bone plates (stiffening plates?)

[Andrew van Ross]

Dear ATARN members,

Although I have been following the discussions on ATARN for quite some time, I have only recently registered (admittedly accelerated by my friend Alam). I am mainly concerned with archaeology of the hungarian conquest era, and am currently planning reconstructing a composite bow from that era.

Lately, I have been wondering about the purpose of the bone plates that have been attached to the sides of the siyahs and grips of some hungarian bows. They are often referred to as stiffening plates, but I can?t imagine in what way they should stiffen the siyahs ? should they offer protection against twisting, breaking, bending??
This especially confuses me, since there were also plates covering only the narrow ?back?-side of the siyah, which ? I believe - would hardly offer any protection to the wood.

So, I am very interested in your ideas on this matter, especially since slightly differing plates were used in other cultures as well.

Thanks in advance,
Andrew van Ross

[Alam ed Din, Adnan]

Merhaba Andrew

Do you mean like those?

Gretings & Salaam

[Arrowhead]

Too does not understand you what speaks , sees I this , has word .

[Andrew van Ross]

Here are some images to illustrate what I mean.

First one shows drawings of the hungarian bone plates from Karos, cemetary II, grave 60. The bone plates were glued onto the sides of the siyahs and the grip. They seem to have covered the sides of the siyahs completely.
The second image is a photography of similar bone plates.

Then there are the hungarian bone plates of H?dmez?v?s?rhely. They differ from the other plates in as much as they only have covered the narrow back-side of the siyahs.

[Andrew van Ross]

Here are some easern european bone plates for the sake of camparison. As with these were not glued onto the sides but attached to the narrow back side of the siyahs.