Editing Archery (section)

===Origins and ancient archery===
The oldest known evidence of [[arrow]]s (not found with surviving bows) comes from [[South Africa|South African]] sites such as [[Sibudu Cave]], where the remains of bone and stone arrowheads  have been found dating approximately 72,000 to 60,000 years ago.<ref name="Lombard2020">{{Cite journal|title=The tip cross-sectional areas of poisoned bone arrowheads from southern Africa |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |volume=33 |year=2020 |doi= 10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102477 |vauthors=Lombard M|page=102477 |bibcode=2020JArSR..33j2477L |s2cid=224889105 }}</ref><ref name="Backwell">Backwell L, d'Errico F, Wadley L.(2008). Middle Stone Age bone tools from the Howiesons Poort layers, Sibudu Cave, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35:1566–1580. {{doi|10.1016/j.jas.2007.11.006}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wadley |first1=Lyn |year=2008 |title=The Howieson's Poort industry of Sibudu Cave |journal=South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series |volume=10}}</ref><ref name="Lombard">{{Cite journal|title=Indications of bow and stone-tipped arrow use 64,000 years ago in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |journal=Antiquity |volume=84 |issue=325 |pages=635–648 |year=2010 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00100134 |vauthors=Lombard M, Phillips L|s2cid=162438490 }}</ref><ref name="Lombard M">{{Cite journal|title=Quartz-tipped arrows older than 60 ka: further use-trace evidence from Sibudu, Kwa-Zulu-Natal, South Africa |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |year=2011 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2011.04.001 |vauthors=Lombard M|volume=38 |issue=8 |pages=1918–1930 |bibcode=2011JArSc..38.1918L }}</ref><ref name="Backwell2018">Backwell L, Bradfield J, Carlson KJ, Jashashvili T, Wadley L, d'Errico F.(2018). The antiquity of bow-and-arrow technology: evidence from Middle Stone Age layers at Sibudu Cave. Journal of Archaeological Science, 92:289–303. {{doi|10.15184/aqy.2018.11}}</ref>

However, the earliest remains of complete bows and arrows are found in [[Northern Europe]]. These include the evidence found at Mannheim-Vogelstang, in modern-day [[Germany]], dated 17,500 to 18,000 years ago, and also at Stellmoor dated 11,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rebay-Salisbury |first1=Katharina |last2=Pany-Kucera |first2=Doris |title=Ages and Abilities: The Stages of Childhood and their Social Recognition in Prehistoric Europe and Beyond |date=8 October 2020 |publisher=Archaeopress Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1-78969-769-8 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qfMPEAAAQBAJ&dq=stellmoor+oldest+bow&pg=PA12 |language=en |quote="...oldest bow and arrow fragments are from Stellmoor, Germany, Ahrensburgian terminal Paleolithic (c. 11,000 BP) (Cattelain 1994)"}}</ref>

[[Azilian]] points found in [[Grotte du Bichon]], Switzerland, alongside the remains of both a bear and a hunter, with flint fragments found in the bear's third vertebra, suggest the use of arrows at 13,500 years ago.<ref>« La grotte du Bichon, un site préhistorique des montagnes neuchâteloises  », Archéologie neuchâteloise 42, 2009.</ref>

Other signs of its use in Europe come from the {{Interlanguage link|Stellmoor|de}} in the {{Interlanguage link|Ahrensburg valley|de|3=Stellmoor–Ahrensburger Tunneltal}} north of [[Hamburg]], Germany and dates from the late [[Paleolithic]], about 10,000–9000 BC. The arrows were made of [[pine]] and consisted of a main shaft and a {{convert|15|–|20|cm|abbr=on}} fore shaft with a [[flint]] point. There are no definite earlier bows; previous pointed shafts are known, but may have been launched by [[spear-thrower]]s rather than bows. The [[Holmegaard bow|oldest bows]] known so far comes from the [[Holmegaard|Holmegård]] swamp in Denmark. At the site of [[Nataruk]] in [[Turkana County]], Kenya, [[obsidian]] bladelets found embedded in a skull and within the thoracic cavity of another skeleton, suggest the use of stone-tipped arrows as weapons about 10,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West Turkana, Kenya|journal = Nature|pages = 394–398|volume = 529|issue = 7586|doi = 10.1038/nature16477|first1 = M. Mirazón|last1 = Lahr|first2 = F.|last2 = Rivera|first3 = R.K.|last3 = Power|first4 = A.|last4 = Mounier|first5 = B.|last5 = Copsey|first6 = F.|last6 = Crivellaro|first7 = J.E.|last7 = Edung|first8 = J.M. Maillo|last8 = Fernandez|first9 = C.|last9 = Kiarie|pmid=26791728|year=2016|bibcode = 2016Natur.529..394L|s2cid = 4462435|url = https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/253726}}</ref> Bows eventually replaced the [[spear-thrower]] as the predominant means for launching shafted [[projectiles]], on every continent except [[Australasia]], though spear-throwers persisted alongside the bow in parts of the Americas, including Mexico and among the [[Inuit]].

