| Since that date, evidence of man's antiquity | | | | Assyrians, Turks, and Chinese, were adepts in |
| yielded through the discovery of ancient | | | | the use of this type of bow. The metal bow, |
| graves, fossilized remains found in | | | | however, is a product of the twentieth |
| geological formations laid down in the past, | | | | century, while one of the latest developments |
| and excavations carried out in the | | | | in the bowyer's art is the fibre-glass bow. |
| exploration of caves in France and elsewhere | | | | |
| in Western Europe, permitted archaeologists | | | | Even a casual reader or a student of history |
| to establish that man was certainly in | | | | must conclude that individual aimed fire of |
| existence at the beginning of the Pleistocene | | | | missile weapons is a relatively modern |
| period. Unfortunately no sure means of | | | | development. The tactics employed by the |
| estimating the duration of these periods in | | | | military nations of the, past in the use of |
| terms of years is as yet known to geologists. | | | | missile weapons such as the bow and in still |
| Estimates vary from two hundred and fifty | | | | more recent times, firearms, are indicative |
| thousand years to one million and five | | | | of the little importance attached to accurate |
| hundred thousand years as the length of the | | | | individual marksmanship in the relatively |
| period. The most reliable evidence now at our | | | | recent past. |
| disposal indicates that man made his first | | | | |