With the notable exception of Australia and perhaps a part of Polynesia, the bow has been used throughout the world and in all types of habitats, ranging from the glacial landscapes of the Arctic, to the deserts of the Sahara and the Kalahari, the densest forests of the Amazon, the Eurasiatic steppe, and the North American prairies. It is difficult to determine with certainty when the bow made its first appearance. Bows are most often made of wood, as are the shafts of arrows, and are only preserved in particular depositional environments, such as peat bogs and water-logged lake sediments. These bows were made from elm which has very fine-grained annual growth rings that make it an excellent choice for raw material. The Holmegaard bows are long, with spindle-shaped contours that taper at the grip.
Most prehistoric bows are straight.
Wall paintings from the Spanish Levant illustrating double recurved bows are difficult to date precisely, but lie somewhere from the final Paleolithic to the Bronze Age. Due to the generalized nature of most archaeological research to date concerning the subject, not much detailed information is available regarding the timing of the appearance of the bow outside the European continent. The date of the introduction of the bow in America is controversial and supporting arguments for the various hypothesized dates are rarely sufficiently developed.