I mean really. As one of the more underappreciated weapons in terms of its effects on the battlefield, let's examine for a moment the fact that in the 14th and 15th centuries the English deployed longbowmen by the thousands, resulting in devastation compared to that wrought by a machine gun (see Military History: The Definitive Visual Guide to the Objects of Warfare, 73). Or the fact that if you were arrowshot you were almost certainly done for due to infection because archers often lined their shot up at their feet with the arrowheads stuck in the ground. Or that the only safe way to remove an arrow was to push the damned thing through to the other side, since pulling it out would only make a larger wound or would cause the arrowhead to be lost in the body.
I clearly have a lot of feelings about this so I'll leave you with some cool links. First, a video of Kevin Hicks of the History Squad demonstrating how to shoot a longbow.
Second, an article about how the introduction of more sophisticated technology, specifically the bow and arrow, caused advancements in ancient civilizations from The Columbus Dispatch: 'Bow and Arrow Forever Changed Ancient Cultures'.
Happy shooting, everybody.
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