60 Fun Facts About Archery

The word 'archery' comes from the Latin 'arcus', meaning what?

A person who practises it is an archer, bowman or, more grandly, a toxophilite.

What is the container that archers have traditionally used to carry their arrows called?

It can take many forms, worn on the back, hip or even attached to the bow.

The oldest known evidence of arrows, dating back 60,000 to 72,000 years, was found in which country?

Bone and stone arrowheads came from sites such as Sibudu Cave; the oldest complete bows come from a swamp in Denmark.

Which nomadic people are thought to have invented the composite bow and horse archery?

Short, powerful composite bows suited the steppe; the Han Chinese called their Xiongnu neighbours 'Those Who Draw the Bow'.

The ancient Egyptians called Nubia 'Ta-Seti', which translates as what?

Nubians were renowned archers, and by the 16th century BC the Egyptians themselves were using composite bows in war.

Roughly how long was the English longbow?

Bows recovered from the Mary Rose ranged from 6 ft 2 in to nearly 10 ft, averaging 6 ft 7 in.

Most surviving Renaissance longbows, along with 3,500 arrows, were recovered from which shipwreck?

Henry VIII's warship sank off Portsmouth in 1545; its bows had estimated draw weights of 100 to 185 pounds.

Robert Hardy estimated the draw force of the recovered Tudor warship longbows at what, at a 30-inch draw?

A modern longbow typically draws 60 lbf or less, measured at 28 inches.

The Battle of Agincourt was fought on 25 October 1415, the feast day of which saint?

Shakespeare's Henry V gives the king his 'band of brothers' speech on the morning of the battle.

Which of these Hundred Years' War battles was the EARLIEST longbow success against the French?

Sluys was a naval battle in 1340; Crécy followed in 1346, Poitiers in 1356 and Agincourt in 1415.

In which country were the earliest known crossbows invented, in the first millennium BCE?

They shaped the Qin unification wars; crossbows reached Europe around the tenth century.

Toxophilus, the first book on archery written in English, was published in 1545 by which scholar?

It was dedicated to Henry VIII, who rewarded the author with a pension of £10 a year.

Sir Ashton Lever founded which fashionable London archery club in 1781?

The Royal Company of Archers, formed in 1676, is one of the oldest sporting bodies in the world.

Which archer won the Grand National meeting 11 times in a row and wrote an influential 1856 guide?

Ford pioneered new technique; by 1889 only 50 archery clubs were left in Britain as croquet and tennis took over.

In which year did archery first appear at the Olympic Games?

Paris 1900 held seven men's events; women's and team archery followed at St Louis in 1904.

After a long absence, archery returned to the Olympic programme in which year?

It had been missing between 1920 and 1972; the Munich Games held men's and women's individual double FITA rounds.

Which country has dominated Olympic archery, winning 32 of 44 gold medals since 1984?

France has appeared most often, 15 times, but Korea's archers, men and women, have owned the podium.

At what distance do Olympic archers shoot in all five events?

The 64 archers in each individual event first shoot a 72-arrow ranking round at that distance.

Which type of bow was the only kind permitted at the Olympics until compound events were added for 2028?

Compound bows are already used in some Paralympic categories.

Who holds the record for most Olympic archery gold medals, with five?

The South Korean beat Brady Ellison in a tiebreaker for the 2024 individual title and shot a world-record 700/720 ranking round in Rio.

Neroli Fairhall of New Zealand made Olympic history in archery at Los Angeles 1984 as what?

She competed from a wheelchair.

The 2012 London Olympic archery competition was held at which famous venue?

Athens used the Panathinaikos Stadium, Rio the Sambodromo and Paris 2024 the Esplanade des Invalides.

World Archery, the sport's governing body, was founded as FITA in 1931 in which city?

The body, headquartered in Lausanne, changed its name from FITA to World Archery in 2011 for its 80th anniversary.

On a World Archery target face, what colour are the 9 and 10 rings?

From the outside in the colours run white, black, blue, red and gold, each split into two scoring rings.

How wide is the target face used for 70 and 90 metre shooting?

Indoor faces at 18 metres are 40 or 60 cm.

The innermost scoring zone on a target, used to break ties, is commonly labelled with which letter?

In indoor compound competition it becomes the 10 ring itself.

Who invented the compound bow, filing a US patent in 1966?

Developed in North Kansas City, Missouri, it has become the most widely used bow in North America.

On a compound bow, the drop in holding force at full draw compared with peak draw weight is called what?

Typical values are 65% to 80%; a 60 lb bow with 80% let-off needs only about 12 lb of force to hold at full draw.

How many fletchings does the most common arrow configuration have?

Two makes an arrow unstable in flight; up to six have been used.

The odd-coloured fletching set perpendicular to the bow when the arrow is nocked is called what?

The other two are the hen feathers; the term 'index fletch' is also used.

Arrows fitted with oversized fletchings to increase drag and limit their range are called what?

They are used for shooting at aerial targets or small game where a lost arrow would be a problem.

