The bow- finding of olon kurin gol

[redhawk]

In November of 2006 a Russian- Mongolian- German expedition succeded in excavating a Scythian grave- site in the valley of the olon kurin gol- river in the Altai- region located on Mongolian territory.
Due to the permafrost the excavated man and objects were in a very good condition.
An almost completely conserved goritos, arrows with wooden tips, heavily twisted but still perfectly barreled, feathers have been rottened by time.
The bow turned out to be a bundle of wooden slats, kept together by the fealth cap of the goritos, 2 small pieces of horn laying near the bow.

It was decided to ship all excavated objects to the Institute of the Russian Academy of Science leaded by Dr. Molodyn near the Siberian town of Novosibirsk. In the meanwhile the excavtions are back in Mongolia for to be presented in a museum.

Due to a grant of the "Gerda Henkel grant" the reconstruction of the bow, arrows, goritos, some cloth was made possible. It began with an invitation of the Russian Academy of Science to study the findings at the institute near Novosibirsk. The leader is Prof. Dr. Godehardt, University of Duesseldorf.
The bow measures 121cm over all its curvature in length, max. width is 3cm, max.thickness is 2.8cm at the handle.
The bow?s reconstruction turned out to be a real challenge, cause I?ve never dealt with such a complex asymmetrical bow- design. It is made of at least 10 slats of wood, 2 slats of horn were used for to cover the belly- side of the recurves. The working part of the bow is made of 2 wooden slats running through the bow?s length, at the sides of this lamination wooden sidewalls are glued ending where the recurves are beginning.
Another slats are glued to the bow?s handle- section for to make it thick enough and stable.
For those who are much more interested in the construction please have a look at my site: www.redhawk-online.com/news, above all look very closely at the growthrings of the wooden slats and note the perfect asymmetry being part of the whole construction.

The main challenge was to make the sidewalls. Try to bend such small wooden slats without breaking them, you need to have perfectly growthrings running over the whole length. This is a very difficult to find wood, it works only if you use saplings.
The 1000 bucks question is the species of wood, cause only a DNA- analysis would help, but nobody will pay it.
So I have to rely on my experience as a bowyer comparing it with the brushes and small trees growing in the Altai- region, I finally chose blackthorn, hawthorn and juniper, all reliable bow- woods.

After having 2 reconstructions broken, I succeded in making a working but to weak olon kurin gol bow: 22lbs, 25" but with a remarkable speed of about 100f/s. A stronger version is on the way to be finished, we decided to make a sinew- backed and a hornbow- version of this bow too.

The reconstructions of the arrows and the goritos are ready too.

As I?ve still mentioned in another coherence I think the key of this all wood lamination is its asymmetry, I doubt if it would work done in a symmetrically design. So I did some research for myself focused on asymmetrically designs in bowery. I?ll post it soon.

I have to update right now that Adam Karpovicz has made my doubts about the Subeixi bow lapsed.

Michael

[redhawk]

Sorry, the correct link is www.redhawk-online.com/news.html

Michael

[Redhorse]

I did try the asymmetrical limbs last year. But did not know how to tiller it
What was the problem with the side slats? Did you take straight slats or natural bend?

[Stephen Selby]

This bow is radically different from the Subexi "Scythian" designs. The streight, rigid bow tips are one major difference.

It is not necessary to use DNA testing to identify the wood species. It is only necessary to prepare a longitudinal section that can be inspected under a high-power optical microscope. There are indeces to cell structure available which allow very accurate identification of species. We can do it here for you with a very small (non bark) wood sample.

S

[redhawk]

Redhorse, I?m preparing the "Asymmentrical bow-design"- topic. I?ll post it soon, the tiller is really a problem, but I think I got it with a lot of help of non- bowyers.
The sidewalls were a problem till I checked that you?ve to choose the best grown saplings you are able to find. Natural shape is the best choice, but more or less you?ve to steam- bend them anyway to match the "core" of such a construction exactly.

Stephen, my original reconstruction has much more rigid tips, the whole curvature of the bow has to be more "sharp", but the archaeologists insisted on a very soft curvature. I?m sure that there is a greater amount of energy, if the bow is done with more "reflex-deflex-recurve".

Thank you very much Stephen for your offer to specify the wood, I?ve a very small piece of the wood here at home(0.5x1.5cm), is this enough?
For to be honest, this part of the project makes me angry again, cause I was surrounded by a lot of scientists during the whole researching time and no one would be able to identify the wood. They always told me something about a DNA- analysis would be to expensive.

Michael

[jack farrell]

Michael; You are a prince for publishing your bow plan. We all know how bent wood will relax again if it is able. i think your olon kurin gol bow has simply unwound as the glue disappeared.

It would be most helpful when we can read the entire report. For instance was the grave in a kurgan and all the other details.

Good for you, what an adventure and an accomplishment. -j-

PS. Don't worry about the scientists. Mostly they do not see the importance in archery. My opinion is that they think we are kids who never grew up. (Well, we are young at heart; we love our toys) But one CANNOT make any kind of a study of an ancient culture without running head into archery artifacts. It is our inspiration and their lack of vision.

