History of Archery

Archery is seriously old school; Humans have been drawing the bow since the dawn of time. It all started with hunting for food, then we started shooting each other in wars, but with gunpowder being a more effective warfare tool we now use archery for sport and recreation.

The first forms of bows were probably short bows. People would have used them for hunting in woods, particularly the Red Indians of the Americas. Composite bows were developed by the Egyptians; they made the string from sheep guts. They would then ride on the back of Chariot and shoot enemies. I’m sure this was quite a sight to behold.

The Chinese built the first Cross-Bows. The Chinese Emperors loved them as much as we do today and would learn how to use them along with their entire armies. The Arabs mastered the art of shooting arrows from the back of a horse, no mean feat.

That crazy Hungarian, Attila the Hun built his enormous empire using composite bows as his weapon of choice. They we often the deciding factor in many victories. Genghis Khan and his hordes came from Mongolia and built an empire on the spilt blood of people across eastern Europe and Asia. The Mongols were expert horsemen who could stand high in the stirrups and shoot arrows in every direction.

The Japanese embraced Archery as a way of life with two forms, Kyudo and Yabusame. They are still popular to this day. Believe it or not Archery made a connection with Zen Buddhism.

King Harold is believed to have been killed by an arrow in the eye during the Norman invasion of England in 1066AD. At that point the English didn’t use bows and arrows much and suffered a loss as a result. They picked up the skill soon after and used archery to defeat the French not long after.

The English became the bastions of Archery and used it in their wars until the 1600’s when guns and gun powder overtook the ancient bow and arrow. Pistols might be more reliable and accurate, but surely they aren’t as fun?

Archery first appeared in the Olympics in 1900 in Paris, but was dropped for many years, as there was no fixed set of international rules. Finally it returned in 1972 in Munich, and now features four events in the summer Olympics: Men’s Individual, Women’s Individual, Men’s Team and Women’s Team.

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