Trad Gang
Main Boards => Trad History/Collecting => Topic started by: FrankM on April 15, 2010, 02:19:00 AM
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Interesting study of the man who was found in a peat bog. He was about 8,000 years old and had a yew bow. They would like to see someone duplicate his bow and string and see if their findings are correct. If I was a bowyer, I'd be severely tempted! Has this been done?
http://www.primitiveways.com/Otzi\\'s_bow.html
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Move to Trad History/Collecting
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Actually, he wasn't found in a peat bog, he was found by hikers in a high pass in the alps. He had been frozen in a glacier, but as it melted, his body was revealed.
It is questionable as to whether his bow was finished or not - the dimensions indcate it might have required more work to be at a reasonable draw weight.
Otzi has fascinated me since they found him - his whole kit was pretty cool. The fact that they found a point in his back says his enemy's bows worked pretty well...
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As I recall the Holmgaard bow was found in a peat bog in Denmark.......ir has been replicated from published dimentions many times.
Dirtguy is correct that the consensus is Otzi did have an unfinished bow-this is supported by the dimensions of his bow.
Whoever shot him did not recover the body judging by the items that were still in his possession which included a copper axe-a priceless object of the day.
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There was speculation that his bow was 50#. Is that true? Holmgaard bow? What about his arrows?
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Pretty sure one of my primitive archery issues has a replica of the bow done by someone who knew how,if nobody else answers I'll try to dig it out.
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I've often wondered if he wasn't shot by some woman's jealous husband or maybe it was a drug deal gone bad?
He did have some pretty cool stuff on him. If his killer had found him I bet all we would have found would have been a naked body.
IMHO
God bless, Mudd
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Jay StCharles built a pretty good reproduction of the bow several years ago or at least his and a few friends consept of what they believed to be Otiz's bow.Some folks said it was not a bow at all but maybe a walking stick.Guess will never really know bd
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Otzi had several shafts that he was working on (viburnum and dogwood) and a couple of broken arrows. His bow showed signs of being worked, but some estimates say that it would have drawn about #150, much more than he could have handeled. So the specualtion is that he had been in a fight/battle already and had broken his previous bow and started a new one. He also had recent cut wounds on his hands.
Check Wikipedia for some good reading
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http://www.iceman.it/en/oetzi-the-iceman
Please do not speculate as much, but read the facts in the above link...
It is even in english...
And that linked article in the first post is lousy. A lot of maybe , could be etc.
There are full time archelogists working on the finds and a lot of them are excellent wood bowyers as well.