Unique Aryan Bow From Bronze Age With Greatest Killing Power In Its Time Reconstructed, Report Archaeologists

Unique Aryan Bow: The weapon was unique because it was said to have the greatest accuracy, shooting distance, and killing power in its time. 

The scientists from South Ural State University reconstructed the four-thousand-year-old bow in a unique experiment, the foundation of which was horn parts found in three burial complexes of the Sintashta people, an ancient Indo-Iranian tribe.| Representative Photo

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New Delhi: An international team of researchers have reconstructed a unique compound bow from the Bronze Age nearly two metres tall from authentic materials. The weapon was unique because it was said to have the greatest accuracy, shooting distance, and killing power in its time. 

In a statement issued by South Ural State University, Russia, specialists noted that reconstructing objects according to archaeological data is one of the most important fields of modern historical science. Scientists are able to better understand the technology and everyday life of ancestors by reconstructing artefacts of the past based on indirect data.

How Old Was The Bow?

The scientists from South Ural State University reconstructed the four-thousand-year-old bow in a unique experiment, the foundation of which was horn parts found in three burial complexes of the Sintashta people, an ancient Indo-Iranian tribe. According to the statement, the horn parts were located in the Southern Urals at the turn of the third and second millennia BC, to which the famous Arkaim can be dated. Arkaim is an archaeological complex in the Southern Urals steppe. The fortress is known as the Russian Stonehenge and is believed to be even older than Stonehenge itself. 

What Made The Bow Special?

The team of researchers said that the penetration ability of this type of bow was so high that it could pierce even bone and horn plate armour. The bow was likely an elite weapon of a chariot warrior, but could also be used by aristocrats to hunt large animals, and had an asymmetric shape, which was compensated by the balance of the horn parts. The asymmetric shape may have given the lower arm of the weapon special combat ergonomics, allowing it to be fired from the body of a war vehicle.

Ivan Semyan, head of the South Ural State University Laboratory of Experimental Archaeology, said in the statement that the Sintashta bow is a compound long below with a number of special parts to enhance mechanics and expand functionality. He added that tests and simulations showed that the effective shooting of large Sintashta arrows required a bow tension of more than 28 kilograms. Meanwhile, the modern Olympic bow for men requires just 25 kilograms of bow tension. 

What Was The Result Of The Experiment?

The result of the experiment was a bow 187 centimetres long with 29.03 kilograms of tension, which can be used for target shooting at a distance of about 80 metres, Semyan said.

These compound bows are the most powerful and accurate distance weapons of antiquity, according to archaeologists. Reconstruction of the technology allowed the researchers to assert that the bows were difficult to manufacture and required specialisation of labour, the statement said. Different craftsmen were likely to have created the wooden and horn parts of the bow.

The Bow Was Highly Polished

The bow had a high quality of grinding and polishing, the original bow elements discovered suggest. Horn parts are complex in shape and require many hours of drilling, sawing, cutting, and grinding with bronze tools, and the creation of the quiver set required at least three specialists, the scientists explained. These specialists were a caster, a flint-splitter, and a bone carver.

What Materials Were Used To Construct The Bow?

Semyan explained that it was extremely important for the researchers to strictly adhere to three principles. These were: to use authentic materials, authentic technologies, and not to exceed the level of technical thought of the ancient masters. Hence, only four materials were used, which were wood, horn, bone glue, and sinew, Semyan said.

Four versions of the design were tested in total. Of these, two were from the colleagues, and two were the researchers' own, he added.

The scientists noted that the results of experimental shooting proved the high quality of the bow created by the specialists from South Ural State University, according to the statement. The bow showed high mechanical power during the tests, with stable repeatability, of more than 300 shots, and the complete absence of destructive vibrations in the design.

The experts noted that the most exotic detail found during the excavations was a hypothetical "arrow shell" consisting of two slats. The lower bar was used when shooting at a distance of less than 20 metres, and the upper bar was used when working on targets at a greater distance, which required the arrow to be lifted, the researchers concluded.