What were ancient bows and arrows made of?

Bow materials should be tailored to local conditions. According to "Bow Craftsman", bow making requires "six materials", namely "stem, horn, tendon, glue, silk and paint".

"Dry" is dominated by Zhemu, followed by beech and oak, followed by bamboo. There is only bamboo in the south. From this point of view, the south bow is second to the north bow. The horn is the horn of the beast, and the buffalo horn is the top. There are no buffaloes in the north, so they are replaced by horns. The northern bow is not as good as the southern bow. Tendon refers to the tendon of animals, glue refers to swim bladder glue, silk refers to tendon silk, which makes the bow stronger, and paint is used to prevent moisture and corrosion.

The traditional angle-reinforced composite bow is exquisite in materials and complicated in process, which can be roughly divided into six processes: repairing the bow tire, sticking the angle, sticking the handle, laying the reinforcement, pulling the string and painting.

The arch tire should be made of good wood with uniform length and thickness, and then the corner pieces should be glued to the inside of the arch wall with boiled swim bladder glue to ensure uniform thickness and seamless bonding. Secondly, the beef tendon or beef tendon is shredded and wound on the arch wall with a "walking rope", and finally the string is drawn and colored. The process is complicated, and every line should not be sloppy, otherwise the bow made will turn over, which is called "turning over the bow to kill the cow".

Extended data:

As early as 30,000 years ago in the late Paleolithic period, people in China began to use bows and arrows. The earliest arrows were very simple. Cut it to a certain length with a tree stick or bamboo pole, and sharpen one end.

The real origin of the arrow should be the stone age of primitive society. People grind stone pieces, bones or shells into sharp shapes and install them at one end of the shaft to make arrows with stone arrows, bone arrows or shell arrows, which is a big step forward compared with arrows cut with wooden sticks and bamboo poles. Because the ancient arrow shaft is difficult to preserve so far, only arrows are often left in unearthed objects.

There are many kinds of stones, bones and mussels in Neolithic age, such as rods, leaves and triangles, and some have stems and barbs. The bronze arrow in the early Shang Dynasty was first unearthed at Erlitou site in Yanshi County, Henan Province. In Shang and Zhou dynasties, the main styles of bronze arrows were ridge and wing. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, triangular cymbals prevailed. In the Warring States period, this kind of cymbal was often equipped with iron rings to save copper. It took about 200 years for the transition from copper to iron to begin after the Han Dynasty.

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