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The life of any artefact can be broken down into four stages; these are acquisition, manufacture, usage and disposal:
‘The best timber by far, for bows (in temperate Europe) is yew (taxus baccata), and many bows are known in this wood’ (Webb A., 1991). ‘In the days when perhaps an archers life depended on it, he would make sure that he had a good bow in his hand, and in most cases yew would be the wood he would choose’ (Adams D., 1988). The Meare Heath bow was made from yew, but how long did it take primitive bowyers to discover that yew was the best wood for the manufacture of the bow? How many years of trial and error went into the manufacture of bows before it was realised that yew wood was the wood for bow making? The Meare Heath Bow was cut from the trunk of a yew tree, but it is also possible, and far easier, to make a bow from a boughstave (a branch), but a bow created in this way would not be as good (due to the timber quality), but it would be a serviceable weapon (Adams D., 1988). The Meare Heath Bow was made from seasoned wood, bows however can be made quickly and effectively from unseasoned wood, although again they are not as good, because it is much harder to tiller them correctly, but it can be done. When thinking about acquisition of the wood for the Meare Heath bow then, it is important to note that the bow was made from the finest material available, and from the best part of that material.
Bergman, McEwen and Miller, in their experimental archery paper, state ‘every bow and its arrows represent a unique adaptation of the available raw materials’ (1988, 658-70). The Meare Heath bow is a fine example of the maximum utilization of available raw materials to match the needs of the archer. The bowyer who constructed the Meare Heath Bow really knew how to get the best weapon for his needs out of the materials available to him, with the minimum of effort. The creation of the replica bow has proved that Neolithic bowyers were skilled enough to know the best tree for bowmaking, the best part of that tree, and the best way to treat the wood of that tree in order to get the best results for bow manufacture. Considering this, it can be argued that the bow probably played an important role in the lives of the Neolithic population of Somerset. A weapon as advanced as the Meare Heath Bow must surely point to very talented individual bowyers, or a bow making industry in a highly developed stage. If a bowyer today were asked to construct a self-bow using the best possible materials for the job, he could not get much better than to follow the lead of the Neolithic bowyers.
The creation of the Meare Heath Bow replica shed new light upon the level of technology used in the creation of the original highly sophisticated bow. Bergman, McEwen & Miller, writing in 1988, stated that the bow actually accorded well with 20th century principles of scientific design; perhaps this should now be updated to read that the bow accords well with 21st century principles of scientific design! The Meare Heath Bow is a very efficient weapon, the wider limbs storing a great deal of potential energy, and more energy means a greater arrow speed (43m per second). The bowyers of the Neolithic knew how to fashion a very efficient weapon with minimal effort in a very short time. You do not learn such skills in an afternoon, and the Meare Heath bow is the result of the culmination of years of experience in making and designing bows. The Neolithic bowyers must have been highly skilled individuals, and the bows that they produced highly prized.
Another point worthy of mention is the use of the transverse leather bands and the criss-cross webbing on the bow. It was previously believed that these additions were simply for decoration, possibly to create an outstanding weapon as a show of status, or that they helped to strengthen the bow, compensating in some way for the breadth and thinness of the stave (Clark J.D.G., 1963). The construction of the replica has shown that these bands actually had four functions: they allowed a very good bow to be made from a stave that would have broken without them; they help spread the stresses placed upon the bow when it is drawn; they help to silence the bow when an arrow is released, making the bow a very good hunting weapon; the binding at the bow’s tips not only helped to strengthen a weak area but also appeared to create an idol of sorts, the bound figure of a man, which perhaps held some special significance for the maker of the bow. These bands then, serve both functional and decorative purposes. The bow itself is a weapon, yet it is also an object of great aesthetic beauty. The makers of the Meare Heath bow were not only craftsman, they were also artists.
The Neolithic period is generally accepted as being the age that marks the change from the Hunter/Gatherer society to that of the farming community. Bewley, in his book Prehistoric Settlements, when writing on the Neolithic states, ‘Normally we would label the people living in and around the Somerset Levels (and other similar areas) “farmers”, but we must not think of them as farmers in the modern sense of the word. They farmed some parts of the land, and were probably more settled than the communities living 500 or more years before. However, the evidence for them being farmers is slight indeed, and with the natural resources which the Levels would have provided, the need for farming was not great. Why grow food when you can obtain a plentiful supply (and variety) of food from the back garden?’ Bewley goes onto say ‘they were hunters as the Meare Heath bow shows’ (Bewley R., 1994). The bow's weight is 42lbs (19kg) at 28" (76.2cm) and its velocity is 43 metres per second, shooting and arrow with a projectile weight of 30g. This means that the bow is a fairly good hunting bow, with a poundage that would bring down most animals, accurate up to 100 yards. The hunters of Neolithic Somerset, using the Meare Heath Bow, would have been able to kill a deer at 50 metres in just over a second, and what's more, with a silent bow, if they missed the animal, and it did not see the arrow, they might even have been able to get off a second shot.
Another use for the bow could possibly have been for personal protection. Crickley Hill, a later Neolithic settlement, defended by an enclosure, met its end in violence, as shown by the scatter of leaf-shaped flint arrowheads along the rampart, fanning out into the interior of the enclosure from the gates (Bahn P., 1992). Some 429 arrowheads were recovered during excavations (Gale J. 1985). ‘At enclosures such as Crickley Hill (Gloucestershire), Maiden Castle and Hambledon Hill (Dorset), numerous arrows appear to have been fired during attacks and many bear impact fractures indicative of use’ (Edmonds M., 1995). The Meare Heath bow in this situation would have made an impressive and terrifying weapon of war, easily capable of killing a man. Perhaps the size, style and design of the weapon was cunningly crafted to act as a status symbol for the owner, striking terror into the hearts of the tribe’s enemies.
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