Thread: English longbow vs. Viking longbow?
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Old 05-12-06, 08:20 PM
kernowtom kernowtom is offline
In the Black
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Limbs: bamboo backed longbow
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: somerset
Posts: 84
Even older than the holmegaard style bows are the stellmoor bows from northern germany (see the bowyers bible vol. 2). These are much more like the Mary Rose longbows in cross section and many other neolithic bows show a circular or D-ish shape. Several later (but still pretty old) bows have been found here in Somerset. These include D section and flat bows. It seems that both shapes have existed for a long time. Perhaps the prevalence of one or the other has depended upon local materials and the trade off between performance and ease of manufacture?
tom
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