A Brief History of the Bow Arrowheads have been found in Africa that date back as far as 25,000 to 50,000 B.C. Throughout the next few tens of thousands of years, humans had PLENTY of time to refine their techniques. Fire-hardening arrow heads, fletching arrow shafts to improve their flight characteristics, "tillering" bows so that the upper and lower limbs had the same bend radius, etc. All of these improvements helped increase the efficiency and accuracy of the bow and arrow, and helped humans to survive and advance throughout the ages. One major advance was the creation of composite bows. Around 2,800 B.C. people began blending different materials together to create better bows. The Egyptians of these times had long composite bows capable of shooting an arrow up to 400 yards! As you can see, the bow has been around a long while. It wasn't until recently, however, that the actual design of the bow itself was changed. In fact, this ingenious modification happened about forty years ago...