The bow for shooting arrows was invented after the spear and boomerang. The earliest known stone arrowheads, found in Spain, date from above 16,000 B.C.E. Rock art in north Africa showing archers was drawn about that same time. The earliest arrow shafts are preserved in bogs in northern Europe, some from as early as 8000 B.C.E.
Bows have more uses than launching arrows. Wrapping the cord around a shaft and pushing the bow back and forth rotates the shaft at high speeds. This idea was used, probably starting about 8000 B.C.E., for drilling holes and starting fires with friction.
About 400 B.C.E. two adaptations of the bow were introduced. In Italy, Greek inventors developed a large bow pulled by teams of soldiers that could launch heavy stones or spears-the catapult. Catapults sent missiles over walls or even though them. In China, a smaller, handheld device employed a heavy arrow, called a bolt. The user cocks the bow (perhaps using a pulley for added power) and can unleash at will. By the 1st century C.E., the crossbow was known in Greece and Rome. In the middle ages, improved crossbows were so deadly that the Church tried to outlaw them.
After guns were introduced, however, bows and crossbows gradually ceased being used as weapons of war. Today they are mainly used in target shooting or for hunting deer and other large game.
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