Sudanese spearheads with handles & arrow heads???

katana · 18th May 2006, 05:48 PM

Hi Fearn,

You’ve pre-empted my next question, about the bow and arrow. The development of the bow and arrow in Africa seems 'stunted'. The development of a stick 'that's 4/5ths broken' in prehistoric times to the accurate and powerful bows of the medieval period (and beyond) made sense.
Obviously, for hunting, this silent weapon has its place. For early warfare they were the artillery and an essential first attack strategy. English longbow archers were said to be able to 'loose' 6-8 arrows a minute, as the French found out, to their cost at Agincourt. The 'rain of death' would kill, wound and panic an advancing army.
In Africa, the Ancient Egyptians, Carthaginians etc. employed quality bows in their arsenals. But, strangely, at a tribal level the bow and arrow is not that common and their design still relatively basic. Again this doesn't make sense.
My question is this, in Tribal warfare, long range projectiles such as atlatl thrown darts and arrows would be an advantage, especially if your opponents had none.
So I wondered if many of the tribes REFUSED to employ these devices because they felt they were 'cowardly' and that 'close quarter combat' is more honourable. Or was it just literally, the advantage of such weapons was 'overlooked’.

I agree, the Aztec’s would have surely repelled their invaders had they not suffered defeat due to unintentional ‘biological warfare’.

Thanks for the distance of thrown darts…….800m is amazing. I’ve made a few ‘home made’ ones, easy to make and a bit of fun,… better, if you’ve a dog that will retrieve the thrown darts

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18th May 2006, 05:48 PM	#8
katana Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Kent Posts: 2,658	Hi Fearn, You’ve pre-empted my next question, about the bow and arrow. The development of the bow and arrow in Africa seems 'stunted'. The development of a stick 'that's 4/5ths broken' in prehistoric times to the accurate and powerful bows of the medieval period (and beyond) made sense. Obviously, for hunting, this silent weapon has its place. For early warfare they were the artillery and an essential first attack strategy. English longbow archers were said to be able to 'loose' 6-8 arrows a minute, as the French found out, to their cost at Agincourt. The 'rain of death' would kill, wound and panic an advancing army. In Africa, the Ancient Egyptians, Carthaginians etc. employed quality bows in their arsenals. But, strangely, at a tribal level the bow and arrow is not that common and their design still relatively basic. Again this doesn't make sense. My question is this, in Tribal warfare, long range projectiles such as atlatl thrown darts and arrows would be an advantage, especially if your opponents had none. So I wondered if many of the tribes REFUSED to employ these devices because they felt they were 'cowardly' and that 'close quarter combat' is more honourable. Or was it just literally, the advantage of such weapons was 'overlooked’. I agree, the Aztec’s would have surely repelled their invaders had they not suffered defeat due to unintentional ‘biological warfare’. Thanks for the distance of thrown darts…….800m is amazing. I’ve made a few ‘home made’ ones, easy to make and a bit of fun,… better, if you’ve a dog that will retrieve the thrown darts