History of Archery


    The bow and arrow predates written history. By the time the last Ice age ended the technology had spread to every inhabited continent except Australia. The oldest bows in one piece are the Elm Holmegaard Bows from Denmark that date to around 9,000 BC.  The last bows to be dated to around that time period were from northern Germany and called the Stellmoor Fragments. Unfortunately they were destroyed during the Second World War. These bows weren’t aged using carbon 14 dating but their age was assumed to be the archeological association. Believe it or not current bows still use that same basic design.

   
Since its invention the bow has been an important instrument for hunting and warfare. People still use it today for hunting but its use in warfare died out mostly in Europe during the late 16 century. Whereas it continued to be used in the new world by the natives until the late 19 century.
 Up until the early 1860’s late 1870’s archery was fairly small and not a popular American hobby in comparison to its current status today. In 1878, Maurice Thompson published the book The Witchery of Archery, which inspired a lot of people to pick up the bow and arrow. In 1879, the newly founded National Archery Association (NAA) which formed in Indiana held the first U.S- sponsored tournament.
    In 1934 archery reentered the Olympics. Holless Wilbur Allen is a man well known in the archery community. He felt that bows could be adjusted using cams and or levers to make them more powerful. After several attempts he found that the mechanical advantages presented by adding cams to either end of the bow allowed one to draw a bow and hold it there using less energy than it took to draw it. This gave hunters and recreational archers a huge advantage when hunting or in competition. He patented his idea in 1966 and of the companies that bought rights to his original patent only one still exists, PSE (Precision Shooting Equipment).