Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T13:19:12.389Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Adoption of the Bow and Arrow: A Model Based on Experimental Performance Characteristics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Steve A. Tomka
Steve A. Tomka*
Affiliation:
Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249 ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The timing of the arrival of the bow and arrow in the New World and reasons for its adoption have long been discussed by archaeologists. It typically has been assumed that the bow and arrow provided mechanical and physical advantages over the atlatl and dart, particularly in long-range killing power. This experimental study examines the effectiveness of traditional bows and arrows to deliver lethal wounds to prey species of different sizes. The results suggest that the bow and arrow was effective in hunting prey species such as antelope and deer but ineffective in bringing down larger animals unless changes in hunting strategies were adopted. In contrast, the atlatl and dart would have excelled in large game hunting. It is proposed that the adoption of the bow and arrow and the abandonment of the atlatl and dart were conditioned by their distinct performance advantages and changes in the game species targeted over time.

Resumen

Resumen

El momento de llegada del arco y flecha y los motivos por su adopción en el Nuevo Mundo han sido temas de discusión por mucho tiempo entre arqueólogos. Típicamente, se ha asumido que el arco y la flecha dieron ventajas mecánicas y físicas sobre el propulsor y el dardo particularmente en términos de la capacidad de matar o “killing power” a largo alcance. Este estudio experimental examina la eficacia de los arcos y las flechas tradicionales para herir mortalmente a presas de distintos tamaños. Los resultados sugieren que el arco y flecha tradicional habría sido eficaz en la caza de presas de mediano tamaño, como ser el ciervo y el antílope, pero ineficaz para derribar presas más grandes, a no ser que se adoptaran cambios en las estrategias de caza. Al contrario, el propulsor y el dardo seran más eficazes en la caza de presas de largo tamaño como el bison. En base a estos hallazgos, se propone que el arco y la flecha eventualmente podrían haber reemplazado al propulsor y al dardo porque eran más efectivos para especies de presas de mediano porte y por el decremento eventual de especies más grandes.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 3 , July 2013 , pp. 553 - 569
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Society for American Archaeology.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

AfricaHunting.com 2008 Hunting Information by Country. http://www.africahunting.com/section/hunting-africa-3. Accessed 12/10/2010.Google Scholar
Aikens, C. Melvin 1970 Hogup Cave. Anthropological Papers No. 93. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Allely, Steve, and Hamm, Jim 1999 Encyclopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows, and Quivers, Vol. 1. Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest. Lyons Press, New York.Google Scholar
Allely, Steve, and Hamm, Jim 2002 Encyclopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows, and Quivers, Vol. 2. Plains and Southwest. Lyons Press; New York.Google Scholar
Ames, Kenneth M., Fuld, Kristen A., and Davis, Sara 2010 Dart and Arrow Points on the Columbian Plateau of Western North America. American Antiquity 75(2):287–325.Google Scholar
Amick, Daniel S. 1994 Technological Organization and the Structure of Inference in Lithic Analysis: An Examination of Folsom Hunting Behavior in the American Southwest. In The Organization of North American Prehistoric Chipped Stone Tool Technologies, edited by Philip Can, pp. 9–34. Archaeological Series No. 7. International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Anderson, Douglas D. 1984 Prehistory of North Alaska. In Arctic, edited by David Damas, pp. 80–93. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 5, William C. Sturtevant, series editor, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Arthur, George W. 1975 An Introduction to the Ecology of Early Historic Communal Bison Hunting Among the Northern Plains Indians. Archaeological Survey of Canada Paper No. 37. National Museum of Canada, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Ashby, Ed W. 2000 Arrow Lethality. Part IV: The Physics of Arrow Penetration. Traditional Bowhunter Feb./Mar.:82–86.Google Scholar
