Interesting Asiatic Bows in Russian Collections

[Dusan]

I have new very interesting net finding !
When i running cros net i was jumb in Gruzians /Georgia / web about his old tradition warriors and young man groups , who training this old Georgians martial art vith swords, pick... and bow !Young man from this group have somthing like -naive wood bows ( evidently dont know how made hornbow) but this people know about extraordinery finds old bows from his country !
Interesting is that this is no archeological founds ! Like i understand /and this
problem - i dont read Georgians / two bows in fantastic condition was found in old village in mountains in old house in loft under roof !
People who lives in this old house, say that his family leve there for many houndred years , and this bows was from Mongol, epmpire era ! In this part of Georgia people says that best wariors from Svaneti people - because this is name of this tribe - was part of personal Dzingischan guard-Tumen of 70 keshkerts. This bows has 2 pics in martial art pages. Ill try contact some people from this web or Museum- but vithout any chance. Maybe if somone from Russia or Gruzia reed Atarn can say us more about this bows.



this pic is from Svaneti museum and bow looks somthing diferent ?!? Looks like modern reconstruction. But , who know ? Maybe other mountains find ? I think very interesting things.




Looks like this is a better place, than Hungary bows thema.

[Bede]

Lots of very old things in remarkable states of preservation have been found in Georgia. This includes leather and textiles as well as weapons.

[Dusan]

Georgia is mountain country.Lowest teritory there is higher than in our country biggest mountain (2494 m) . And Svanetia is special mountain territory.Specific air in this so high place made very good preserve medium for old things ! Museum where is that bows is in Mestia.

[Dusan]

I see Svaneti hornbows in this Georgian young guys chat.









this group reconstructed Georgian old martial arts- vith archery,













old Georgian /Svaneti/ house .Probably in same house was bows found. This interesting "last defense " homes was maybe there when Iason come to Kolchyda ...






Watter buff was there too in old times,








Abchazians /part of Georgia -today vith problem/ -pure Skitas look ,



Acrobatic horse riding-"born in sedle " - this art was tipical for all Kaukaz Tribes.








very similar horse gymnastic we can see in Magyars puszta , where Kumans descendents riding and training this old art.

[Bede]

I have a Soviet era book of folk sports that has the rules for mounted archery in the area. Though I don't have a copy, there is a photograph of a mounted archer with quiver and bow dressed like the Abkhazians and of about the same vintage.

The quiver was Turkish/Iranian in style. There are several preserved bow case and quiver sets I have seen in photographs. The tips of the bow cases have a different profile from the Persian and Turkish ones but everything else is similar.

The bow looked like a Crimean Tatar style but you could only see the kasan and tip.

[Ashbow]

An update on the 'Polish' bow on the page 10 of this thread, for jbl and perhaps other interested.
I didn't have a chance to have a closer look at it, but I talked the matter over with Andrzej Abratowski, he also showed me some close-up pictures of the bow.
What he told me really makes sense, according to him the bow is most probably nothing special and so far we can't really say where it was made. It has some unusual features like metal fittings on the limbs and the sewn on leather covering. Andrzej thinks them to be some sort of later addition, the leather cover is crudely sewn on and the metal fittings wouldn't really make sense if the bow were to be functional. One limb was probably broken or otherwise demaged and then the demage was crudely coverd up by someone without the proper knowledge on the matter.

As an aside a Crimean Tatar bow in an another near by museum had it's ears cut off and an attempt apparently was made to carve some sort of nocks on it's belly to brace it backwards.

[Dusan]

Thats very sad, but i see in museums pics from other countries same "profesional"restoration work vith metal and nail...

[jbl]

Thanks Ashbow that is very interesting. I am reading a book about the Kievan Rus and there was a picture of a bow found that was very similar to that bow in the Polish mueseum. I wonder if they were using that for a reference.

[Ashbow]

I plainly don't know. The bow, of course, could be made in Poland, or Kievan Rus. It was some academics in the past claiming that the above bow was made in Poland and moreover they claimed it to be a representative of the Polish type of the composite bow, while there is nothing to prove that there ever was any type of composite developed in Poland.
There were also some very contoroversial claims made about the bow's construction, that is to be said that the belly consisted of wood and the core of horn and the layers were not glued toghether...
Now, all that sounds very much like it's been made up, especially that there wasn't any confirmation that the bow's strange leather covering had indeed been ever taken of.
Saying all that there is always some doubt left and it would simply be intersting to see what actually is there underneath the leather cover.

I wouldn't exclude a possibility of a wooden belly, as there were similar wooden bellied bows present, in the Hamilton's book "Native American Bows" there is a picture of a laminated wooden and sinew backed bow 'coming from south of Ural' of a smilar look as the bow in the Polish museum.

[Dusan]

Some pics vith "Bashkir" name .

[Dusan]

In Russian archery "Tozhe forum" was interesting article about archeological found in north/west Krym kurgan-barrow- from 12-13c. /Polovets tribe/.
Warrior vith his horse and bow vith quiver and 7 arrowheads. From bow was only his handle bones and 80 cm distance -?- strange bone pieces vith dril small hole. Most questionable was bone button vith small hole. No .36







In discusion people think that this button we can see in mongols Nadaam archers too







somthing like modern "Kisser" ?

[Dusan]

Another interesting article was from "Asocicia Gadarik " site about reconstruction old bow leather bag Midleasians tribes from 9 -10 c. steps. This bag was for good bow protection in longer transport way. Leather was mostly no survive , but bone plates vith art screemshaw was foun in many graves from Ukraina , Bulgaria to Tisza river stepp.

We can see this bags in old Chines aquarels or drawings. I think this is same bag. Nice piece.

(pic. from Chiron-Atarnos )



I think ucefull bag for every nomad fun archer :

[Zoran Pavlovic]

On the pics ''with Bashkir name''- does anyone has any information in what museum it is exposed?
Second, does anyone has an idea what material is used for covering the bow (it is ''yellowish''). To me it looks like birch bark but i cannot notice that it is wrapped around.Or maybe it is painted and then lacquered.
Also, very interesting nock on one of the arrows.

[Dusan]

Sorry , but i cant say more about "Bashkir" bows.

[Dusan]

In south Tadzhikistan near Vachsh river run abut 20 years archeological work in old Olas church -Baktrian center. One of intersting things was elephant bone box vith hunting scene . City live from 400 -300 b.c. to 200c.