A laminated bow is an archery bow in which different materials are laminated together to form the bow stave itself. Traditional

composite bow A composite bow is a traditional bow made from horn, wood, and sinew laminated together, a form of laminated bow. The horn is on the belly, facing the archer, and sinew on the outer side of a wooden core. When the bow is drawn, the sinew (s ...

s are normally not included, although their construction with horn, wood, and sinew might bring them within the above definition.

History

The

Egyptians Egyptians (, ; , ; ) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian identity is closely tied to Geography of Egypt, geography. The population is concentrated in the Nile Valley, a small strip of cultivable land stretchi ...

Scythians The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian noma ...

and

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

had been making laminate bows out of combinations of wood, horn and sinew as early as the 2nd millennium BCE. The oldest known laminated bows (made entirely of wood) belong to the

Scythian cultures The Scythian cultures was an archaeological horizon that flourished across the Eurasian Steppe during the Iron Age, from approximately the 9th century BC to the 2nd century AD. It included the Scythian, Sauromatian and Sarma ...

. A Scythian wood-laminate bow was discovered in the 19th century in Ukraine and is currently held at the Institute of Archaeology. It was constructed by laminating several fine strips of

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

and

alder Alders are trees of the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus includes about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species ex ...

wood, bound with

fish glue Animal glue is an adhesive that is created by prolonged boiling of animal connective tissue in a process called Rendering (animal products), rendering. In addition to being used as an adhesive, it is used for coating and sizing, in decorative co ...

and wrapped in birch bark. It had a double-curved shape, was long and may have been capable of shooting arrows at distances of over . In 2006, an international expedition to the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...

region in western

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

uncovered a laminate bow, associated with the Scythian

Pazyryk culture The Pazyryk culture ( ''Pazyrykskaya'' kul'tura) is a Saka (Central Asian Scythian cultures, Scythian) nomadic Iron Age archaeological culture (6th to 3rd centuries BC) identified by excavated artifacts and mummified humans found in the Siberian ...

. It is of a complicated construction, with many fine strips of wood glued side-by-side, and a wooden reinforcement plate glued to the handle. The entire bow was wrapped in spiral form with rawhide and birch bark; in addition to reinforcing the construction this also made the bow resistant to water and humidity. The bow is dated to the 3rd century BCE. The modern Japanese '' yumi'' is a laminated bow. Laminated bows in Japan first appeared around 1000 CE, during the late

Heian The Japanese word Heian (平安, lit. "peace") may refer to: * Heian period, an era of Japanese history * Heian-kyō, the Heian-period capital of Japan that has become the present-day city of Kyoto * Heian series, a group of karate kata (forms) * ...

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

. They were made of wood and bamboo laminated with glue, evolving from simple bamboo-backed bows to complex bows of five piece construction (''higo yumi'') by the 1600s. The Sámi and their neighboursRagnar Insulander. The Two-Wood Bow.
'' Acta Borealia'' 2002; 19: 49-73 across northern

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

also made laminated bows for centuries.

Hejaz Hejaz is a Historical region, historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes the majority of the western region of Saudi Arabia, covering the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif and Al Bahah, Al-B ...

Arabs may also have used a laminated bow. Reading Museum is in the possession of an

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

-made laminate bow. It was made in the Pelly Bay area of

Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

, Canada, and consists of three shims of bone laminated near the handle region, and reinforced at the joints with rawhide. It has two short driftwood arrows with bone points. They reflect the shortage of wood in the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

region and the improvisation of pre-contact indigenous Inuit.

References

{{Archery Bows (archery)

History

Further reading

References