National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

When excavated, this bow was complete, and it
is seen thus on the lower right-hand part of Pl.
XIII a. During the transport from the site to the
main camp some 140 km. higher up the Qum-
darya it became dismembered on account of in-
adequate packing material, and several parts got
lost. On different occasions subsequently these
grave finds were unpacked and repacked, and
each time the bow fragments were probably never
taken due care of, as they looked rather poor and
insignificant. Therefore only about one fourth of
the bow remains. It is the more regrettable that it
was so spoilt and broken before anybody could
describe it, as its inner structure must have been
very particular to allow of such a pronounced
cupid's bow shape.
The best preserved part is one ear (A) Pl.
18: 10 and Fig. 30, with the members still ad-
hering to each other. The core consists of two
wooden slips, on the belly there is a wedge-shaped
member of horn, each side is provided with a
slightly curved bone reinforcement, and the neck
has a cover of tendon that partly envelopes the
sides too. The outer ends of the bone-tips
are cut square, the nock for the string is
2 cm. from the end, the total length is 25.5 cm., and the breadth 1.5 cm. On one
side there is a furrow worn by the bow-string. The other ear (B) Fig. 30 has lost
its pair of bone-tips, save the inner end of one of them. Judging from its position
this tip must have been longer than those of A, about 32 cm. when complete. The
horn member of A is 17.9 cm. long, whereas the one of B is 23 cm. The broader
end of the latter is overlapped by a second horn lamina, the widest part of which is
2.1 cm. It therefore seems as if the ear A had been shorter than the ear B. Now
such a feature is quite common with this type of compound bow. When not in use
the string was loosened from the end with the shorter ear, i. e. the more pliable one,
and fastened only when the bow was to be used.
On the lower Volga the bone reinforcements to bows found in graves were 30
and 24.5 cm. long and 1.5 cm. broad (Werner, pp. 38 et seq.); the longest met with
was 34.5 cm. and originates from Carnuntum. This tallies very well with the recon-
structed size of the corresponding elements of our bow. With such long bone-tips,
making the ears quite rigid, the length of the complete bow must have been con-
siderable. The approximate measurements that can be made on the photo Pl. XIII a

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