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Dr. von Luschans brochure from 1893 on an angular bow

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Kviljo
I came across a reference to a brochure written by Dr. von Luschan (at the time head of the Berlin Ethnographical Museum), while reading "The Badminton Library Archery" from 1901. The brochure was a description of an egyptian bow with a vertical horn core, which was published in the "Proceedings of the Berlin Anthropological Society" of May 1893.

It is apparently the original source for this illustration, and I was wondering if anyone here had taken the time to trace this reference? There is a description of the bow in "Archery" (link to the book here: http://www.archerylibrary.com/books/badminton/) but maybe the information is even more complete in the original source?

[external image]
Uli
great source, I ll check it..
Kviljo
Brilliant 8)

I would think this is so old now that it would even be legal to publish it on the net too. Hint-hint, hehe :D
jack farrell
According to McLeod, JSAA 1960, the cross-sections were published by VonLuschan, 1911, and the plan by C J Longman, JRIA, 1894 and H Balfour, JRIA, 1896.

This appears to be a different bow than the one in the photos. In the Berlin bow cited, there was only a standing core of horn which is missing. It is suspected that ants in museum storage could have eaten the core.
Kviljo
Hmm, are you sure it is not the same bow in the illustration I posted, and the upper bow in the first picture by JJ? This bow has a standing core of horn, and the cross section seems to be very similar :)

E.G. Heath writes a few sentences about the bow on page 46 of "The grey Goose wing". He says it is the bow of Ramses II. He added that it might be of Hittite or Assyrian origin.

Thanks for the reference to JSAA! I had forgotten about that article. Oh, there is so much information to be consumed!
Bede
There were many authors suggesting the Egyptians did not make their own bows. McLeod in another JSAA article put that to rest citing the Egyptian depictions of local composite bow making shops.

"Were Egyptian Composite Bows Made in Asia ?" Vol 12, 1969

The problem was that earlier experts considered that the importation of so much material was unlikely so they assumed that all composite bows found in Egypt were imported. However, only some pieces of wood and bark needed to be imported since everything else was locally available. The fact that furniture often had imported components or materials in its construction seemed to escape their notice.

Some bows recovered from tombs in Egypt may have been imported like the much later Belmesa bow fragment, but the majority of angular bows excavated in Egypt are most likely of Egyptian manufacture.
jack farrell
I see. there are two bows. I think you are right Ivar. As Bede says Egyptians imported bow making materials. It has been said that they imported all those materials. They once had Nubian Ibex but used them all. Ageans are shown bringing Ibex horns as tribute. Do not forget the S Wachsmann text which shows all this. Also an illustration of an instructor demonstrating how a composite was to be shot with the thumb. The illustration says, "do it like this,"
Kviljo
Cool stuff guys.

I wonder what you think about the construction of this bow, specifically regarding the section that shows a very flat belly. I wonder if this bow in fact also had a flat horn belly, in addition to the vertical horn core.

Btw, I did a photo-copy of the illustration from my 1901 version of "Archery". It is fairly high resolution, so I will only post a link to it:

http://kviljo.no/bue/egyptisk/Luschans% ... ration.jpg