Editing Composite bow (section)

==Technical changes in classical times==
The details of bow construction changed somewhat with time. It is not clear that the various developments of the composite bow led to measurable improvements: "the development of archery equipment may not be a process involving progressive improvements in performance. Rather, each design type represents one solution to the problem of creating a mobile weapon system capable of hurling lightweight projectiles."<ref name=Kooi/>

===Scythian bows, bending tips===
{{See also|Gorytos}}
[[File:Scythians shooting with bows Kertch antique Panticapeum Ukrainia 4th century BCE.jpg|thumb|[[Scythians]] shooting with bows, [[Panticapaeum]] (known today as [[Kerch]], Crimea), 4th century BCE]] Variants of the [[Scythians|Scythian]] bow were the dominant form in Asia until approximately the first century BCE. These were short weapons—one was {{convert|119|cm|in|abbr=in}} long when strung, with arrows perhaps {{convert|50|-|60|cm|in|abbr=in}} long—with flexible, "working" tips; the wooden core was continuous from the centre to the tip.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.atarn.org/chinese/scythian_bows.htm |title=Scythian-style bows discovered in Xinjiang: From the photographs and drawings of Stephen Selby |first=Bede |last=Dwyer |date=19 March 2004 |access-date=7 June 2011 |archive-date=18 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518171656/http://atarn.org/chinese/scythian_bows.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Siyahs, stiff tips===
From about the 4th century BCE, the use of stiffened ends on composite bows became widespread. The stiffened end of the bow is a "siyah" (Arabic, Persian),<ref>In Arabic سِئَة ''siʾaḧ'', سِیَة ''siyaḧ'' (pl. سِیَات ''siyāt''), سَأَة ''saʾaḧ'' (or سَاءَة ''sāʾaḧ''), سُؤَة ''suʾaḧ''</ref> "szarv" (Hungarian), "sarvi" (Finnish; both 'sarvi' and 'szarv' mean 'horn') or "kasan" (Turkish); the bending section is a "dustar" (Arabic), "lapa" (Finnish) or "sal" (Turkish). For centuries, the stiffening was accomplished by attaching laths of bone or antler to the sides of the bow at its ends. The bone or antler strips are more likely to survive burial than the rest of the bow. The first bone strips suitable for this purpose come from "graves of the fourth or third centuries" BCE.<ref name=Maenchen-Helfen>{{cite book
  | last = Maenchen-Helfen
  | first =Otto
  | title =The World of the Huns
  | publisher =University of California Press
  | year =1973
  | page =222
  | url =https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_CrUdgzSICxcC
  | isbn =978-0-520-01596-8}}</ref> These stiffeners are found associated with [[Eurasian nomads|nomad]]s of the time. [[Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen|Maenchen-Helfen]] states that they are not found in Achaemenid Persia, in early Imperial Rome, or in Han China. However, Coulston attributes Roman stiffeners to about or before 9 CE.<ref>At Oberaden in Free Germany, and Dangstetten in Germania Inferior. Coulston J.C., 'Roman Archery Equipment', in M.C. Bishop (ed.), The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment. Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Seminar, BAR International Series 275, Oxford, 1985, 220-366.</ref> He identifies a Steppe Tradition of Scythian bows with working tips, which lasted, in Europe, until the arrival of the Huns, and a Near East or Levantine tradition with siyahs, possibly introduced by the [[Parni]] as siyahs are found in [[Sassanid]] but not [[Achaemenid]] contexts. Siyahs have also been described on the Arabian peninsula.<ref name="doi.org">An De Waele. Composite bows at ed-Dur (Umm al-Qaiwain, U.A.E.) Arabian archaeology and epigraphy 2005: 16: 154–160 [https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1600-0471.2005.00255.x] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211030144340/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0471.2005.00255.x|date=30 October 2021}},</ref> Composite bows were adopted by the Roman Empire and were made even in the cold and damp of Britannia.<ref>Coulston J, 'Roman Archery Equipment', in M.C. Bishop (ed.), The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment. Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Seminar, BAR International Series 275, Oxford, 1985, 220-366.</ref> They were the normal weapon of later Roman archers, both infantry and cavalry units (although [[Vegetius]] recommends training recruits ''"arcubus ligneis"'', with [[Longbow|wooden bows]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0189/_PG.HTM |author=Vegetius |title=Epitoma rei militaris |access-date=7 June 2011 |archive-date=30 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130140804/http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0189/_PG.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Laths stiffening the grip===
A new bow type, in which bone reinforcements cover the handle of the bow as well as the tips, may have developed in Central Asia during the 3rd to 2nd century BCE,<ref>Vadim V. Gorbunov, Aleksei A. Tishkin. "Weapons of the Gorny Altai Nomads in the Hunnu Age." ''[[Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia]]'' 4/28 (2006): 79–85.</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal | last1 = Hall | first1 = Andrew | year = 2006 | title = The development of the bone reinforced composite | journal = Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries | volume = 49 | pages = 65–77 }}</ref><ref>"New Evidence about Composite Bows and Their Arrows in Inner Asia".</ref> with earliest finds from the area of Lake Baikal. Fittings from this type of bow appear right across Asia<ref name="Coulston J.C. 1985">Coulston J.C., 'Roman Archery Equipment', in M.C. Bishop (ed.), The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment. Proceedings of the Second Roman Military Equipment Seminar, BAR International Series 275, Oxford, 1985, 220-366.</ref> from Korea to the Crimea. Such bows with reinforcement of both grip and siyahs have been called “[[Hun]],” "Hunnic", or “[[Hsiung-nu]]” composite bows.<ref name="doi.org"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/> Huns did use such bows, but so did many other peoples; Rausing termed this type the 'Qum-Darya Bow' from the Han Chinese-type site at the frontier post of [[Loulan (town)|Loulan]], at the mouth of the Qum Darya river, dated by analogy between c. 1st century BCE and the 3rd century CE.<ref name="Coulston J.C. 1985"/>