Bergman, Christopher A., McEwen, Ellen, and Miller, Roger 1988 Experimental Archery: Projectile Velocities and Comparison of Bow Performance. Antiquity 62:658–670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blitz, John H 1988 Adoption of the Bow in Prehistoric North America. North American Archaeologist 9:123–145.Google Scholar
Bradbury, Andrew P. 1997 The Bow and Arrow in the Eastern Woodlands: Evidence for an Archaic Origin. North American Archaeologist 18:207–233.Google Scholar
Branch, J. Frank 1962 The Hunting of the Buffalo. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Broughton, Jack M. 1994 Late Holocene Resource Intensification in the Sacramento Valley, California: The Vertebrate Evidence. Journal of Archaeological Science 21:501–514.Google Scholar
Butler, William B. 1975 The Atlatl: The Physics of Function and Performance. Plains Anthropologist 20(68): 105–110.Google Scholar
Cattelain, Pierre 1997 Hunting During the Upper Paleolithic: Bow, Spearthrower, or Both? In Projectile Technology, edited by Heidi Knecht, pp. 213–240. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Chatters, James C., Campbell, Sarah K., Smith, Grant D., and Minthorn, Phillip E. Jr. 1995 Bison Procurement in the Far West: A 2,100-Year-Old Kill Site on the Columbia Plateau. American Antiquity 60(4):751–763.Google Scholar
Christenson, Andrew L. 1986 Projectile Point Size and Projectile Aerodynamics: An Exploratory Study. Plains Anthropologist 31(112):109–128.Google Scholar
Churchill, Steven E. 1993 Weapon Technology, Prey Size Selection, and Hunting Methods in Modern Hunter-Gatherers: Implications for Hunting in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic. In Hunting and Animal Exploitation in the Later Paleolithic and Mesolithic of Eurasia, edited by Gail L. Peterkin, Harvey M. Bricker, and Paul Mellars, pp. 11–24. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association. No. 4. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Churchill, Steven E., and Curran, Brian K. 1991 Weapon Technology, Prey Size Selection, and Hunting Methods in Modern Hunter–Gatherers and Implications for Paleolithic Archaeology. Paper presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Davis, Leslie B., and Reeves, B. O. K. (editors) 1990 Hunters of the Recent Past. Unwin Hyman, Boston, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Dumond, Don E. 1978 Alaska and the Northwest Coast. In Ancient Native Americans, edited by Jesse D. Jennings, pp. 43–93. W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco, California.Google Scholar
Dunbar, John B. 1880 The Pawnee Indians: Their Habits and Customs. Magazine of American History 5:321–342.Google Scholar
Easton Archery 2007 Game Guide Kinetic Energy Hunting Usage. http://www.eastonarchery.com/store/kinetic_calculator Accessed 05/07/2007.Google Scholar
Ellis, Christopher J. 1997 Factors Influencing the Use of Stone Projectile Tips: An Ethnographic Perspective. In Projectile Technology, edited by Heidi Knecht, pp. 37–74. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Ewers, John C. 1955 The Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture. Bulletin No. 159. Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Ferg, Alan, and Peachey, William D. 1998 An Atlatl from the Sierra Pinacate. Kiva 64:175–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fields, Ron 2005 New Mexico Atlatl Research Continues Sponsored by NMAC. Bluff Dweller Atlatls. http://www.scribd.com/doc/45902928/Bluff-Dweller-Atlatls. Accessed 08/30/2012.Google Scholar
Forbis, Richard G. 1962 The Old Woman’s Buffalo Jump, Alberta. Bulletin No. 180. National Museum of Canada, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Fowler, Don D., and Matley, John F. 1979 Material Culture of the Numa: The John Wesley Powell Collection, 1867–1880. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Friis-Hansen, Jan 1990 Mesolithic Cutting Arrows: Functional Analysis of Arrows Used in the Hunting of Large Game. Antiquity 64:494–504.Google Scholar
Frison, George C. 2004 Survival by Hunting Prehistoric Human Predators and Animal Prey. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Green, William, and Nolan, David J. 2000 Late Woodland Peoples in West-Central Illinois. In Late Woodland Societies: Tradition and Transformation across the Midcontinent, edited by Thomas E. Emerson, Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. Fortier, pp. 345–386. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Grinnell, George B. 1962 [1923] The Cheyenne Indians: Their History and Way of Life. Cooper Square, New York.Google Scholar
