Bows
Bows used in war can be broken into two very broad categories. Composite bows and Longbows. Battlefield performance of both weapons is pretty much the same. Longbows had the advantage of being cheaper and easier to make, however pertty much everywhere but southeast asia (southern india, indo china, and the indonesian archapeligo) the composite bow displaced the longbow.
Predating the composite bow, the longbow required good hardwood, abundent in SE asia. The longbow was much more resistent to moisture and heat. This probably explains it's retention in SE asia.
Composed primarily of horn and sinew the composite bow was more expensive and time consuming to manufacture. However it was shorter, handier, and the materials for it's construction were readily availble everywhere (Had beef for dinner? Favorite horse just died?). The rise of chariot and later cavalry probably fueled the developemnt of the shorter composite bow. Both the persian and egyptian empires of antiquity were built on the backs of this weapon.
The classic use in warfare was as the "arrow storm." This is the classic strategy of firing as many arrows as possible at the opposing force attempting to "blot out the sun." In this strategy arrows would not be considered armor piercing, indeed the wounds inflicted by arrows used in this manner would hardly even be considered life threatening (unless like Harold at Hastings you catch one in the eye). That is unless they hadn't been poisoned.
Poisoned arrows are mentioned in the some of the earliest writings. The Scythian hero Heracles both used arrow poison and died from it. Herodotus' reciepe for Scythian arrow poison is as follows.
Dig a hole
Insert freshly dead venomous snake into hole
Defecate into hole
Cover hole and wait a week.
Coat your arrow heads in the resulting slime
This was common right up until the introduction of gun powder. Standing under an arrow storm in armor with a shield meant you were likely to survive the barrage. If you so much as even got scratched you'd have wanted to seek immediate medical attention before infection and gangrene set in. This was a bummer for morale.
In the Bayeux tapestry Norman archers are shown with their arrows in the dirt. The only reason to do this is because you don't want to defecate into your quiver. Horse archers weren't able to do this, having to draw their arrows from quivers, and no one ever complained that it slowed their rate of fire.
All war bows were able to peirce mail up to about 10 meters if wielded by a professional archer. This wasnt seen as an issue. After all this was what shields were for. Plate armors were introduced to combat early firearms.
Now the Welsh longbow was something special altogether. It was clearly a superior weapon system in the cattle rustling/raid/reprisal raid that charcaterized warfare in the absence of the nation state. Remember the Normans were originally vikings that settled in France and knowing a good idea when they saw it adopted cavalry. Upon encountering the Welsh longbow the decendents of the Normans abandoned the cavalry charge in favor of the longbow.
Someone said that the longbow was cheap. Not true. The English were importing yew staves from the continent by the reign of Edward the IV for the construction of longbows. The poeple of England were paying their taxes in arrows throughout the hundred years war. The use of the longbow died out because the yew became an endangered species thorught Europe because of English demand. No other wood would do for the english longbow.
Another point made in the thread was that bodkin points were made of hard iron and would shatter upon impact. This would have been seen as a plus since it would prevent your opponent from firing it back at you. The romans used soft iron in the constrution of their pilums (javelins) so that if they hit a shield the weapon would deform preventing their opponents from throwing the weapon back at the romans.
One of the biggest mysteries concerning ancient archery I know of comes from the obelisk describing Ramses 'victory' at Karnack. The Egyptians are supposed to have fired reed arrows 800 meters. How does one fire an arrow made of reeds? Some sort of sabot system maybe? Take a regular arrow shaft, split in half, cut a groove in the middle and place the reed there. With a good tail wind maybe you'll get 800 meters out of it? Would be a good harassing weapon if nothing else.
I share my knowledge of croosbows tomorrow.
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