Abstract

In June 1961, the Eclipse Peat Company opened up some new areas for peat extraction on the Somerset Levels.  Deep in the peat, one-half of a wooden flat-bow was discovered. This bow was found to date from the Neolithic Period, and was given the name the Meare Heath Bow.

The following article is an account of the re-creation of a working replica of the Meare Heath Bow, which was carried out using the tools, materials and technologies available to the indigenous Neolithic population of Somerset.  Through the re-creation and testing of the bow, hypothesis and interpretations previously attributed to the bow, and consequently to Neolithic bow-making in general, are examined and re-appraised.

The conclusions reached include the fact that the Neolithic bowyers were skilled craftsmen and designers, capable of producing highly advanced weapons for the time, and that the Meare Heath Bow, which was previously thought to have broken in use, was probably intentionally broken, perhaps to be deposited as a votive offering in the Somerset Levels.

The reconstruction of the bow was undertaken in the summer of 1997, and two publications subsequently appeared (Prior, 2000 a&b), but this is the first time that an unabridged version of the account of the reconstruction of the bow has been published.  The replica Meare Heath Bow has now been shot over 3000 times and is still going strong, illustrating the functionality of its design and the durability of the weapon.

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Introduction

Archaeology contains many sub-disciplines and one such is Experimental Archaeology. Experimental archaeology is the controlled replication of ancient technologies in order to provide hypotheses that can be tested by actual archaeological data.  Through this field many ancient tools, buildings and artefacts have been re-created in order to learn about the processes of manufacture, usage and decay.  These experiments have shown that many of the traditionally held views, about the ways in which tasks were carried out, things were constructed, or the ways in which various objects functioned, are actually ill founded, and many previously held notions about the past have subsequently been challenged.

One area where experimental archaeology has really come into its own is within the study of ancient archery, or to give it its proper name Archaeotoxophily (Archaeology = the study of antiquities; Toxophily = archery).  Experimental archaeology has been used to great effect within archaeotoxophily and much has been learnt about the bows and arrows that the discipline has been applied to.  The bows from the Mary Rose have been re-created (Hardy, 1976), as has the Ice Man's bow (Spindler, 1993), telling us much about artisanship and bow technologies of these periods.  Flint arrowheads have also been made and tested, and their effectiveness has been proven thrice over.  The story is far from complete however, and for every question answered two more have arisen.  Much knowledge may have been gleaned concerning the field of ancient archery, but there is still much to learn.

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