The Amazing Art Form of Archery

The art of archery appears as the major method of warfare in the ancient epics and thus archery was the most classical method of fighting battles in the earlier times. This term can be aptly defined as the skill or practice of shooting arrows at the aim by means of a bow. It was the major means for hunting and fighting during the olden age, however, in the recent times it has been only used for recreation.

The person who actually practices archery is known as an ‘archer’ or even as a ‘bowman’ whereas the person who is extremely fond of this art or is a great professional at archery is named as the ‘toxophilite’. Bows and arrows together constitute the entire set-up of archery and it is surprising to note that the bows were created somewhere in the Paleolithic or Mesolithic age.

There is no evidence of the usage of the bows before the Paleolithic or Mesolithic eras and only pointed shafts have been found as the part of the recorded history. The initial arrows used in archery have been thought to have been made from pine and the Egyptian culture also proves the use of bows and arrows which is greatly evident from the predynastic origins.

Several classical civilizations such as the Indians, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and others have been known to use archers in their armies and in fact their armies mainly consisted of professional archers who have strong expertise and skill. However, with the development in technology, bows and arrows became quite useless and have been completely taken away from battles and wars in today’s world.

There are several varieties of bow which is prepared and one of the common parts which are present in both the primitive and contemporary bows is the presence of a string which in turn is tied to the ends of the flexible limb. Two vide varieties of bows have been found in use: One of the kinds is drawn by directly pulling the string and the other involves a detailed mechanism to pull the string.

Compound bows are becoming quite famous in the recent times wherein we can observe that they are designed in such a way so as to reduce the energy applied by the archer to pull the string and hence the user can aim better using this bow. In order to achieve this effect, these kinds of bows are equipped with cams or elliptical wheels which are present on each of the ends of the limbs.

Arrows are mostly designed like a shaft with an arrowhead at the front part and fletchings (made from bird feathers) and nock can be attached to the other end of the arrow. The shaft part of the arrow can be composed of several parts like fiberglass, solid wood, aluminium alloy, carbon fiber, and even composite materials.

Archery is slowly edging towards an amazing competitive sport and men and women are both getting inclined towards this amazing art form.