07-07-2014, 02:16 PM
Quote:I appreciate he has not been working up to it since childhood but my point is that from what I have read about Manchu tradition the 100lb+bows were for non mounted troops (and the 150lb+ ones for excerise and strength testing only only) due to the effort of puling them and that mounted bows were of the 60-80lb region as they had to be manipulated whilst sitting and controlling a horse, a completely different proposition than being able to use your whole back in a foot draw.
What's your evidence for this? Mark C. Elliot's The Manchu Way argues that about 80lbs "was considered minimal for a grown man" (page 179) and 133lbs was required for participation in the hunts (which were mounted). The emperor in 1727 stated that 80lbs or greater was enough, and in 1736 an officer complained that few of the younger soldiers could use bows above 92-105lbs with ease. And all of this data comes from a period of likely decline in Manchu archery. See here for a compilation of sources. The overall weight of the evidence indicates that a draw of approximately 80lbs constituted the minimum for competent mounted military archery by Manchu standards, and that best mounted archers could draw 100lbs and over (apparently up to 133+lbs for the elite group who participated in the hunts). This stands consistent with the data from other archer cultures such as the Turks. In general, quality mounted archers wielded 80-120lb bows, even going back to 1000-400 BCE.
We don't know for sure what kind of bows the Parthians used at Carrhae, but based on the above it's likely at least come of the archers involved drew 100+lbs. Roman mail would have had to have been quite heavy and thickly padded to resist arrows from such bows at close range, depending on arrow weight and arrowhead design. (The mail test from The Knight and the Blast Furnace by Alan Williams involved a very substantial quilted backing that would weigh about 3lbs just to cover my front torso from shoulders to navel. It additionally used only one type of arrowhead simulator, and arguably not the most efficient one against mail.) I suspect there's considerable truth in the accounts from Plutarch and Cassius Dio.
