RomanArmyTalk

Hello,

Does anyone know of any good book or article on the spread of the Scythian bow? People often allude to the Scythian bow coming into use all over SE Europe and SW Asia around the 7th/6th centuries BCE, but its hard to find details or information on how far west and south it spread. Snodgrass and C. Zutterman "The Bow in the Ancient Near East" have some useful things.

What I know is that recurve bows, often in the hands of archers in Scythian dress, are quite commonly depicted on Greek vases since at least the 6th century BC. The Staatliche Antikensammlungen in Munich has a couple of such vessels.

They are also the usual type of bow used by men in Median dress in Achaemenid art. One of the first things I need to do may be to create a bow typology ... Zutterman's is a bit confusing to me, but I think he was not writing in his native language.