Bow case orientation question
Just to strike up some discussion,
I have recently read the post about the traditional position of arrows in an open quiver (let's say turkish or chinese), that is points down and nocks facing up and back, quiver worn on the right side.
I have seen several illustrations as well as paintings and engravings and what I am confused about is the bow quiver. Is there a traditional way of positioning the bow in the quiver - string towards the sky or the ground, free tip (not the one in the quiver) facing forwards or back. Or is it just pretty much whatever was comfortable and out of the way for the individual.
regards
Greg
I have recently read the post about the traditional position of arrows in an open quiver (let's say turkish or chinese), that is points down and nocks facing up and back, quiver worn on the right side.
I have seen several illustrations as well as paintings and engravings and what I am confused about is the bow quiver. Is there a traditional way of positioning the bow in the quiver - string towards the sky or the ground, free tip (not the one in the quiver) facing forwards or back. Or is it just pretty much whatever was comfortable and out of the way for the individual.
regards
Greg
After about the fifth century, bow cases started to standardise. They were designed so that the straight side supporting the string formed the lower edge of the case. In China from the Ming Dynasty they were worn with open end facing forward so that the exposed part of the bow faced forward. In Central Asia and the Middle East, the bow case nearly always was worn facing backwards. In both areas, the outside face of the case was more decorated than the inside face, so it is possible to determine which way it was intended to be worn.
Except for cases with two suspension straps, bow cases could easily be turned around on their hanging strap to face either way for ease of drawing the bow or putting it back into the case. Experience shows that when walking, an empty bow case will tend to rotate and randomly face backwards or forwards. I think the Manchu cases were forward facing to enable holding the tips of the large bows while standing. This is in addition to following the previous Ming design.
There are some paintings of Turkish archers with forward facing bow cases, but this probably shows how they were turned around for in the bow to be put in or removed. There were also bow case and quiver sets for left handed archers so that a single example of a bow case would be hard to identify without comparison as forward or rear facing.
Except for cases with two suspension straps, bow cases could easily be turned around on their hanging strap to face either way for ease of drawing the bow or putting it back into the case. Experience shows that when walking, an empty bow case will tend to rotate and randomly face backwards or forwards. I think the Manchu cases were forward facing to enable holding the tips of the large bows while standing. This is in addition to following the previous Ming design.
There are some paintings of Turkish archers with forward facing bow cases, but this probably shows how they were turned around for in the bow to be put in or removed. There were also bow case and quiver sets for left handed archers so that a single example of a bow case would be hard to identify without comparison as forward or rear facing.
Thank you for the clarification!