Did you know Egypt referred to Nubia as "Ta-Seti" which means Land of the Bow
Origins
The Origin of the use of the bow in Nubia is very long, occurring in the Khartoum Neolithic period, about 3800 - 3400 BC. Archaeological finds that support this theory are arrowheads and rock art - mostly petroglyphs (rock carvings) - in which hunting scenes generally dominate, suggesting that archery in Nubia had its origins in hunting.
Hunting provided subsistence for Nubians throughout much of their history and played an important role in trade as products like animal skins and ivory came from hunting.
The bows represented on the rocks take the form of simple self-bows which are constructed from a single piece of wood or from two pieces joined at the handle section, although this is less frequent, made from a single piece of wood.
As time went on the bows continued to evolve and Nubians had a number of different bows such as the;
- Longbow - The Nubian longbow is not a typical self-bow. The longbow limbs were bent into a light reflex shape which was unusual as the reflex shape is generally used to increase the tensile force of short bows.
- Composite Bows made of different materials - these appeared during the Meroitic or post-Meroitic period and was smaller than the longbow as the bow to be shot from horseback.
Nubian archers also used a number of accessories such as ;
- Archer's rings which are thumb rings. These protect the pad of the first thumb joint when the thumb, index and second fingers draw the bow
- Archer’s bracelet-gloves - their function was to prevent injury to which the archer was when the arrow was resting on the hand without the adequate support given by the riser (arrow rest)
It is clear a tradition was formed around the bow which played a very important role in local culture, placing the bow and archery skill to the forefront.
The best evidence of this is the Egyptians referring to Nubia as "Ta-seti" — Land of the Bow using a bow as the hieroglyphic. This name shows the Egyptians recognized the Nubians proficiency with the bow explaining why Nubian archers were incorporated into the Egyptian army.
Further evidence is Egyptian New Kingdom (1550-712 BC) artwork depicts of Nubian troops with longer bows with a double-convex (longbows described above) profile of self-construction while Egyptian infantry is shown with shorter bows of an angular profile showing the specialist Nubian knowledge of archery, showing Nubians clearly had a more mature understanding of the weapon compared to the Egyptians.
Nubians continued to use the bow throughout their history as seen in the burials of northern Nubian rulers in the 5th century AD which show that they still relied on the bow and arrow. In the 8th century Christian Nubian archers fought back Muslim invaders
References
Origins and Comparative Performance of the Composite Bow by Karl Chandler Randall IV
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/nubia/early.html
https://oi.uchicago.edu/museum-exhibits/nubia/nubian-archers
https://www.primitiveways.com/archer's_thumb_ring.html
New insights into Nubia archery: Łukasz Zieliński
