Andeman (Sentinelese) Bows and Arrows

Tim Baker rated this bow- design as one of the best designs of history. Unstrung it is really in the S- shape, due to my knowledge Tim Baker made a replica of red oak. It seems to be a design you can make of white woods, cause the bows are very wide and long. I can?t remember what Tim Baker said about the S- shape. Maybe it is another way to get the advantages of an asymmetrical tiller?

Stephen, good luck with this bow, I think it is very difficult to get an original, the Andaman islanders are told to be very wild people.

Michael

I don't have an original ,but I just finished a little bow in the general style for my youngest son.

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I like the way the limbs tillered out ..Shoots good too.

redhawk wrote:

Tim Baker rated this bow- design as one of the best designs of history. Unstrung it is really in the S- shape, due to my knowledge Tim Baker made a replica of red oak. Michael

Yes, saw that in Trad. Bowyers' Bible Vol III. Not sure what causes the S shape. The cross-section of the working limbs is a shallow 'D' with a deeper curve on the belly side.

He also implies that the limbs are assymetrical. On mine, one limb is three inches longer than the other, but the working part is sixteen inches both above and below the grip.

According to artiticles on the Internet, the Andemanese natives are small. My bow is 48 inches, which would make it a child's bow by any measure. (If you look at the photos, the bows are at least as long as the owners.)

S

Stephen

The various types of Andaman bow are found in a number of museums. The Pitt-Rivers museum in Oxford has several, the Society of Archer-Antiquaries museum has at least one and the American Museum of Natural History has several dozen in their on-line database.

There is an on-line book on the Andaman islanders with a section on bows here: http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter17/t ... tm#weapons

The bows were also described in a couple of German articles by Jochen Schulz that I was given copies of - "Noch Einmal Andamanen" and "Die Andamanen, Bogen aus einer weltfernen gegend" which have "Woher? geschichte" at the top - presumably the magazine title.

Andrew

There is also an article in the Journal of the Society of Archer-Antiquaries.
Archery in the Andaman Islands, G. Gibson, Vol. 29, 1986.

Many of the bows appear to have working parts of the limb that are very wide.

I suppose one obvious point is that without very wide limbs, these s-shaped bows would simply have become unstrung when shot.

The article says "Both Onge and Sentineli bows in cross-section are somewhat convex inside, towards the marksman, and much more convex away from him." Is that the opposite to the English longbow?

In my set, the arrows have detachable heads connected to the shaft by a very short, well-made cord around three inches long. (Not a long cord like the illustration in the article.) What would that have achieved?

I wish I could talk to those people instead of just getting shot at :cry:

S

I remember on the news here recently it was reported that a helicopter flew over an unknown Amazonian tribe's village, scaring the inhabitants into the jungle. When the helicopter came round again to get some pictures of them, they were attacked by the village's archers. I can't say I find this surprising. I sympathize with the Sentinelese as well, I don't want the west's diseases either.

There is plenty of detail on the Anaman.org website, which I recommend.
Some years ago I had permission to handle and inspect a ka-rama type in the Archer Antiquaries collection at the Royal Tox which Andrew will no doubt have seen.

The main limb cross-section is very like the Meare Heath. Worked on both sides, lenticular in character with a curved back and a low spine down the centre of the belly, shallow concave on either side of this spine.

This characteristic cross section fades out to being round in the handle and perfectly round in the tips.
There is no radical build up to stiffen the tips, just a gentle progressive thickening. At the handle there is only a slight "bump" on the belly side.

All of this is also apparent in parts of the Andaman.org depictions and descriptions.

The string is very interesting, a small very tightly whipped"O" loop at the top being stopped by the increasing limb dimensions, supported by a whipped "nock" on the bow.

This permits a reversing of the string from unbraced to braced geometry, unlike the partial image of the unstrung, strung and braced sequence partially depicted and misnamed in TTBB "Bows of the World.

The full representation of this, was published in a German language magazine, "Sehnengebrum" (Forgive my possible mispelling).

It is also clear that the lower limb recurve derives from the selection of a stave that is naturally bent at the lower end.
Both limbs are tillered to come round, but the recurve remains to slightly to differing degrees from bow to bow in the lower limb.

Rod.

Cool photos, Stephen. Thanks for sharing. Those bows remind me of Holmgaard bows.

Hunters in India often use shafts with detachable heads,the purpose being that even with a short string attached to the tip which is usually barbed and lodged inside the animal,the dragging shaft induces the animal to try to kick it off thereby making it injure itself more by tearing out the arrowhead or by tangeling its legs in the cord which was often long.the hunter just approached and dispached the animal.Another variation of this was to use fish hooks with a piece of bamboo bound with rope,the hook was baited with fruit and often dough flavoured with what was in season at the time,an extremely cruel method to take game.