Meine Archery Through the Ages - In the Twilight of Truth

5. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-3-7357-9839-8
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 328 Seiten

--- The most shocking book in the history of archery --- If you want to know the truth, you must read his book. Straight forward, clear-cut, unbending. Greek or Roman mythology, legends, folk tales, trivial stories, conspiracy theories, common knowledge, scientific discoveries, old superstitions - the author critically evaluates their content and does not shy away from challenging taboos - or to unmask cherished values. Carefully researched, brilliantly analyzed, well-argued, convincing. A Cult Book of Archery History, not only for archers, but for all interested in search of the inspirational source of lies, hoaxes or the treasure box of the spin doctors. Satire at its best, entertaining and educational. When Roger Aschams work -Toxophilus- the first English book on archery, was the beginning, then this book closes the lid. For those who want to impress with wit, irony and confidence in debates and disputes on myths, legends and folktales and similar pseudo-cultural outpourings, this book is the ideal crib sheet and knowledge base.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Meine, Thomas M.

Leseproben

BOW AND ARROW – THE LONG-DISTANCE EFFECT

Since primeval times, people have been fascinated by bow and arrow. This combination was the first machine functioning an ‘extended arm’ of man, right after the throwing of stones or the spear. It is the epitome for the early beginnings of a more sophisticated ‘long-distance effect’.

Bow and arrow improved this long-distance effect, have mechanized it and made it more efficient. Now, the extended arm could reach farther and the distance to the target became larger and more secure. From the beginning, man has used this weapon not only for hunting, but also for armed conflict, murder and raids.

The system and technique of supplying an arrow with kinetic energy through the tension of limbs has been improved with the crossbow. Long before, catapults took up once again the principle of throwing stones. It all changed with the invention of the gunpowder. Cannons, guns and handheld weapons assumed the role of bow and arrow. Now, the warlike intention behind the long-distance effect went even more into the foreground.

Bombs and shells changed the scenery again. Missiles, so far generating their destructive forces solely from their momentum of mass and velocity, now carried destructive material to the target. The old flaming arrows already followed this principle.

Subsequently, this kind of the long-distance effect had to occur more and more away from the position of launching to prevent self-damage. Therefore, the fulfillment of a long dream of the human race, to be able to fly, came in handy also for this purpose – just bring it up and let it fall.

At the end of this development, we find the missiles. They now unite all features and we can even guide them to their target.

Today, if we follow the impact of remote-controlled missiles when watching TV and the news on the latest wars, we are – while far away from the events – scared and spellbound by the long-distance effect, whatever has been hit – or should not have been hit.

Many people and cultures who met during armed conflicts, have often fought with weapons from different stages of development. For the technical inferior side, this was mostly a conflict that, in the end, they could not win anymore.

However, if one looks at the history of humanity, the modern weapons have been around only for a relatively short time in comparison to the long period of bow and arrow.

All population flows, even those caused by the great World Wars, are like minor border corrections within a garden plot, compared to the immense movements of people and cultures on this planet accompanied by bow and arrow.

A larger aggregation of English longbows is often called ‘the atomic bomb of the Middle Ages’, although their real power and effectiveness is commonly overestimated.

If one holds a bow in his hand today and allows an arrow to fly, one can feel – often unconsciously – the fascination that still emanates from this first machine invented in the Stone Age.

It is a good thing that some weapons will disappear some day, especially in view of their martial use. Today, bow and arrow are predominantly sporting gear and in countries that allow it, hunting instruments. But let us be honest, we would still fight each other with bow and arrow, if no new weapons had been invented.

The arrow, as a sign of orientation, is the most important and most used symbol of humanity, one that is understood throughout all languages and cultures. For us, it simply means ‘direction’, ‘go there!’, ‘there it is!’ We are automatically guided, whether on the highway or in the halls of the tax office, voting booths or even the morgue. No matter what individual shape the arrow has, we immediately recognize which course we have to take.

The sign of a one-way street tells us that this is not only a street we must use just in one direction; the arrow also tells us immediately which way to go.

Nothing has bullied people more than the diversion sign. We follow the command of the arrow in our cars in a well-behaved fashion. There are only a few exceptions to this rule, in countries commonly situated further south in Europe or across the Rio Grande, south of Texas. But occasionally even there, people can all move in one direction when the illegal immigrants run across the shallow river and follow the signs that point to America.