Hamm, Jim 1992 Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans. Lyons and Burford Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Hamilton, T. M. 1982 Native American Bows. Missouri Archaeological Society, Columbia.Google Scholar
Hanson, Jeffery R. 1986 Adjustment and Adaptation on the Northern Plains: The Case of Equestrianism among the Hidatsa. Plains Anthropologist 31 (112):93–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, P. Gregory, Greer, Sheila, Gotthardt, Ruth, Famell, Richard, Bowyer, Vandy, Schweger, Charles, and Strand, Diane 2004 Ethnographic and Archaeological Investigations of Alpine Ice Patches in Southwest Yukon, Canada. Arctic 57:260–272.Google Scholar
Hiller, Ilo 1996 The White-Tailed Deer. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.Google Scholar
Hitchcock, Robert, and Bleed, Peter 1997 Each According to Need and Fashion: Spear and Arrow Use among San Hunters of the Kalahari. In Projectile Technology, edited by Heidi Knecht, pp. 345–370. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Hrdlicka, Daryl 2003 How Hard Does it Hit? A Revised Study of Atlatl and Dart Ballistics. The Atlatl 16(2): 15–18.Google Scholar
Hughes, Susan S. 1998 Getting to the Point: Evolutionary Change in Prehistoric Weaponry. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 5:345–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchings, W. Karl 1997 The Paleoindian Fluted Point: Dart or Spear Armature? The Identification of Paleoindian Delivery Technology through the Analysis of Lithic Fracture Velocity. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Archaeology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario.Google Scholar
Hutchings, W. Karl, and Brüchert, Lorenz W. 1997 Spear Thrower Performance: Ethnographic and Experimental Research. Antiquity 71:890–897.Google Scholar
Justice, Noel D. 1995 Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Midcontinental and Eastern United States. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Justice, Noel D. 2002a Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Southwestern United States. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Justice, Noel D. 2002b Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of California and the Great Basin. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Kelly, Isabel T. 1932 Ethnography of the Surprise Valley Paiute. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 31, No. 3. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Laralde, Signa Laure 1990 The Design of Hunting Weapons: Archaeological Evidence from Southwestern Wyoming. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Laubin, Reginald, and Laubin, Gladys 1980 American Indian Archery. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Logan, Brad 2010 Frontier Life: Late Prehistoric Adaptations of the Kansas City Locality. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 35: 229–269.Google Scholar
Lowie, Robert H. 1982 [1954] Indians of the Plains. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Mason, Otis T. 1894 North American Bows, Arrows, and Quivers. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
McDonald, Jerry N. 1981 North American Bison: Their Classification and Evolution. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
McHugh, Tom 2004 [1972] The Time of the Buffalo. Castle Books, Edison, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Meagher, Margaret Mary 1978 Bison. In Big Game of North America: Ecology and Management, edited by John L. Schmidt and Douglas L. Gilbert, pp. 123–134. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Meinkoth, Michael C. 2000 The Late Woodland Period in Northeast Missouri. In Late Woodland Societies: Tradition and Transformation across the Midcontinent, edited by Thomas E. Emerson, Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. Fortier, pp. 241–262. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Miller, Roger, McEwen, Ellen, and Bergman, Christopher A. 1986 Experimental Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Archery. World Archaeology 18:178–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moreno, Teresa K. 2000 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Dates from McEuen Cave. Kiva 65:341–360.Google Scholar
Nassaney, Michael S., and Pyle, Kendra 1999 The Adoption of the Bow and Arrow in Eastern North America: A View from Central Arkansas. American Antiquity 64(2):243–263.Google Scholar
O’Connor, Jack 1961 The Big Game Animals of North America. Outdoor Life. E.P. Dutton and Co., Inc., New York.Google Scholar
