The bow and arrow is one of ancient Egypt's most crucial weapons, used from Pre dynastic time into the Christian and archaic Islamic periods. It was a ranged weapon which caused a projectile to leave the soldier and strike a target. Some of the first bows that we know of were the "horn bows", made by joining a pair of antelope horns by a central piece of wood.
By the beginning of the Dynastic Period, we find bows that had a single curvature and were made of wood and strung with sinews or strings made of plant fiber. In the pre-dynastic period bows frequently had a double curvature, but during the Old Kingdom a single-arched bow, known as a self (or simple) bow, was adopted.
These were used to fire reed arrows fletched with three feathers and tipped with flint or hardwood, and later, bronze points. The bow itself was usually between one and two meters in length and made up of a wooden rod.
