Flight archery: then
Jan H Sachers takes us through the history
happened shortly after the invention of the bow itself, some 20 to 25,000 years BC. ’I wonder how far this arrow will fly!’ or ’Let’s see if it really flies farther than your spear!’ or even ’I bet you this mammoth steak you can’t shoot across the river!’ – curiosity and competition have always been powerful motors for discovery and innovation.
However, the oldest clear evidence of some form of flight shooting competition is an inscribed stone monument from the Greek settlement of Olbia near the Black Sea. It is variously dated to the Classical or the Hellenistic eras of Greek history, i.e. the 5th to 3rd centuries BC, and it reads: ’I proclaim that the famous Anaxagoras, son of Demagoras, shot 282 orguias with his bow.’ The ancient measurement is usually translated as ’fathom’ and in Byzantine times measured 1.87 m. So 282 orguias would equal roughly 522 m, or some 570 yards. This is quite a remarkable distance, which suggests that a rather powerful composite bow was used. And it was apparently deemed worthy enough to be, literally, set in stone. Unfortunately, this record remains the only evidence of such achievements for a very long time.
In medieval England archers practiced clout shooting, and shooting at the marks. In both disciplines the goal was to shoot arrows as closely as possible to a fixed mark far away. The clout
was a piece of cloth, usually of some 18 inches in diameter, pegged to the ground at a distance of 160 to 240 yards. The marks could be any natural or artificial monument, like columns of wood or stone, spread out over a vast area, and shot at from varying distances. The famous Finsbury Fields (est. 1498) in London once had 194 marks laid out over 11 acres of land to be shot at from 130 to 345 yards, according to a 1594 map. Clout is still widely practised today.
In 1542 King Henry VIII. issued a statute that ’no one under 24 shall shoot at any mark of eleven score or under with any prickshaft or flight under penalty of six shillings and eight pence’. We do not know how this flight arrow was defined, or what set it apart from the standard, the livery, or the bearing arrows. Being used for great distances, it can be assumed that it was lighter than the others, i.e. cut from a lighter wood, and probably had shorter fletchings, which would in turn necessitate a lighter tip in order to fly straight.
Young men in their fighting prime were expected to deliver aimed shots at more than eleven score, or 220 yards, using their regular, heavy military projectiles. In experiments described by Strickland and Hardy, a replica of one of the longbows found on the Mary Rose of 150 lb draw-weight was able to shoot a 53.6 g arrow 360 yards (328 m) and a 95.9 g a distance of 272 yards (249.9 m). In 2015 Joe Gibbs of the English Warbow Society shot 306 yards (279.8 m) with a livery arrow of 63.5 g, using a 170 lb longbow of Italian yew made by Ian Coote, and a 965 grain standard arrow 311 yards (284.37 m).in the 16th century, prizes were also awarded for distances shot with the lighter flight arrows: Eight pence for 20 score (365.76 m), 12 pence for 22 score (402.34 m), and 20 pence for 24 score yards (438.91 m).
As impressive as they are, these distances pale in comparison to the achievements in Turkey. The Ottoman Empire (ca. 1299-1922) was famous for its archers both on foot and on horseback, who played a crucial role in its enormous expansion during the 14th to 16th centuries. But as in England, bows and arrows then fell out of favour as weapons of war and were replaced by firearms. Archery turned into a sport, and a national pastime. Every major city, and many minor ones, had at least one archery range, or ok meydan (literally: arrow field). Some of them had an ’archer’s lodge’ (Okçular Tekkesi) attached to it, complete with libraries, dormitories, museum, and offices. Ottoman archers practiced target archery, usually at long distances of 90 to 265 m.
But by far the favourite, and most prestigious, discipline was flight shooting. On the shooting line, which was usually marked by a small stone, or column, social status didn’t matter much, and sultans shot next to officials, merchants, and craftsmen. There was, however, a hierarchy among the archers. A novice had to practice until he was able to reach at least 900 gez (594 m) with a pişrev arrow, and 800 gez (528 m) with a . Only after these achievements had been witnessed by at least four officials – two at the shooting line, and two at the required distances – was his name recorded in the lodge’s or club’s register, and he was honoured with a graduation ceremony.
Records were also carefully noted in the registration books, some of which have survived. The highest distance known was shot by one Tozkoparan Iskender in the early 16th century with an astonishing 1281.5 gez (845.79 m). According to the surviving entries, distances of 800 m and more were not uncommon.
"EVERY MAJOR CITY, AND MANY MINOR ONES, HAD AT LEAST ONE ARCHERY RANGE”