Glued Linen Armour- a simple test

[Paullus Scipio]

Sean wrote:

Careful there Paullus! Any given style of bow can be made in a wide range of draw weights, and fire a range of types of ammunition.

Very much agreed, Sean !
1. Information derived from arrowheads:
In broad terms, larger arrowheads rquire more powerful bows, smaller ones indicate less powerful.The diameter of the socket is also useful in determining maximum force.
2. Information derived from arrow shafts:
Length and stiffness of surviving arrow shafts, as well as their material can allow calculation of maximum force.
3. The flight of the arrow :
Shape and mass of the arrow can allow calculation of rate of energy loss, and through use of a ballistic constant, range of the arrow itself.
4. Design of the Bow:
Upper limits of of kinetic energy can be reasonably accurately estimated, taking into account factors such as archer draw ( Blyth allows anything up to a 25% variation in archer strength - so is not arriving at a "standard" figure, but rather an average), the distance the string is drawn back, the geometry of the bow and the materials used in construction.
Many other factors, too numerous to go into here were also considered.

If these methods all produce consistent results, then a reasonable range for kinetic energy will occur, especially for the upper/maximum figures - Blyth does not treat this as 'standardised', nor does he look at individual bows.

Also, what evidence is there of any Old World bow which was drawn to the chest?

Arrow lengths are a good guide... examples found vary from 60 cm-75 cm or so long - the shorter types can only have been drawn to the chest, and indeed there are iconographic representations of this. Later Scythian bows got larger and more powerful, with arrows evolving from very small heads on a wooden foreshaft on a reed shaft, to larger heads on an all wooden shaft ( though with so few finds, a full evolution cannot yet be established - see my AW article on Parthian bows for information on some finds)

Dan wrote:

Here is one set of data extracted from one of their graphs.
Bow 1 Scythian 60cm draw length 205N draw weight
34g arrow averaged 38m/s (1m from bow)
36g arrow averaged 36m/s (1m from bow)
38g arrow averaged 35m/s (1m from bow)

That is interesting, Dan, and for a rough comparison Blyth describes Scythian arrows of the Persian war period, with reed shafts, as weighing around 15-25 g and initial velocities of the order of 48-66 m/sec, in order to have a range of over 200 m. I suspect that Molloy and co may have used solid shafted arrows rather than hollow reed ones, hence the arrows are too heavy, leading to the lower initial velocities.....(????)