My archaeology club recently let me speak on the Silk Road and I decided to introduce them to ancient archery. The Board told me it was the best attended talk in a year and they asked me back. So there to the naysayers. Lets us just do our thing and let them try to catch up. -j-

[Stephen Selby]

A very small specimen of wood would be enough. I need to allow our expert to take a slice along the grain. About 10mm x 5mm will be enough. The better the quality of the wood the better the identification. Detailed data on the location where it was excavated (e.g. GPS co-ordinates) is vital. It would also be useful and make the process easier if you have any data on what species are prevalent in the area where the bow was thought to have originated.

[redhawk]

Jack, there is still a problem with publication- rights.
So I advise you to have a look at google for an article called: Impact of the Climate Change in the Altai Mountains published by the UNESCO, written by Junhi Han from the World Heritage Centre.
It describes the environmental conditons of the finding and upcoming problems with the tombs and kurgans very clear.

Due to the permafrost the findings were frozen and so well preserved, the glues were gone, the slats that made the bow were kept together by the hole in the fealth cap of the goritos. Fortunately one of the Russian archaeologists recognized this bundle of slats as the bow and wrapped it in the way I?ve posted it.

In the first drawing which I got from the German Archaeologist Insitute for to prepare my trip to Novosibirsk, it is really difficult to recognize a bow. The fealth cap( the red cloth) is at the upper end of the bow, follow it till the other end and you got the bow. The curves exists more or less, but in the handle some of the slats and plates were broken, due to a bad choice of wood! Why has the bowyer used a slat with a very big knot?

Stephen, I?m carrying together all the infos you need as closely as you?ve asked for them.

Michael

[Adam Karpowicz]

Michael:

"in the handle some of the slats and plates were broken, due to a bad choice of wood! Why has the bowyer used a slat with a very big knot? "

Does this indicate the bow was actually used?

Adam

[Patrick Menzies]

If there is little or no bending in the area of the knot and it was stoutly wrapped, the area would likely hold up.
Was the bow deliberately snapped before burial? Stephen mentions that some of the horn based bows were.

[redhawk]

Adam, Patrick,

I?m sure now, that this bow was used as a reliable weapon.
After having had 2 reconstructions broken, I was done and almost ready to quit the job.
But I begun again focused on the sidewalls. I did a lot of trials in cutting them, steam- bending them.........till I succeded in making them the way it works( as I mentioned above: take the clearest wood you can find!). To do the best glue- job you are able to is basic too.
I was misleaded by some of these typical "hip- sounding Tim Baker statements" that wooden fibres don?t care too much in which direction they were forced to bend, this is not true ,when you?re dealing with small diameter wood.
I?ve almost finished a 2nd reconstruction, it will turn out to draw 26", about 45lbs, I guess that could be called a useful weapon.
So this kind of bow seems not to performance better(maybe in speed) than a short selfbow, but anyway the question remains, why have the Scythians done it in such an extensive way? But that?s almost a philosophically question.
This is my actual state of mind in this case, I?m sure this design is worth the effort, I?ll try to make a 55-60lbs version of it.

The handle had been heavily wrapped completely, you still see the tracks of a wrapping. I assume that some slats in the handle broke due to that knot, when the wrapping( I guess sinew?) and the glue have dissolved.
Maybe they broke before, cause the whole construction is so sensitive, but were more or less kept together by the handle.

Michael

"If we don?t try to understand history, we?re doomed to repeat it"
(I don?t know, who has made this statement, but it is really true)

[jack farrell]

Michael; It would seem more likely that your bow would represent the core of a finished bow. Maybe the finished model should be sinewed. Or maybe horn and sinew should be added. I do not think a serious bow would contain a large knot. Too much work to build in such jeopardy.

The complexity of the construction would seem to mean something.

Are there tool marks on the wood? Like saw marks, whittling, rasping or grooving marks.

Bede seemed to be saying that a bow like this could be made on the go, as it were. My theory is that they were made in winter in permanent locations. Archaeologists have found large village like fortress compounds in Siberia.

[Patrick Menzies]

Michael, I was thinking that the sidewalls would be easier to form by taking a perfect sapling and bending it in green form to the desired shape of a limb and then splitting it down the center after it had dried to the shape. That would be easier than trying to wrestle a half round slat into a curve.

I do find the growth ring orientation interesting. Almost like they wanted to put the wood back the way it grows on a tree. Perhaps trying to duplicate the ability of a tree or branch to be flexed and bowed without breaking.
I am skeptical that these were unfinished bows. Some of the smaller shrubby trees of Eurasia are very tough and elastic. Likely even more so in laminated form.

[Orda Khan]

I did try the asymmetrical limbs last year. But did not know how to tiller it

Redhorse, that bow looks wonderful.

[Redhorse]

Thanks.
I have two two-wood bows still in my shop, but no asymmetrical. I have thought of rasp away from sides and glue on new wood slats on sides just to see how difficult it is and if it gives more cast. Juniper should work for this.
Scythian bow are maybe not better or worse then other all wood bows. But it may be a way to make them horseback short with full draw.