Amazons of the bow. A sketch at an archery meeting.

Title

Amazons of the bow. A sketch at an archery meeting.

Description

Illustration of fine ladies shooting archery.

c. 1885

Artist

Taylor

Historical Description

Archery was originally developed as a form of hunting and later played an important role as a long-range weapon in military conflicts for a long time. Bows and arrows have been in use for at least 14,000 years (the end of the Upper Palaeolithic), which is mainly evidenced by flint arrowheads. The classic European longbow was replaced in the early modern period (approx. 1500 to 1790). Longbows were still used in the English Civil War in the mid-17th century, but a short time later the longbow was finally replaced in England. Muskets achieved ever greater firepower and range. In modern times, the bow as a weapon played a role primarily among the indigenous peoples of Africa, America and Australia. The oldest European school of archery dates back to 1545 by the English author Roger Ascham and bears the name "Toxophilus". At the same time, archery had the status of a popular sport in Belgium. In Great Britain, on the other hand, archery developed into an extremely popular women's sport. A booklet published in 1920 with the dual title Archery / Throwing with the Boomerang was for a long time the definitive guide to archery in German. The book by Eugen Herrigel entitled Zen in der Kunst des Bogenschießens (Zen in the Art of Archery), published in 1948, also had a large circulation. Archery was an Olympic discipline from 1900 to 1920 and, after an interruption, has been again since 1972 up to the present day.