otzi bow

[mikekeswick]

Wether he could pull a heavy bow or not it simply would not be needed. Heavy have one purpose and one purpose alone - to kill other humans that have some sort of armour/protection. His stave was almost certainly a roughed out bow. As mentioned above the Indians bows weren't heavy this we know from all the pieces in museums, they had a similar lifestyle ipso factso they would have had similar weight bows. It's just common sense really 
In fact go and live in the woods as a hunter gatherer and then tell me you made a 100# + bow to shoot your food just for the hell of it.......

[ssgtchad]

I think y'all are forgetting about is "stand off range" if I'm living in a violent world,  I'd want a weapon that I could kill with from a greater range than my enemies.   Your chances of surviving an encounter improve greatly if the bad guys can't touch you. So a heavier war bow can cast an arrow further than a lighter hunting bow. Just a thought. 

[Dakota Kid]

The evidence points toward an unfinished bow no doubt. However the need for a large draw weight bow might not always be to shoot through armor or send arrows arching 300 yards toward advancing hoards.
Forgive me if I'm wrong about the timeline here, but 5300 years ago means mammoths were still around. I seriously doubt a 40-50# bow would even get through the woolly part. Thick matted hair slows and arrow almost as fast as a high density foam target. Reaching the vitals on a creature that big would require burring the arrow to the fletchings at the very least.  Just some food for thought.

[bowandarrow473]

Mammoths died off roughly 12,000 years ago and the small strongholds of remnant animals were extinguished roughly 8000 years ago.

[paco664]

close.. they say there were pockets of them around 7000yrs ago... http://www.livescience.com/9771-mammoths-alive-thought.html


but who knows...

we will never know for sure... about the bow... how strong he was or why/what he was doing...

[Dakota Kid]

Wikkipedia claims mammoths(not species specific) were around up to 4500 years ago, but then again that's wikkipedia. I should have cross referenced.

The point was simply that the bow you need depends on what you're hunting.

[bradsmith2010]

I have read Native bows for some tribes were 70 plus(in on of Jim Hamms books),, not all native bows were on the lighter side,,I am sure it varied from archer to archer,, the bows in the museums are not exactly representative of all bows used,, they are just a small hint of what was used in the past,,at least that is what my archeologist friend tells me,, what ever reason he carried the bow he was planning to use it for something

[DC]

I imagine that even in Neolithic times there were macho jocks that just had to pull a heavier bow than the next guy.

[loefflerchuck]

Why do we think he was drawing 28"?

[Pat B]

The Cherokee(and probably others) had 100# war bows but that is just what they were, war bows. Their day to day bows for hunting and regular defense were probably from 40# to 60#.(just a guess)
 What was Outzi  up to when he was attacked.? Was he on regular travel, going from point A to point B, was he on a hunting trip or was he trolling for marauders? In any of these casers I would think he'd be carrying his everyday bow, one he was used to shooting on a regular basis. For hunting or self defense he would have a bow he normally use. Why was he carrying partially completed arrows and bow blank? Had he lost or broke his regular stuff?   I believe he was 6 hours or less from home when he died, at least by his stomach content. Would that have been enough time for him to get where he was and collect and work of the bow(to be) and arrows? Did he bring these things with him from home to work on along his journey? I guess we will never really know.

[bradsmith2010]

maybe he was taking them to trade for a good bow,,

[magick.crow]

A green bow is half the power of a dry one and that would put his bow at a respectable 75 lbs! I think it was an emergency bow. I would bet that the one fancy two part arrow was one he grabbed as they fired them at him. Perhaps it even hit him in his pack of something and that is why he had it. I wish someone would make a movie of his last days. It could be really fun to watch.

[bradsmith2010]

not a very happy ending

[magick.crow]

You could paint him as the hero!
He hid there waiting for the onrushing horde, firing arrow after arrow into them while his wife, 6 kids and uncle disappeared up the pass. Then he too made a break for it but just as he cut the rope over the chasm an arrow pierced him. He kept running but never made over the pass. To this day his family celebrates his sacrifice.

A beer to heros!

[paco664]

or...   he was in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong hour and wearing the wrong color furs and became an innocent victim of a trot-by bowing...