Main Discussion Area > Bows
Photos of intentionally deflexed bows?
Aksel:
Poachers bow? Nice. Makes me wonder if it by any chance would shoot more quietly?
Selfbowman:
Good friend gave me that bow before he passed on. Story I got is they would wound the animal with a rifle track the animal and finish it off away from the scene. But yes I think they could be more quiet.
NonBacked:
Quick Google search...
http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/southernsudan/details.php- db=p&add=1967.26.248_O.jpg&a=1967.26.248&cap=Burun+man+shooting+arrow.html
Aksel:
Interesting topic this.
I was reading in G. Rausings book "The Bow" and he says the double convex bow (as seen in lonbows links) originated indeed from south of Egypt where Nubian mercenaries brought the bow north (from present days Sudan to Egypt and beyond.)
Egyptians referred to Nubia as "Ta-Seti", or "The Land of the Bow," as the Nubians were known to be expert archers.
He also speculates some double segment bows where of antelope (Oryx?) hornes joined together in the handle at an angle. Maybe the explains the odd shape and perhaps did people try and replicate the shape of this famous bow design with selfbows ?
Guess we are drifting away from the original question :)
lonbow:
Thank you very much for the interesting pictures!
It's very interesting that the bows Hadza were seldom unbraced. I belive there is actually a good point in it: I think that these bows don't have any nocks that hold the string. The ancient Egyptian bows didn't. The strings were attached to the bow using knots and windings. I also did it like that and I can say that bracing a bow like that takes some time and doesn't work well if you are in a hurry. But there seems to be a difference between Hadza bows and ancient Egyptian bows: The Hadza bows show a lot of set from being braced for a long time while the preserved Egyptian bows don't. This rises the question, if those ancient Egyptian burial bows were actually used before or especially made for that purpose. Or maybe they just unbraced the bow each time so they didn't take much set.
I just had another idea, why those bows were/are made with deflex tip regions. I think that the tied knots don't slip that easy, because the direction of load is closer to 90 degrees.
With regard to hornbows, I don't know any Egyptian examples with the same shape. According to my knowledge they were brought to Egypt by the Hyksos, a nomadic tribe, before the beginning of the new kingdom. These bows were angular bows with deflexed grips and reflexed bow limbs. But the shape of those antilope horns might fit perfectly for this kind of bow.
lonbow
here's a picture of Egyptian bows. The upper one is a selfbow and the lower ones are composite bows. Their shape is different.
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/9bow.html
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