Assyrian Composite Bow

Origins

A bow made of a single piece of wood can store only so much energy before it breaks. The composite bow solved that problem by combining materials: a thin wooden core, a belly of horn, which resists compression, and a back of sinew, which resists stretching, all glued together. The result is a short bow that can be drawn much farther and shoots much harder than a wooden bow of the same length — ideal for use from a chariot or a horse. Composite bows were in use in the Near East by the third millennium BC, and by the Late Bronze Age they were the standard weapon of the chariot armies of Egypt, the Hittites and Mesopotamia; several survive from the tomb of Tutankhamun. The Neo-Assyrian Empire, which rose from its homeland on the upper Tigris in the ninth century BC, made the composite bow the core of the first great standing army of the Iron Age.

Design & Construction

Assyrian reliefs show two main forms. Earlier bows are angular: when strung, the limbs run straight from the grip to the tips, so the bow forms a triangle. Later bows, from the eighth and seventh centuries, are recurved, with the tips curving away from the archer, which adds power and speed. The bows were built in stages over months or years, because the sinew and hide glue had to dry slowly, and they had to be protected from damp; Assyrian archers carried them in cases. Arrows were of reed or wood with bronze, and increasingly iron, heads, carried in quivers that the reliefs show in great detail. The bow was drawn to the chest or face with a thumb or finger release.

Combat Use

The Assyrian army used the bow at every level. Chariot crews included an archer, and the royal hunt reliefs from Nimrud and Nineveh show kings such as Ashurnasirpal II and Ashurbanipal shooting lions from the chariot. From the ninth century Assyria fielded some of the first cavalry, riding in pairs: one rider held both horses' reins while the other shot. Infantry archers fought behind tall wicker or reed shields held by shield-bearers, pouring arrows onto defenders; the reliefs of Sennacherib's siege of Lachish in 701 BC show archers and slingers with the Prehistoric Sling covering the troops who assault the walls. The bow's range and power made Assyria's sieges and field battles possible and helped build an empire that at its height stretched from Egypt to Iran.

Legacy

Assyria fell in 612 BC, but its military methods passed to the Babylonians and then to the Achaemenid Persians, whose archers, including the Persian Immortals, carried composite bows and the Persian Akinakes. The composite bow remained the great weapon of the steppe and the Middle East for two thousand years, reaching its peak in the Mongol Composite Bow and the Ottoman bow. The Assyrian palace reliefs, now in the British Museum and the Louvre, are the most detailed record of an ancient army at war, and the bow is on almost every panel.