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Length of warbows?

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WillS:

--- Quote from: adb on May 13, 2013, 04:28:22 pm ---I suppose it may also be possible that bows used for war were also pressed into service as hunting bows... simply being drawn shorter. I fear it's something we'll never know for certain. Many ancient manuscripts and illustrations are often poor representations of fact... example: often showing arrows being shot off the wrong side of the hand, etc.

--- End quote ---

With the risk of going slightly off topic here, this is something that's always intrigued me...

During the times when illustrators/artists were documenting archers in war, it's my understanding that it was almost compulsory for men to practice archery on a regular basis.  This means that all the illustrators and artists would have been trained in archery, at least to a base level.  Surely they'd know how a bow was drawn and shot, and would try to display as accurate a representation as possible?

An artist is always going to want to be as detailed and careful as possible, as nobody wants to have their work mocked.  So why would artists who understood archery all consistently get their drawings wrong?  Doesn't make sense!

Is there a chance they were right and we got it all wrong?  The Japanese shoot with their arrows resting on the right of the bow as compared to the left.  Just a thought, really.

adb:
I seriously doubt that artists or scribe types would have been required to pick up a warbow! More salt of the earth farmer & labourers likely. That's likely why they got it wrong!

WillS:
Ah thats a good point.  I had it in my head that ALL men/boys were required to learn.  Does seem odd though that the majority all put the arrows on the wrong side. 

Davepim:
The Japanese use a thumb-release rather than a three-fingered release, and as with any culture using the thumb (manchu, mongolian, korean, ancient egyptian etc.) the arrow must be on the opposite side of the bow to us - its to do with how the string slips out of the fingers upon release. As to manuscript representations, it's highly variable. Some are better than others; I have been through two entire books available as online resources: the Smithfield Decretals and the Queen Mary Psalter. The Decretals, in particular, are quite precise in differentiating between Warbows and Hunting bows, both in terms of the archer's draw-length and the size of the bow. It's perfectly evident that the illustrator knew the difference between the two bows; you don't need a 140lb longbow to shoot rabbits and other small game (what most ordinary people were permitted to shoot) and even for large Red Deer stags, 140lbs would be overkill. As a lighter bow, say 60lbs, performs really badly when left at around 74" length, it makes sense that these bows would have been shorter.

Dave

adb:
Would you be able to post some of those pictures?

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