The steppe bow failed to spread further due to specific tactical and environmental limitations
the verdict
INSUFFICIENT LEANING
refutedsupported
the weight of evidence
2 sources for · 0 against
AS REPORTEDno primary record reached; this is what the reporting says
Available historical sources touch on bow limitations and design compromises, but do not comprehensively establish that specific tactical and environmental limitations caused the steppe bow to fail to spread further.
# Why didn't the steppe bow spread further?
Tags: middle-ages, weapons, medieval-japan, steppe-nomads, classical-japan
- Score: 17
- Views: 2684
- Answers: 4
- Answered: yes
- Asked by: Bill (179 rep)
- Asked: 2018-06-21
- Edited: 2018-06-24
- Site: history
## Question
So, this question was triggered by my reading Stephen Turnbull's book on the Gempei War, when he says that he thinks that the yumi, or Japanese longbow, had an effective range of 10 meters against armor, 20 unarmored. Which seemed horrifyingly low to me.
I mentioned this to a friend who knows a good deal about the Crusades, and he said that, yes, he thought war bows in the middle east at the start of the Crusades were also very weak, and they didn't become dominant in the region until the fourteenth century.
And a second friend mentioned the weakness of the bow in the classical mediterranean area, with slings being superior for military purposes.
But the wood-horn-sinew composite bow - the 'Hunnish Bow,' as I've heard it called, or 'steppe bow' - dates back to, according to Wikipedia, at least the second century BC, and some versions apparently more than a millennium further back. It was certainly terrifying E
# The Asian war bow
arXiv (Cornell University). Published: 2011-01-09. Preprint. 1 citation.
## Authors
- Timo A. Nieminen: h-index 40; 6,536 citations; corresponding author
## Topics
- Mechanics and Biomechanics Studies
- Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts
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# The Asian war bow
Timo A. Nieminen The University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia
## Abstract
Summary The bow is one of the earliest complex machines, a prime example of the storage and transfer of energy. The physics of the bow illuminates compromises and design choices made in Asian military archery. Keywords- archery; history of technology; military technology
## INTRODUCTION
The bow, already developed in the Neolithic, is a complex machine, designed to store energy and deliver it, in a short interval of time, to an arrow (and, subsequently, to a target). The development of the bow from its early beginnings into the various finely engineered forms of medieval and later times demonstrates a deep understanding—even if unarticulated—of the physics governing the bow. The limitations imposed by real-world materials and economics necessitated compromises in the designs of bows; the requirements of the u
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