Editing Archery (section)

===Mounted archery===
{{Main|Mounted archery}}
[[File:Maximilian 1470.png|thumb|upright|Hunting for flying birds from the back of a galloping horse was considered the top category of archery. The favourite hobby of Prince [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian]], engraved by [[Dürer]] ]]

The [[Scythians]] became extremely adept at [[Mounted archery|archery on horseback]], and may have invented the first true composite bow, which they spread across Europe and Asia.<ref name="Loades">{{cite book |last1=Loades |first1=Mike |title=The Composite Bow |date=25 August 2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4728-2161-4 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EwSGDAAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref> Lightly armoured, but highly mobile archers were excellently suited to warfare in the Central Asian steppes, and they formed a large part of armies that repeatedly conquered large areas of Eurasia. Shorter bows are more suited to use on horseback, and the [[composite bow]] enabled mounted archers to use powerful weapons.<ref name="HorseArchery">{{citation|title=The Horse, The Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the World|last1=Anthony|first1=David W.|year=2007|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0691058870}}</ref> [[Seljuk Turks]] used mounted archers against the European [[First Crusade]], especially at the [[Battle of Dorylaeum (1097)]]. One of their tactics was to shoot at the enemy infantry, and use their superior mobility to prevent the enemy from closing with them. Empires throughout the Eurasian landmass often strongly associated their respective "barbarian" counterparts with the usage of the bow and arrow, to the point where powerful states like the [[Han dynasty]] referred to their neighbours, the [[Xiong-nu]], as "Those Who Draw the Bow".<ref name="ChinaEnemies">{{citation|title=Ancient China & Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History|last1=Di Cosmo|first1=Nicola|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521770644}}</ref> For example, Xiong-nu mounted bowmen made them more than a match for the Han military.<ref name="ChinaEnemies" /> It is possible that "barbarian" peoples were responsible for introducing archery or certain types of bows to their "civilized" counterparts.<ref name="JapanBows">{{citation|title=Armed Martial Arts of Japan: Swordsmanship and Archery|last1=Hurst III|first1=G. Cameron|year=1998|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0300049676}}</ref>

[[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] developed a culture of horseback archery after the introduction of the horse by European explorers in the second millennium.<ref>[[T. R. Fehrenbach|Fehrenbach, Theodore Reed]] (1974) The Comanches: The Destruction of a People. Knopf, New York, {{ISBN|0394488563}}; republished in 2003 under the title The Comanches: The History of a People. New York: Anchor Books. {{ISBN|1400030498}}.</ref>