O’Connor, Jack 1970 The Hunting Rifle. Winchester Press, New York.Google Scholar
Pope, Saxton T. 1918 Yahi Archery. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 13, No. 3. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Pope, Saxton T. 1923 A Study of Bows and Arrows. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 13, No. 9. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Quigg, Michael J., and Peck, Jay 1995 The Rush Site (41TG346): A Stratified Late Prehistoric Locale in Tom Green County, Texas. Technical Report No. 816C. Mariah Associates, Austin, Texas.Google Scholar
Ray, P. H. 1886 Manufacture of Bows and Arrows among the Natano (Hupa) and Kenuck (Klamath) Indians. American Naturalist 20:832–833.Google Scholar
Raymond, Anan 1986 Experiments in the Function and Performance of the Weighted Atlatl. World Archaeology 18:153–177.Google Scholar
Reeder, Robert L. 2000 The Maramec Spring Phase. In Late Woodland Societies: Tradition and Transformation across the Midcontinent, edited by Thomas E. Emerson, Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. Fortier, pp. 187–210. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Reeves, Brian O.K. 1978 Head-Smashed-In: 5500 Years of Bison Jumping in the Alberta Plains. Plains Anthropologist 23(82): 151–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricklis, Robert A. 1994 Toyah Components: Evidence for Occupation in the Project Area during the Latter Part of the Late Prehistoric Period. In Archaic and Late Prehistoric Human Ecology in the Middle Onion Creek Valley, Hays County, Texas, by Robert A. Ricklis and Michael B. Collins, pp. 207–316. Studies in Archeology No. 19. Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Schaeffer, Claude E. 1978 The Bison Drive of the Blackfeet Indians. Plains Anthropologist 23(82): 243–248.Google Scholar
Schambach, Frank 1995 A Probable Spiroan Entrepot in the Red River Valley in Northeast Texas. Caddoan Archeology Newsletter 6(1):9–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shott, Michael J. 1993 Spears, Darts, and Arrows: Late Woodland Hunting Techniques in the Upper Ohio Valley. American Antiquity 58(3):425–443.Google Scholar
Shott, Michael J. 1996 Innovation and Selection in Prehistory: A Case Study from the American Bottom. In Stone Tools: Theoretical Insights into Human Prehistory, edited by George H. Odell, 279–313. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Shott, Michael J. 1997 Stones and Shafts Redux: The Metric Discrimination of Chipped-Stone Dart and Arrow Points. American Antiquity 62(1):86–101.Google Scholar
Silks, Jon E. 2011a Hoyt Carbon Element RKT. Petersen’s Bowhunting 22(9): 26–27.Google Scholar
Silks, Jon E. 2011b PSE Dream Season EVO. Petersen’s Bowhunting 22(9): 56–57.Google Scholar
Simms, Steven R. 2008 Ancient Peoples of the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, California.Google Scholar
Sliva, R. Jane 1999 Cienega Points and Late Archaic Period Chronology in the Southern Southwest. Kiva 64:339–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens, David W., and Krebs, John R. 1986 Foraging Theory. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Tanaka, Jirō 1980 The San, Hunter-Gatherers of the Kalahari: A Study in Ecological Anthropology. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Thomas, David Hurst 1978 Arrowheads and Atlatl Darts: How the Stone Got the Shaft. American Antiquity 43(3):461–472.Google Scholar
Timney, Mark 2007 Practical Bowhunter. Much Ado about Nothing. http://bowsite.com/bowsite/features/practical_bowhunter/penetration. Accessed 05/06/2007.Google Scholar
Watanabe, Hitoshi 1973 The Ainu Ecosystem: Environment and Group Structure. University of Washington Press, Seattle.Google Scholar
Webb, Clarence H., and McKinney, Ralph R. 1975 Mounds Plantation (16CD12), Caddo Parish, Louisiana. Louisiana Archeology Bulletin 2:39–127.Google Scholar
Webster, Gary S. 1980 Recent Data Bearing on the Question of the Origins of the Bow and Arrow in the Great Basin. American Antiquity 45(1):63–66.Google Scholar
Whittaker, John, and Kamp, Kathryn 2006 Primitive Weapons and Modern Sport: Atlatl Capabilities, Learning, Gender, and Age. Plains Anthropologist 51(198):213–221.Google Scholar
Yu, Pei-Lin 2006 From Atlatl to Bow and Arrow. Implicating Projectile Technology in Changing Systems of Hunter-Gatherer Mobility. In Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology of Mobility, edited by Frédéric Sellet, Russell Greaves, and Pei-Lin Yu, pp. 201–220. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar