Roman crossbow

[Thomas V.]

As far as I know, ash and elm was used in case of lack of proper yew bodies. Such as in Finland, ash bows were typical choice since both yew is not available and also yew bows are not capable of working in frozen climate of Finland.

The "typical Finnish bow" (if there ever was one) seemed to be a laminated two-wood bow not containing ash: [hide]http://www.freebirdarchery.com/images/twowoodbow.pdf[/hide] ("Another name was finnbogi, ‘Finnish bow’ [..].") A referenceless part of a Wikipedia article seems to be the only source claiming that there were Finnish bows made from ash. Moreover, the Roman Empire wasn't to cold for yew bows and it also intersected with the habitat of yew.