55 Fun Facts About Archery

Which everyday English word comes from the ancient Greek for poison smeared on arrows?

Toxic comes from toxikon pharmakon, poison for arrows, but Latin kept only toxikon, the half that came from toxon, the Greek for bow.

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

Quivers worn on the back are a film habit for medieval archers: European bowmen of the time usually hung theirs from the belt or carried arrow bags.

Quartz points over 60,000 years old, likely among the oldest arrowheads, were found in which country?

South Africa's Sibudu Cave points are read as arrow tips from their wear, and stone tools there were hafted with plant gum and red ochre, a glue taken as a sign of abstract thought.

Which ancient Iranian horse archers gave their name to a shot fired backwards while retreating?

The Parthians shot backwards while fleeing, and a 'Parthian shot' still means a barbed remark made on the way out.

Which land did the ancient Egyptians call Ta-Seti, the Land of the Bow?

Nubia earned the name, usually read as Land of the Bow, because the Egyptians knew its people as expert archers.

The English longbow is also named after which neighbouring people?

The Welsh were feared for it: in the twelfth century Gerald of Wales wrote of an arrow that pierced a soldier's armoured thigh and saddle and killed his horse.

Most surviving Tudor longbows, along with more than 3,500 arrows, were recovered from which shipwreck?

The Mary Rose also held many men whose shoulder-blade tips never fused, a quirk researchers link to years of drawing heavy longbows.

Which wood was preferred for making the English longbow?

Yew was prized for longbows; Robert the Bruce is said to have had yews at Ardchattan Priory cut for bows used at Bannockburn.

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

On St Crispin's Day, Henry V's archers fought behind sharpened stakes driven into the ground, so the French cavalry could not overwhelm them.

Which 1346 longbow victory let Edward III march on to besiege Calais?

After Crécy, the French army could not relieve Calais, which fell the following year and stayed English until 1558.

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

China fielded massed crossbow corps, and Han dynasty writers credited their volleys with winning numerous battles.

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

Roger Ascham presented it to Henry VIII at Greenwich and was promptly granted a pension of £10 a year.

In which Walter Scott novel does the outlaw Locksley, secretly Robin Hood, win the archery contest at Ashby?

In Ivanhoe, Locksley splits his rival's arrow in the target, then splits a willow wand set up a hundred yards away.

Which zodiac constellation is usually pictured as a centaur drawing a bow?

Sagittarius is usually a centaur, but Eratosthenes argued it showed a satyr, Crotus, whom the Greeks credited with inventing archery.

Hubert Van Innis won Olympic archery golds in 1900 and 1920 for which country?

Belgium's Hubert Van Innis won four golds aged 54 on home soil at Antwerp 1920, but archery was never Olympic again in his lifetime.

Which country won both individual golds when Olympic archery returned at Munich 1972?

United States archers John Williams and Doreen Wilber won; Wilber sat fourth after the first round, then shot the best second round to take gold.

Which country won 32 of the 44 Olympic archery gold medals awarded from 1984 to 2024?

South Korea left the reigning men's individual world champion off its London 2012 Olympic archery team.

Which ancient mummy, found by hikers in 1991, had been shot with an arrow?

Ötzi the Iceman was studied for nearly ten years before a 2001 X-ray revealed the flint arrowhead lodged in his left shoulder.

Which bow type was the only one used in Olympic archery from 1972 to 2024?

Recurve bows lose their Olympic monopoly at LA28, where a compound mixed team event gives that bow type its Olympic debut.

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

Neroli Fairhall took up archery after a motorbike accident left her paralysed, and she became the first paraplegic competitor at an Olympics.

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

Lord's Cricket Ground had just 13 days after the archery ended to get its outfield ready for a Test match.

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

Gold stays at the heart of indoor faces, which are usually split into three small spots so archers avoid damaging their own arrows.

In Ovid's Metamorphoses, which nymph did Cupid shoot with a lead-tipped arrow, making her flee love until she became a laurel?

Daphne was hit because Cupid, mocked over his bow, took revenge by shooting her pursuer with a golden arrow that filled him with love.

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

At indoor compound events the X ring becomes the 10 ring itself, so a perfect compound arrow must hit a ring half as wide.

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

Holless Wilbur Allen fitted pulleys to the limbs so a bow of the same pull weight could store more energy and shoot faster, harder-hitting arrows.

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

Let-off gives a compound archer more time to aim, since holding the bow at full draw takes only a fraction of its peak weight.

Which English king supposedly took an arrow in the eye?

