page_title: History of archery
section_title: Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic
hierarchical_section_title: History of archery / Prehistory / Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic
caption_attribution_description: Español: Combate de arqueros pintado en rojo oscuro. Morella la Vella, provincia de Castellón, en el este de España Français&#160;: Combat d'archers en rouge sombre. Morella la Vella, province de Castellón, dans l'est de l'Espagne English: Cave painting of a battle between archers, Cueva del Roure, Morella la Vella, Castellón, Valencia, Spain. Dated to the late Mesolithic, dubbed the "earliest surviving image of combat" (although no precise dating is possible). Literature: Keith F. Otterbein, How War Began (2004), p. 72f. Žiga Šmit, "Archery by the Apaches – implications of using the bow and arrow in hunter-gatherer communities", Documenta Praehistorica XLIII (2016), p. 516.
context_page_description: Archery, or the use of bow and arrows, was developed by the end of the Upper Paleolithic. Archery has been an important military and hunting skill for over 10,000 years and figures prominently in the mythologies of many cultures. Archers, whether on foot, in chariots or mounted on horses were a major part of most military forces until they began being gradually supplemented, then replaced, by firearms in the Late Middle Ages and in the early modern period. Gunpowder, which was first developed in China in the 9th century AD, was initially used to enhance projectile weapons including arrows. Firearms diffused throughout Eurasia by the gunpowder empires, gradually reducing the importance of archery in warfare.
  Nonetheless, archery is still practiced today, including in the training regime of certain special forces. It also continues to be a popular sport, most commonly in the form of target archery, but in some places also for hunting.
context_section_description: The oldest known evidence of arrows comes from the South African site of Sibudu Cave, where the remains of bone and stone arrowheads  have been found dating approximately 60,000–70,000 years ago.
  Based on indirect evidence, the bow seems also to have also appeared or reappeared later in Eurasia, near the transition from the Upper Paleolithic to the Mesolithic. The earliest definite remains of bow and arrow from Europe are possible fragments from Germany found at Mannheim-Vogelstang dated 17,500–18,000 years ago, and at Stellmoor dated 11,000 years ago. Azilian points found in Grotte du Bichon, Switzerland, alongside the remains of both a bear and a hunter, with flint fragments found in the bear's third vertebra, suggest the use of arrows at 13,500 years ago.
  At the site of Nataruk in Turkana County, Kenya, obsidian bladelets found embedded in a skull and within the thoracic cavity of another skeleton, suggest the use of stone-tipped arrows as weapons about 10,000 years ago. 
  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.
  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 (11,000–9,000 BP). 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.
  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. 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 1.50 m (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 120 cm (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.
  The oldest depictions of combat, found in Iberian cave art of the Mesolithic, show battles between archers.
  A group of three archers encircled by a group of four is found in Cueva del Roure,   Morella la Vella, Castellón, Valencia. A depiction of a larger battle (which may, however, date to the early Neolithic), in which eleven archers are attacked by seventeen running archers, is found in Les Dogue, Ares del Maestrat, Castellón, Valencia.
  At Val del Charco del Agua Amarga, Alcañiz, Aragon, seven archers with plumes on their heads are fleeing a group of eight archers running in pursuit.
  Archery seems to have arrived in the Americas via Alaska, as early as 6000 BC, with the Arctic small tool tradition, about 2,500 BC, spreading south into the temperate zones as early as 2,000 BC, and was widely known among the indigenous peoples of North America from about 500 AD.
caption: Cave painting of a battle between archers, Morella la Vella, Valencia, Spain.
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