In the video link below some archery is demonstrated based on practical research.... years of it. He looked at the data and did some experiments and then looked for more information etc. Round and round the process of research, do, evaluate, research, do evaluate went on and this is the spectacular result.
The work sheds new light on recent historical battles where archery played an important role such as Crecy, Hastings, the Crusades etc. These archery techniques were known to the Egyptians and were probably around back into the paleolithic period. Because techniques are software unlike the hardware (eg pictures of archers, bows, arrows etc) it is easy to underestimate the level of sophistication of archery.
Apply this example to other physical artefacts left by our paleolithic ancestors and its easy to see that we tend to underestimate their level of sophistication. Any quick reading of readily available information makes it obvious that hunter gatherers have an encyclopaedic knowledge knowledge of edible plants, herbs, animals, weather etc. If you read around you can also see information that indicates that many of these people new about nutrition ie eating a preys eye and associated tissues cures human blindness due to vitamin A deficiency etc/ But, the archery information was a surprise to me and I wonder what else our paleo ancestors knew about that we have not recognised.
Anyway, here is that clip:
modern-archer-who-can-fire-3-arrows-in-0.6-seconds
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