Project title: Experiments with the manufacture and use of bow andarrow from the Ahrensburgian culture (10.000-9.000 BC)

Year: 2001

Abstract:

Among the Ahrensburgian finds from Northern Germany (from about 11.500 years ago), there are two pieces of pine wood which have been interpreted as parts of a bow. Pine wood is normally seen as being unsuited for the production of bows. The aim of the project is therefore, by way of reconstruction and practical experiments, to investigate whether the recovered pieces of pine wood could be the remains of a bow. This year’s experiments comprised the building of a pine wood bow with reconstructed contemporary flint tools.

The pine wood bow gave remarkably good results. The reconstruction work was carried out using dry wood (seasoned for about 13 months) which involved a great deal of work and many blunt edges on the tools. The work must originally have been done with fresh wood. During the work and after the bow is finished it can dry out, but it is important that the last tillering is done in a dry state, as the final adjustments will otherwise be worthless. There is, furthermore, a great risk that the bow will break. The remaining task is to manufacture a bow string, which presumably should be of reindeer sinews, and a couple of arrows. The project’s preliminary results show that reindeer hunters could have used pine wood bows and that their manufacture is not a particularly difficult task. The time used is very reasonable with fresh, un-seasoned wood.

Reference number: HAF 14/01