måndag 1 december 2014

Some more thoughts on archery equipment.

Some time ago I posted some pictures of archers, or soldiers with some form of sash or piece of cloth around their waists. The theory I came up with was that this was some kind of tube to store the bow when not in use. After the post, Fredrik, who is an excellent archive digger found some more pictures of archers with cloth tied around their waists, many of them with the same kind of knot that is easy to snatch open if you need to get rid of the tube. In some cases you can almost think that it is some form of string in the end to tie it shut. One of the pictures also show s a lady of noble birth out hunting. She's got a white cloth with blue stripes around her waist, the combination that is seen in contemporary artwork depicting tablecloth. Mike Loades mentions in his book The Longbow that the archers used a oiled linen bag to store the bows in when on march but no sources are mentioned.
Here is some of the picures so far.