Editing Composite bow (section)

==Origins and use==

Composite construction may have become common in the third or fourth millennium BCE, in [[Mesopotamia]] and [[Elam]] (South-West [[Iran]]).<ref>Origins and Comparative Performance of the Composite Bow. Karl Chandler Randall IV. PhD thesis, Classical Studies, University of South Africa, February 2016. Promoters: Doctor Martine De Marre and Doctor Barry Molloy. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/79170491.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225112241/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/79170491.pdf |date=25 February 2021 }} Retrieved 1 December 2019</ref>

===Associated with charioteers===
[[File:Andronovo culture.png|thumb|left|Early Bronze Age cultures in the Asian steppe]]

Bows of any kind seldom survive in the archaeological record. Composite bows may have been invented first by the [[nomad]]s of the Asiatic steppe, who may have based it on earlier [[North Asia|Northern Asian]] [[laminated bow]]s.<ref name="Insulander">{{cite journal |url=http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/content/ct07yrml6fcbanuj |first=Ragnar |last=Insulander |title=The Two-Wood Bow |journal=Acta Borealia |year=2002 |volume=19 |pages=49–73 |doi=10.1080/08003830215543|s2cid=144012834 |url-access=subscription }}{{dead link|date=June 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} [http://www.freebirdarchery.com/images/twowoodbow.pdf Alt URL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813182219/http://www.freebirdarchery.com/images/twowoodbow.pdf |date=13 August 2012 }}</ref> However, archaeological investigation of the [[Asian Steppe|Asiatic steppe]] is still limited and patchy; literary records of any kind are late and scanty and seldom mention details of bows.<ref name="ottoman-turkish-bows.com" /> There are arrowheads from the earliest [[chariot burial]]s at [[Krivoye Lake]], part of the [[Sintashta culture]] about 2100–1700&nbsp;BCE, but the bow that shot them has not survived. Other sites of the Sintashta culture have produced finds of horn and bone, interpreted as furniture (grips, arrow rests, bow ends, string loops) of bows; there is no indication that the bending parts of these bows included anything other than wood.<ref>THE SINTASHTA BOW OF THE BRONZE AGE OF THE SOUTH TRANS-URALS, RUSSIA. Andrey Bersenev, Andrey Epimakhov and Dmitry Zdanovich. Pages 175-186 in: Bronze Age Warfare:Manufacture and Use of Weaponry. Edited by Marianne Mödlinger Marion Uckelmann Steven Matthews BAR International Series 22552011. Published by Archaeopress, publishers of British Archaeological Reports, Gordon House 276 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7ED England, 2011. BAR S2255 Bronze Age Warfare: Manufacture and Use of Weaponry. {{ISBN|978 1 4073 0822 7}} https://www.academia.edu/3187585/THE_SINTASHTA_BOW_OF_THE_BRONZE_AGE_OF_THE_SOUTH_TRANS-URALS_RUSSIA {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027141705/http://www.academia.edu/3187585/THE_SINTASHTA_BOW_OF_THE_BRONZE_AGE_OF_THE_SOUTH_TRANS-URALS_RUSSIA |date=27 October 2017 }} accessed 20 03 2016</ref> These finds are associated with short arrows, {{convert|50|-|70|cm|in|abbr=in}} long, and the bows themselves may have been correspondingly short.<ref>THE SINTASHTA BOW OF THE BRONZE AGE OF THE SOUTH TRANS-URALS, RUSSIA. Andrey Bersenev, Andrey Epimakhov and Dmitry Zdanovich. Pages 175-186 in: Bronze Age Warfare:Manufacture and Use of Weaponry. Edited by Marianne Mödlinger Marion Uckelmann Steven Matthews. BAR International Series 22552011. Published by Archaeopress, publishers of British Archaeological Reports, Gordon House 276 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7ED England, 2011. BAR S2255 Bronze Age Warfare: Manufacture and Use of Weaponry. {{ISBN|978 1 4073 0822 7}} https://www.academia.edu/3187585/THE_SINTASHTA_BOW_OF_THE_BRONZE_AGE_OF_THE_SOUTH_TRANS-URALS_RUSSIA {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027141705/http://www.academia.edu/3187585/THE_SINTASHTA_BOW_OF_THE_BRONZE_AGE_OF_THE_SOUTH_TRANS-URALS_RUSSIA |date=27 October 2017 }} accessed 20 03 2016</ref> The [[Andronovo Culture]], descendant of the Sintashta culture, was the first to extend from the [[Ural Mountains]] to [[Tian Shan]],<ref>Archaeology, March/April 1995, 39. As quoted by Central Asia Images, {{cite web |url=http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/millwarj/website%20images/centralasiaimages.htm |title=Central Asia Images |access-date=2011-06-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709110150/http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/millwarj/website%20images/centralasiaimages.htm |archive-date=9 July 2011 }}</ref> and its successor cultures gave rise to the [[Indo-Aryan migration]]. It has been suggested that the [[Srubna culture]] (contemporaneous with, and a neighbour to, the Andronovo culture) used composite bows, but no archaeological evidence is known.<ref>Shishlina, N. I. 1990. O slozhnom luke srubnoikul’tury. In S. V. Studzitzkaya (ed.), Problemyarheologii Evrazii. Trudy Gosudarstven-nogo istoricheskogo muzeya. Vyp. 74. 23–37.Moscow, Gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii mu-zei. As reported on page 181 of THE SINTASHTA BOW OF THE BRONZE AGE OF THE SOUTH TRANS-URALS, RUSSIA. Andrey Bersenev, Andrey Epimakhov and Dmitry Zdanovich. Pages 175-186 in: Bronze Age Warfare:Manufacture and Use of Weaponry. Edited by Marianne Mödlinger Marion Uckelmann Steven Matthews BAR International Series 22552011. Published by Archaeopress, publishers of British Archaeological Reports, Gordon House 276 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7ED England, 2011. BAR S2255 Bronze Age Warfare: Manufacture and Use of Weaponry. {{ISBN|978 1 4073 0822 7}} https://www.academia.edu/3187585/THE_SINTASHTA_BOW_OF_THE_BRONZE_AGE_OF_THE_SOUTH_TRANS-URALS_RUSSIA {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027141705/http://www.academia.edu/3187585/THE_SINTASHTA_BOW_OF_THE_BRONZE_AGE_OF_THE_SOUTH_TRANS-URALS_RUSSIA |date=27 October 2017 }} accessed 20 03 2016</ref>

