Short answers, pulled from the story.
The oldest known evidence comes from South African sites such as Sibudu Cave, where likely arrowheads have been found dating from approximately 72,000-60,000 years ago. Outside Africa, the earliest probable arrowheads were discovered in 2020 at Fa Hien Cave in Sri Lanka, dated to 48,000 years ago.
The Holmegaard bows are elm bows from Denmark dated to 9,000 BCE, making them the oldest extant bows surviving in one piece. High-performance wooden bows are currently made following the Holmegaard design.
Organised warfare with bows ended in the early to mid-17th century in Western Europe because firearms were more powerful and more accurate. In Eastern cultures and the New World, bows persisted into the 19th century for both hunting and warfare.
Sir Ashton Lever was a British antiquarian and collector who formed the Toxophilite Society in London in 1781, under the patronage of George IV, then Prince of Wales. The society helped establish archery as a sport among the British upper class after it ceased to be a weapon of war.
The most common types are bodkins, broadheads, and piles. Bodkin heads are metal spikes designed to pierce armour; broadheads are triangular or leaf-shaped with sharpened edges, commonly used for hunting; pile heads are simple metal cones used for target shooting. Blunt heads and barbed heads are also used for specific purposes.
The absence of locally made bow and arrow technology from the Australian continent has long been debated. A recent hypothesis proposes that the mechanical and physical properties of common Australian woods make them unsuitable for selfbows, meaning the available raw materials may have prevented its adoption.