The arrow is the embodiment of speed. ‘Fast as an arrow’ is a generally known term. Mercedes called their racing cars ‘Silberpfeile’ (silver arrows).

Bow and arrow belong to the oldest weapons of man since at least ten-thousand, if not twenty- or perhaps even fifty-thousand years. The ongoing development and improvement of weapons was vitally necessary for humans since primeval times, not only battles and hunting, but also in defense against predators.

The characteristics of the humans were inferior to the physical and sensual capabilities of most animals. Power, speed, mobility, sense of smell, sight and hearing were developed to a much lesser extent, and they had no natural weapons like teeth, horns or claws. With their growth in intelligence and the changes in mobility of their hands, humans were able to make bow and arrow – and thus, our ancestors changed from prey to hunters.

The invention of bow and arrow, the first machine, in the same rank as the invention of the wheel or the development of language, converted the ‘homo sapiens’ to a ‘homo technicus’.

When the basic principle of the bow was discovered, it did not only become a weapon. There are two other offspring from the bow – tools and musical instruments.

The bow drill improved the wood-on-wood technique of the fire drill. Enough friction is needed to generate heat, and instead of using both hands to twist the upper piece, a string was looped around it, kept tight by the bow. The bow drill then became the basis for the hand drill and the precursor of the turning lathe or, in another form of application, the coping saw.

Very soon, the bow emerged as a musical instrument from which our stringed instruments descend.

When Anne-Sophie Mutter enchants us with her Stradivari violin, we should remember that it was once an early man with a first musical aptitude who discovered that one could not only throw an arrow with the bow, but also create a tone when plucking the string.

This discovery was certainly demonstrated immediately to other ‘stone-agers’ and picked up by them, and suddenly, they were all plucking the strings of their bows. Soon, it had been noticed that the plucked tones differed from each other and that they could even be altered. The variation of the sound led to the first melody and ‘mutual plucking’ to the first orchestral performance.

After an uninterrupted sophistication of music up to the level of Bach, Beethoven or Mozart, we are today moving backwards to the initial starting point with some musical styles and presentations.

Jazz roars through New Orleans. Rap music comes from the speakers of ‘Ghetto blasters’, carried on the shoulders of our brothers, tap dancing through the South Bronx and cranking up the volume, so as to scare away mammoths and rhinos.

There are modern opera performances that often manage the balancing act to keep the music as close as possible to the original and then, they destroy the substance down to the Stone Age level, solely by the type of stage production. On the 250th Birthday of Mozart, in the year 2006, people have managed to do this, of all places in Salzburg – his city of birth.

Unfortunately, this sort of cultural derailment happens all over the world. If you think you are on the lowest level of opera performances, look for a staircase somewhere that leads down even further. Follow it, and you might find, way below, a simulcast of a modern performance by the ‘Met’, the New York Metropolitan Opera and their mise-en-scène experiments with musical underscore. I am afraid, as long as this type of staging is not made punishable by law and even supported by public funds, we just have to live with it.

Queens and Kings practiced with bow and arrow and goddesses and gods (even so they never existed) wandered around with this equipment. Bow and arrow are mystic and religious and stimulate the imagination. They are a magical combination and appear in myths, folktales, legends and stories all over the world, accompanied by their archery heroes.

The medieval archers can be distinguished from the normal mortals by their skeletons. The bowmen had to handle large draw weights in the past, because the performance of the bow came – more than today – primarily from the powers of their muscles.

On July 19, 1545, the Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII, sank before the harbor of Portsmouth, whereby almost the entire crew (415 men) drowned. Muster roll, Anthony-roll (illustrated fleet-register) and comprehensive archaeological finds gave proof of the presence of archers who had been on board the ship.

Comparative studies of the secured skeletons made it possible to identify the archers. They have shown obvious asymmetries in the left part of the shoulder (the left arm is usually the arm holding the bow). The strong pressure on the left shoulder resulted in an enlargement of the humeral head and the greater tubercle and in some cases in the formation of an ‘os acromiale’, normally a rather rare anatomical variant.

The sinking of this ship in 1545 was in the same year when Roger...