Glued Linen Armour- a simple test

[Sean Manning]

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. In medieval Europe you could find a bow drawing anything from 50 to 180 lbs depending on what it was meant to kill and how good the user was. All would be built in basically the same way although a strong bow would be somewhat longer and thicker.

I haven't read Blyth's thesis, but I'm suspicious of anyone who gives performance stats for a type of bow as if they were standardized. Just for example, two replica Egyptian angular composite bows had draw weights of 18 and 23 kg at 90 cm. Obviously the one with a 30% higher draw weight would shoot farther and give its arrows more energy. The yew warbows on the Mary Rose probably had draw weights ranging from 50 to 81 kg at 30" when new, a 60% difference between the weakest and the strongest.

I agree that most ancient bows fired relatively light ammunition which would reduce energy and therefore penetration.

Also, what evidence is there of any Old World bow which was drawn to the chest? Sources like the Munich wood show Scythian double-curved and Elamite single-curved bows drawn to or past the ear.