Bows and arrows have been present in [[Egypt]]ian and neighbouring [[Nubia]]n culture since its respective [[Predynastic Egypt|predynastic]] and [[Pre-Kerma]] origins. In the [[Levant]], artifacts that could be arrow-shaft straighteners are known from the [[Natufian culture]], (c. 10,800–8,300 BC) onwards.

[[Classical antiquity|Classical]] civilizations, notably the [[ancient Assyrians|Assyrians]], [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]], [[History of Armenia|Armenians]], [[Achaemenid Empire|Persians]], [[Parthia]]ns, [[Ancient Rome|Roman]]s, [[History of India|Indians]], [[History of Korea|Koreans]], [[History of China|Chinese]], and [[History of Japan|Japanese]] fielded large numbers of archers in their armies. [[Akkadian Empire|Akkadians]] were the first to use [[composite bows]] in war according to the victory stele of [[Naram-Sin of Akkad]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zutterman|first=C.|date=2003|title=The bow in the Ancient Near East. A re-evaluation of archery from the late 2nd Millennium to the end of the Achaemenid empire|journal=Iranica Antiqua|volume= XXXVIII}}</ref> Egyptians referred to [[Nubia]] as "Ta-Seti," or "The Land of the Bow," since the Nubians were known to be expert archers, and by the 16th Century BC Egyptians were using the composite bow in warfare.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mc Leod|first=W.E.|date=Jan 1962|title=Egyptian Composite Bows in New York|journal=American Journal of Archaeology|volume= 66|issue=1}}</ref> The Bronze Age Aegean Cultures were able to deploy a number of state-owned specialized bow makers for warfare and hunting purposes already from the 15th century BC.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bakas|first=Spyros|date=2016|title=Composite Bows in Minoan And Mycenaean Warfare|url=https://www.academia.edu/27466913|journal=Syndesmoi|publisher=University of Catania|volume=4}}</ref> The [[Welsh longbow]] proved its worth for the first time in Continental warfare at the [[Battle of Crécy]].<ref>{{cite web | title = Bow Evolution | url = http://www.archery-den.com/bow-evolution/ | access-date = 12 December 2016 | archive-date = 20 December 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161220091812/http://www.archery-den.com/bow-evolution/ | url-status = dead }}</ref> In the Americas archery was widespread at European contact.<ref>{{cite book|last=Zimmerman|first=Larry J.|title=1985 Peoples of Prehistoric South Dakota|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|location=Lincoln and London}}</ref>

Archery was highly developed in Asia. The composite bow was likely invented in [[central Asia]], with the [[Scythians]] being the likely inventors of the first composite bows.<ref name="Loades" /> The [[Sanskrit]] term for archery, [[Dhanurveda|dhanurvidya]], came to refer to martial arts in general. In East Asia, [[Goguryeo]], one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea was well known for its regiments of exceptionally skilled archers.<ref>[[Book of the Later Han]] [http://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%BE%8C%E6%BC%A2%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B785]"句驪一名貊耳有別種依小水為居因名曰小水貊出好弓所謂貊弓是也"</ref><ref name="koreantrad">{{citation|title=Korean Traditional Archery|last1=Duvernay|first1=Thomas A.|last2=Duvernay|first2=Nicholas Y.|publisher=Handong Global University|year=2007}}</ref>