With the arrival of the Huns, this tradition of bows with stiffened grips came to Europe. "Alanic graves in the Volga region dating to the 3rd to 4th century CE signal the adoption of the Qum-Darya type by Sarmatian peoples from Hunnic groups advancing from the East. In general, Hunnic/Qum-Darya bows had two pairs of ear laths identical in every respect to those found on Roman [[Limes (Roman Empire)|limes]] sites. The ear laths show only a greater proportion of longer laths (like those of Roman examples from Bar Hill and London). More distinctively, the grip of the bow was stiffened by three laths. On the sides were glued a pair of trapezoidal laths with their longest edges towards the back. On the belly was glued a third lath, varying in shape but often narrow with parallel sides and splayed ends. Therefore, each bow possessed seven grip and ear laths, compared with none on the Scythian and Sarmatian bows and four (ear) laths on the Yrzi bow."<ref name="Coulston J.C. 1985"/>

Such bows were often asymmetric, with lower limbs shorter than the upper.<ref name="Maenchen-Helfen"/><ref>Roman Military Equipment from the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome (Paperback). M.C. Bishop, J.C. Coulston. Oxbow Books 2005. {{ISBN|978-1-84217-159-2}}</ref><ref name=ArabArchery>{{cite book
  | last = Faris
  | first =Nabih
  |author2=Robert Potter
  | title =A BOOK ON THE EXCELLENCE OF THE BOW AND ARROW AND THE DESCRIPTION THEREOF
  | publisher =University of Princeton Press
  | year =1945
  | url =http://www.sacred-archery.com/arab%20archery%20anno%20domini%201500.pdf
  | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090225181419/http://www.sacred-archery.com/arab%20archery%20anno%20domini%201500.pdf
  | archive-date =25 February 2009
  }}</ref>

The Huns and their successors greatly impressed their neighbours with their archery. Germanic tribes transmitted their respect orally for a millennium: in the Scandinavian [[Hervarar saga]], the Geatish king Gizur taunts the Huns and says, "Eigi gera Húnar oss felmtraða né hornbogar yðrir." (We fear neither the Huns nor their horn bows.) The Romans, as described in the [[Strategicon of Maurice|Strategikon]], [[Procopius]]'s histories, and other works, changed the entire emphasis of their army from heavy infantry to cavalry, many of them armed with bows. Maurikios's Strategikon describes the Byzantine cavalry as bow-armed ''cursores'' and lance-armed ''defensores''.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Charles C. |last=Petersen |title=The Strategikon: A Forgotten Military Classic |journal=Military Review |date=August 1992 |url=http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/strategikon/strategikon.htm |access-date=7 June 2011 |archive-date=22 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150722041418/http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/strategikon/strategikon.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Additional stiffening laths===
The Qum-Darya bow was superseded in the modern area of Hungary by an [[Avars (Carpathians)|'Avar']] type, with more and differently-shaped laths. The grip laths stayed essentially the same except that a fourth piece was sometimes glued to the back of the handle, enclosing it with bone on all four faces. The belly lath was often parallel-sided with splayed ends. The siyah laths became much wider in profile above the nock and less rounded, giving a bulbous aspect. The nock was often further away from the upper end of the siyah than on Qum-Darya type examples. Additional laths were usually added to the belly and back of the siyah, thus enclosing both ends of the stave on four faces. This made a total of up to 12 laths on an asymmetrical bow with a stiff, set-back handle. Examples measured in situ suggest bow lengths of {{convert|120|-|140|cm|in|abbr=in}}. When unstrung, the siyahs reversed sharply forward at an angle of 50-60 degrees.<ref name="Coulston J.C. 1985"/>