Zoran, you are facing a monumental task to research the history of bow in your area, where so many tribes fought and mixed for centuries. I am very skeptical of old pictures, since they show in most cases the archery tackle contemporary to the artist, with little historical value if the subject was off even as little as a generation away. It is possible the all-wood bows of the Scythians were indeed grave goods and not functional bows. On the other hand, I modelled one of these short bows on a computer and found draw weights in the range of 80-100lb at 20 inches of draw, which is reasonable and the wood was not dangerously stressed.



You are making a good point about the draw length Redhorse and you may be right about the need for the longer draw for this bow. Holding the bow under the center has been suggested before and there is a pictorial representation of that, but so are others. I have tried holding the bow under the apex of the grip reflex and I am certain it is not possible to do comfortably. The best grip position is at the center of grip as usual with the nocking point adjusted accordingly.



In the case of this bow design, the shape of limbs follows the shape of the ibex horns, which makes every such bow have a little different curvature in the tips with some of them having no more than a short hook to hold the string. It means the curvature of the bow's limbs was not intentionally "designed" to make the bow shoot better. In more recurved/low braced specimens the lift-off of the string will add a little energy storage as a side effect of this profile. I believe the main advantage of this design may be the exceptional thickness of limbs for increased efficiency, but this should be tested in practice, hopefully with more such bows.



Adam