Alaminated bow is an archerybow in which different materials arelaminated together to form the bow stave itself. Traditionalcomposite bows are normally not included, although their construction with horn, wood, and sinew might bring them within the above definition.
TheEgyptians,Scythians andAssyrians had been making laminate bows out of combinations of wood, horn and sinew as early as the 2nd millennium BCE.
The oldest known laminated bows (made entirely of wood) belong to theScythian cultures. A Scythian wood-laminate bow was discovered in the 19th century in Ukraine and is currently held at the Institute of Archaeology.[1] It was constructed by laminating several fine strips ofwillow andalder wood, bound withfish glue and wrapped inbirch bark. It had a double-curved shape, was 32 in (810 mm) long and may have been capable of shooting arrows at distances of over 500 yd (460 m).[2]
In 2006, an international expedition to theAltai Mountains region in westernMongolia uncovered a laminate bow, associated with the ScythianPazyryk culture. It is of a complicated construction, with many fine strips of wood glued side-by-side, and a wooden reinforcement plate glued to the handle. The entire bow was wrapped in spiral form withrawhide and birch bark; in addition to reinforcing the construction this also made the bow resistant to water and humidity.[3] The bow is dated to the 3rd century BCE.
The modern Japaneseyumi is a laminated bow. Laminated bows in Japan first appeared around 1000 CE, during the lateHeian orKamakura period. They were made of wood and bamboo laminated with glue, evolving from simple bamboo-backed bows to complex bows of five piece construction (higo yumi) by the 1600s.[4] TheSámi and their neighbours[5] across northernEurasia[6] also made laminated bows for centuries.Hejaz Arabs may also have used a laminated bow.[7]
Reading Museum is in the possession of anInuit-made laminate bow. It was made in thePelly Bay area ofNunavut, Canada, and consists of three shims of bone laminated near the handle region, and reinforced at the joints with rawhide. It has two short driftwood arrows with bone points.[8] They reflect the shortage of wood in theArctic region and the improvisation of pre-contact indigenous Inuit.
