Archery is the sport, practice or skill of using a bow to propel arrows, with the intention of hitting a target.
Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat.
Archery probably dates back to the Stone Age – around 20,000BC. It can be said to be one of the oldest arts still practised today.
The bow and arrow seems to have been invented in the later Paleolithic or early Mesolithic periods. The arrows were made of pine and consisted of a mainshaft and a 15–20 centimetres (5.9–7.9 inches) long fore shaft with a flint point. There are no definite earlier bows; previous pointed shafts are known, but may have been launched by spear throwers rather than bows.
The oldest bow known so far come from the Holmegard swamp in Denmark.
Bows eventually replaced the spear thrower as the predominant means for launching shafted projectiles, on every continent, though spear-throwers persisted alongside the bow in parts of the Americas, notably Mexico and among the Inuit.
Bows and arrows have been present in Egyptian culture since its predynastic origins. The Egyptian regularly used bows and arrows were the Ancient Egyptians, who adopted archery around 3,000BC for hunting and warfare.
Archery was highly developed in Asia. When Chinese people introduced Japan to archery in the sixth century it had an overwhelming influence on culture.
The Sanskrit term for archery, dhanurveda, came to refer to martial arts in general. In East Asia, Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea was well known for its regiments of exceptionally skilled archers.
The advent of firearms eventually rendered bows obsolete in warfare.
Despite the high social status, ongoing utility, and widespread pleasure of archery, almost every culture that gained access to even early firearms used them widely, to the relative neglect of archery.
The British initiated a major revival of archery as an upper-class pursuit from about 1780-1840.
Early recreational archery societies included the Finsbury Archers and the Kilwinning Papingo, established in 1688.
The latter held competitions in which the archers had to dislodge a wooden parrot from the top of an abbey tower.
The Company of Scottish Archers was formed in 1676 and is one of the oldest sporting bodies in the world. It remained a small and scattered pastime, however, until the late 18th century when it experienced a fashionable revival among the aristocracy.
The 1840s saw the first attempts at turning the recreation into a modern sport.
The first Grand National Archery Society meeting was held in York in 1844 and over the next decade the extravagant and festive practices of the past were gradually whittled away and the rules were standardised as the 'York Round' - a series of shoots at 60, 80, and 100 yards.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the sport experienced declining participation as alternative sports became more popular among the middle class.
By 1889, just 50 archery clubs were left in Britain, but it was still included as a sport at the Paris Olympics 1900.
From the 1920s, professional engineers took an interest in archery, previously the exclusive field of traditional craft experts.They led the commercial development of new forms of bow including the modern recurve and compound bow.
These modern forms are now dominant in modern Western archery; traditional bows are in a minority. In the 1980s, the skills of traditional archery were revived by American enthusiasts, and combined with the new scientific understanding.
Much of this expertise is available in the Traditional Bowyer's Bibles (see Additional reading)
Modern game archery, in recent times has become more commonly used as a competitive sport and for recreation.
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