The small groove at the rear of an arrow that fits onto the bowstring is called the what?

Fitting the arrow to the string is therefore called 'nocking the arrow'.

The arm guard worn to protect the bow arm from the string is called a what?

The word comes from the armoury term 'brassard'; the Navajo made highly ornamented ones purely as adornment.

What is the bow device that sounds when an archer reaches the correct draw length called?

Compound archers instead rely on cams that limit draw length automatically.

Releasing a bowstring with no arrow nocked, which can crack or fracture the bow, is known as what?

With no arrow to absorb the stored energy, almost all of it stays in the bow.

The way an arrow flexes around the bow on release rather than being deflected by it is known as what?

Arrows are made to a specified 'spine' or stiffness so their flex matches the bow.

The Mongol-style draw uses which digit to pull the string, protected by a ring?

With a thumb release the arrow sits on the same side of the bow as the drawing hand; many surviving Turkish and Chinese thumb rings are works of art.

In Japanese kyudo, the bow, or yumi, is unusual for what reason?

The archer grips the lower third of the stave; the name changed from kyujutsu to kyudo in 1919.

In which language does the term for archery, 'dhanurvidya', come to mean martial arts in general?

Indian epic archers include Arjuna, Karna, Rama and Eklavya; the Mahabharata's fish-eye test is a famous archery challenge.

In Homer's Odyssey, the returning hero reveals himself by doing what with his great bow?

He then bests Penelope's suitors in an archery contest; the Turkic epic Alpamysh has a similar motif.

Legendary Swiss marksman William Tell famously shot an apple from his son's head using which weapon?

The tale places the shot in Altdorf in 1307 on the orders of the Habsburg reeve Gessler; Tell readied a second bolt for him.

Robin Hood is traditionally depicted wearing what colour?

The earliest surviving ballad, 'Robin Hood and the Monk', dates from the 15th century and features Little John but not yet Maid Marian.

Which pair of Greek deities are the classic divine archers?

Their Roman counterparts include Diana and Cupid; three Hyperborean maidens on Delos presided over distance, trajectory and aim.

Modern game archery in America owes much to which bow hunter and bow manufacturer?

Ishi, the last of the Yahi, taught traditional skills to his doctor Saxton Pope, whose name lives on in the Pope and Young Club.

Standard archery teaching says an archer should hold the bow according to what?

A right-eye-dominant archer holds the bow in the left hand; kyudo is the exception, training everyone left-handed.

In Njál's saga, Gunnar is killed after his wife refuses to give him what to make an emergency bowstring?

The medieval treatise Arab Archery suggests the hide of a young, emaciated camel makes a fine string.

Which mythical female warriors were said to remove one breast to make shooting a bow easier?

Real archers solve the same problem with a chestguard or plastron; the Amazon story is a myth.

What name is given to the wide, sharp arrowhead used for hunting?

It widens to aid both penetration and a large wound; medieval armour-piercing arrows used the opposite design, a very narrow tip.

The Paris 2024 Olympic archery competition took place on the esplanade outside which landmark?

Since 2004 the sport has favoured iconic venues, including the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens and Rio's Sambodromo.

What is the minimum age for an archer to compete at the Olympic Games under World Archery rules?

Qualification spots are allotted to national committees rather than individuals, with 64 competitors in each individual event.

Bows replaced the spear-thrower as the main projectile launcher on every continent except which one?

Spear-throwers also lingered alongside the bow in parts of the Americas, including Mexico and among the Inuit.

The oldest known bows were found in the Holmegård swamp in which country?

Earlier pointed shafts exist, but they may have been launched by spear-throwers rather than bows.

Which nation has appeared most often in Olympic archery, with 15 appearances?

Archery has been contested at 18 Games, and 105 nations have taken part.

Head-to-head match play, the Olympic Round, was first used at which Summer Games?

From 1972 to 1988 the Olympics used a double FITA Round, and team competition was only added in 1988.

What is the very narrow, sharp arrowhead designed in the Middle Ages to pierce armour called?

The huge ratio of arrow length to cross-section, plus velocity, made the arrow the most powerful hand-held weapon until firearms.

Which of Korea's Three Kingdoms was famed for regiments of exceptionally skilled archers?

Legend holds that Jumong, the kingdom's founder, was a near-godlike archer.

Which doctor learned traditional archery from Ishi, the last of the Yahi, and popularized it in America?

Ishi came out of hiding in California in 1911; the Pope and Young Club, founded in 1961, honours Pope and his friend Arthur Young.

The Han dynasty referred to which neighbouring people as 'Those Who Draw the Bow'?

Mounted Xiongnu bowmen were more than a match for the Han military on the steppe.

Seljuk mounted archers harried the First Crusade at which 1097 battle?

Their tactic was to shoot at the infantry and use superior mobility to keep the enemy from closing.

The victory stele of which Akkadian ruler is evidence of the first use of composite bows in war?

By the 16th century BC the Egyptians were also using the composite bow in warfare.