[[File:Ramsés II en Qadesh, relieve de Abu Simbel.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Ramses II]] at the [[Battle of Kadesh]]]]
Composite bows were soon adopted and adapted by civilizations who came into contact with nomads, such as the [[Military history of China (pre-1911)|Chinese]], [[Assyria]]ns, and [[Military of Ancient Egypt|Egypt]]ians. Several composite bows were found in the tomb of [[Tutankhamun]], who died in 1324&nbsp;BCE.<ref>Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation. http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/135z.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130205195616/http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/135z.html |date=5 February 2013 }}</ref> Composite bows (and chariots) are known in [[China]] from at least the [[Shang dynasty]] (1600–1100&nbsp;BCE).<ref>Shang Civilization. Kwang-Chih Chang.{{ISBN|0-300-02885-7}}</ref> There are strong indications that [[Greek Bronze Age]] cultures were using composite bows on a large scale.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Composite Bows in Minoan And Mycenaean Warfare|last=Bakas|first=Spyros|publisher=Archaeological Journal "Syndesmoi", University of Catania, Sympozjum Egejskie. Proceedings of the 2nd Students' Conference in Aegean Archaeology: Methods – Researches – Perspective, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Poland, 25 April 2014|year=2016|isbn=979-12-200-0472-5|location=Catania|pages=9–15}}</ref> By the 4th century BCE, chariotry had ceased to have military importance, replaced by [[cavalry]] everywhere (except in [[Britannia]], where charioteers are not recorded as using bows).

===By mounted archers===
[[File:OttomanHorseArcher.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Ottoman horse archer]]
The [[mounted archery|mounted archer]] became the archetypal warrior of the [[steppe]]s and the composite bow was his primary weapon, used to protect the herds, in steppe warfare, and for incursions into settled lands.

Classic tactics for horse-mounted archers included skirmishing: they would approach, shoot, and retreat before any effective response could be made.<ref>Maurice's Strategikon: Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy. George T. Dennis (Translator) {{ISBN|978-0-8122-1772-8}}</ref> The term [[Parthian shot]] refers to the widespread horse-archer tactic of shooting backwards over the rear of their horses as they retreated. [[Parthia]]ns inflicted heavy [[Roman–Parthian Wars|defeats]] on [[Ancient Rome|Romans]], the first being the [[Battle of Carrhae]]. However, horse archers did not make an army invincible; [[Han dynasty|Han]] General [[Ban Chao]] led successful military expeditions in the late 1st century CE that conquered as far as Central Asia, and both [[Philip of Macedon]] and his son [[Alexander the Great]] defeated horse archer armies. Well-led Roman armies defeated Parthian armies on several occasions and twice [[Roman–Parthian Wars|took]] [[Ctesiphon|the Parthian capital]].

===By infantry===
Composite bows can be used without difficulty by infantry. The infantry archers of [[classical Greece]] and the [[Roman Empire]] used composite bows. The military of the [[Han dynasty]] (220 BCE–206 CE) utilized composite [[crossbow]]s, often in [[infantry square]] formations, in their many engagements against the [[Xiongnu]]. Until 1571, archers with composite bows were a main component of the forces of the [[Ottoman Empire]], but in the [[Battle of Lepanto]] in that year, they lost most of these troops and never replaced them.<ref name="WARKEEGAN" />