Harold II fell at Hastings, and William the Conqueror had Battle Abbey's high altar placed to mark the spot, though accounts of the arrow disagree.

On a three-feather arrow, the odd-coloured feather set perpendicular to the bow is called what?

The cock feather is set to stay clear of the bow, because placing it against the bow knocks the arrow off line.

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

Flu-flus slow down rapidly after a short flight, which is why archers use them to shoot at birds and other aerial targets.

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

A nock holds the arrow on the string during the draw, and one that fits too loosely can let the arrow come off before release.

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

A bracer is needed because the bowstring keeps moving after the arrow leaves and can slap the inside of the archer's forearm.

Which bow-mounted device drops off the arrow to tell an archer they have reached full draw length?

A clicker has a dual role, keeping draw length consistent and acting as the cue that triggers the archer's release.

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

Dry firing does its damage because, with no arrow to absorb the stored energy, the bow's own limbs and frame have to take it all.

What name is commonly given to the way an arrow flexes around the bow as it is released?

The flexing called the archer's paradox starts at the fingers, which cannot open fast enough for the string to travel straight, so the arrow bends.

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

The thumb draw sets the string further back in the hand, so an archer can pull a bow farther than with a three-finger grip.

What makes the kyudo bow, or yumi, unusual?

It is asymmetrical and over two metres long, gripped a third of the way up. The popular idea that this suited shooting from horseback is doubted, because the shape predates mounted archery in Japan.

The term 'dhanurvidya', meaning knowledge of archery, comes from which classical language?

In Sanskrit texts, mastering archery was a duty of the warrior class, so young kshatriyas, future kings among them, were trained in it.

In the Odyssey, what does the disguised Odysseus do with his great bow?

Odysseus strings it after the suitors fail, yet Telemachus would have strung it on his fourth try had his father not signalled him to stop.

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

A crossbow bolt split the apple, but Tell then admitted a second bolt was meant for Gessler had he struck his son, so Gessler had him bound.

Robin Hood is traditionally depicted wearing what colour?

Lincoln green was made by dyeing wool blue with woad and then overdyeing it with a yellow dye such as weld.

Which pair of Greek deities are the classic divine archers?

Artemis and Apollo shot down Niobe's children after she boasted that she had borne more children than their mother, Leto.

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

Eye dominance decides it because the dominant eye relays the target's location most accurately, so a right-eye-dominant archer holds the bow in the left hand.

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

Hallgerd refused her hair to repay a slap Gunnar had given her after she had food stolen from a neighbour's farm.

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

Amazons in ancient Greek art are always shown with both breasts, and the tale may have grown from a folk etymology reading their name as 'breastless'.

Bowhunters fit which type of arrow tip to take big game such as deer?

Broadheads are used because their sharp blades cleanly cut major blood vessels, so struck game dies quickly from blood loss.

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

Hôtel des Invalides was stormed on 14 July 1789 by rioters who seized its muskets and cannons before marching on the Bastille.

Archery is the national sport of which Asian country?

Bhutan sent only archers to the Olympics from its 1984 debut until London 2012, when a shooter became its first athlete in another sport.

Some of the world's oldest known bows were found in the Holmegård bog in which country?

Denmark's Holmegaard bows were carved from elm because the wood later bowyers favoured had not yet spread there.

Through 2024, which nation had competed in Olympic archery at more Games than any other?

France had the edge because it also shot at the 1900 and 1920 Games, when archers from only two other nations took part.

At which city's Olympic opening ceremony did a Paralympic archer shoot a flaming arrow toward the cauldron?

Barcelona's archer, Antonio Rebollo, was told to shoot beyond the cauldron, as organisers feared a short arrow landing in the stands.

Which Roman soldier-saint is traditionally shown tied to a post and pierced by arrows?

Saint Sebastian traditionally survived the arrows and was nursed by Irene, only to be clubbed to death after confronting the emperor.

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

Saxton Pope later shot grizzly bears in Yellowstone with bow and arrow, taking specimens for a San Francisco museum's habitat display.

Who kills the dragon Smaug in Tolkien's The Hobbit?

Bard hit the one bare spot in Smaug's armour because a thrush, having overheard Bilbo, flew to tell him where to shoot.

Which Greek hero dipped his arrows in the poisonous blood of the Hydra?

Heracles was later burned by that same poison, when his wife sent him a robe stained with the blood of a centaur he had shot with one of those arrows.

More than 40 bows were found in which pharaoh's tomb?

Tutankhamun had a bow whose tips were carved as bound captives, so every time he drew it he symbolically strangled his enemies.