Experimental approaches to ancient near eastern archery

Miller, Reinhard; McEwen, Edward; Bergman, Christopher A.

doi:10.1080/00438243.1986.9979997

Cited by 42 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Froghoppers (Burrows et al, 2008) and planthoppers (Burrows, 2010) store energy by bending bow-shaped pleural arches that are a composite of hard cuticle and soft resilin. The design of these storage devices is similar to that of an archery bow, which depends heavily for its performance on the use of composite materials (Miller et al, 1986). Fleas are suggested to store energy in a pad of resilin located in the internal skeleton of the metathorax at the articulation between the notum and pleuron (Bennet-Clark and Lucey, 1967;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Locusts use a composite of resilin and hard cuticle as an energy store for jumping and kicking

Burrows

Sutton

2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYLocusts jump and kick by using a catapult mechanism in which energy is first stored and then rapidly released to extend the large hind legs. The power is produced by a slow contraction of large muscles in the hind femora that bend paired semi-lunar processes in the distal part of each femur and store half the energy needed for a kick. We now show that these energy storage devices are composites of hard cuticle and the rubber-like protein resilin. The inside surface of a semi-lunar process consists of a layer of resilin, particularly thick along an inwardly pointing ridge and tightly bonded to the external, black cuticle. From the outside, resilin is visible only as a distal and ventral triangular area that tapers proximally. High-speed imaging showed that the semi-lunar processes were bent in all three dimensions during the prolonged muscular contractions that precede a kick. To reproduce these bending movements, the extensor tibiae muscle was stimulated electrically in a pattern that mimicked the normal sequence of its fast motor spikes recorded in natural kicking. Externally visible resilin was compressed and wrinkled as a semilunar process was bent. It then sprung back to restore the semi-lunar process rapidly to its original natural shape. Each of the five nymphal stages jumped and kicked and had a similar distribution of resilin in their semi-lunar processes as adults; the resilin was shed with the cuticle at each moult. It is suggested that composite storage devices that combine the elastic properties of resilin with the stiffness of hard cuticle allow energy to be stored by bending hard cuticle over only a small distance and without fracturing. In this way all the stored energy is returned and the natural shape of the femur is restored rapidly so that a jump or kick can be repeated. Supplementary material available online at

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Locusts use a composite of resilin and hard cuticle as an energy store for jumping and kicking

Burrows

Sutton

2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…Several studies have examined the performance of different types of modern and historical bows, often focusing on their physical properties such as velocity and ability to penetrate different tissues (Bergman et al, 1988;Karger et al, 1998;Kooi and Bergman, 1997;Miller et al, 1986;Pope, 1923). Archery experiments with a more narrow medieval focus are primarily concerned with the penetration effectiveness of various medieval arrow on different types of armour (Bane, 2006;Jones, 2014) and textiles (Jones, 2012) as part of an ongoing debate about the effectiveness of the longbow (Bourke and Whetham, 2007;Loades, 2013: 70-74).…”

Section: Previous Experimental Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting to the point: An experimental approach to improving the identification of penetrating projectile trauma to bone caused by medieval arrows

Forsom

Smith

2017

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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The bow and arrow were an important part of medieval warfare, and the study of projectile injuries in skeletal assemblages has the potential to give valuable insight into the nature of conflict in this period. Projectile injuries are often overlooked in favour of sharp force trauma, and as of yet there have been no experiments looking at skeletal trauma caused by different types of medieval arrows, although several studies have examined prehistoric impact marks. The current study addresses this deficiency by examining the lesions left by three kinds of medieval arrowheads: leaf-shaped broadheads, armour-piercing bodkins, and barbed hunting broadheads,when fired from a longbow into cattle scapulae. The results show that the vast majority of impacts are puncture lesions with shapes that roughly conform to the cross-section of the heads used, and many of the defects perforate the bone entirely and have internal bevelling. Based mostly on wound shape, it is relatively straightforward to distinguish between bodkin and broadhead punctures, while the different types of broadheads leave more similar, yet distinctive, marks. Further experiments are required in order to assess the extent to which it is possible to distinguish between projectile trauma and penetrating trauma made by other types of medieval weapons.

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“…One way of studying ancient bows is to make replicas and use them for experiments (Pope 1974;Miller et al 1986;McEwen et al 1991). In the present paper, the emphasis is on a different approach, the use of mathematical models which permit theoretical experiments using computers to gain insight into the performance of different types of bows.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%