Skip to content
TRACEKEEPERS
Menu
English

Choose language

Your Tracekeepers account

← Back to the collection

ARCHERY · MESOLITHIC AND EARLY NEOLITHIC

Holmegaard bow

The Holmegaard bow

A peat bog preserved the wood of the bow; a dry cave preserved sinew cords—probable bow strings—that almost never survive.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

Image 1 of 2 · Main image
CONTRIBUTED RECREATION · VISUAL INTERPRETATION

Reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis

Recreation contributed to the project. It is not an archaeological photograph or a metric facsimile. Materials, finish, proportions and visible details may differ from the original. The record and its sources distinguish the documented from the interpreted.

Image 1 of 2 · Main image
Contributed recreation: Long wooden bow set diagonally, with broad limbs, a narrow grip and a break near the centre, on a black background.
CONTRIBUTED RECREATION · VISUAL INTERPRETATION

Reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis

Recreation contributed to the project. It is not an archaeological photograph or a metric facsimile. Materials, finish, proportions and visible details may differ from the original. The record and its sources distinguish the documented from the interpreted.

History and context

In the Holmegård bog, on the Danish island of Zealand, remains of several elm bows dated to around 7000 BCE were found. One of them, discovered in 1944, survived almost complete: it measures about a metre and a half and combines broad, flat limbs with a narrow, rigid grip. Its maker left the flexible sapwood on the back of the bow and the harder heartwood on the opposite face. Yew, the preferred wood for later bows, did not yet grow in Denmark.

The wooden limbs store the energy, but without a string the bow cannot shoot, and strings almost never survive. The dryness of Cueva de los Murciélagos in Albuñol preserved two probable bow strings—34 and 59 centimetres long and barely 3 millimetres in diameter—alongside arrows with feathers, fibres and adhesive, around 5300–4900 BCE. No bow was identified there.

Microscopy and molecular analysis revealed sinew collagen. One string came from Capra spp.; the other combined remains of Sus spp. and probably of caprines or cervids and, at the opposite end, roe deer (Capreolus capreolus). At least in that second string, the artisans added fragments of sinew and twisted them together to reach the necessary length.

Evidence and interpretation

Documented fact: the Holmegård bows are made of elm, date to around 7000 BCE and rank among the oldest and best-preserved in Europe; they retain no string. At Albuñol, CM-591b and CM-P287 are two-strand cords with Szz twist; in CM-P287, additions to lengthen it and a knot that may have been a repair are observed. Their interpretation as bow strings is based on shape, measurements and comparison, but they were not attached to any bow. Raquel Piqué highlights that this technique would have produced strong and flexible strings for expert archers and that its precision reveals exceptional craft knowledge. The study did not perform a mechanical strength test. Bringing the Danish bow and the Andalusian strings together in one record is a comparison: they come from different places and periods.

The material, general shape and date of the bow are documented. The main image is a recreation: its surface decoration and bindings should not be read as verified features of the original. The 3D bow in the gallery is a schematic reconstruction with a string inspired by those from Albuñol, which come from another site.

Catalogue facts

Date
Bow: ≈7000 BCE · strings: ≈5300–4900 BCE
Location
Bow: Holmegård bog, Zealand (Denmark) · strings: Cueva de los Murciélagos, Albuñol (Granada)
Bow
Elm · ≈1.5 m · broad limbs and narrow grip
Culture of the bow
Mesolithic · Maglemose culture
Strings
CM-591b: 34 cm · CM-P287: 59 cm · diameter 3 mm
Twist
Two-strand · Szz · two turns per centimetre
String material
Sinew of Capra spp. · Sus spp. · roe deer (Capreolus capreolus)
Methods
Microscopy · SEM/FTIR · ZooMS · radiocarbon

A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS

Objects connected through time

Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.

The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.

Wood13 dated objects

2 / 13In the centre: Holmegaard bow

Also connected, without a comparable date (4)

These objects are not placed after the others: an unknown date does not mean a more recent object.

A closer look

About 2 min to read · 3 sections. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .

Choosing the right wood

With no yew available, Danish hunters turned to slender elm trunks. The national museum explains that they placed the more flexible sapwood on the back of the bow and the harder heartwood on the opposite face. Bows of this type, as tall as a person, are known from several Danish Stone Age settlements.

An arrow was more than a sharpened stick

The arrows from Albuñol combine different materials: the study identified reed and olive wood in the shafts, as well as birch bark tar as a coating. Preserved feathers, fibres and adhesive substances allow investigation of the assembly, not just the point. The extraordinary dryness of the site thus returns parts that usually disappear and shows how much knowledge would remain invisible if only stone had been preserved. The selection of components responds to different properties; recognising them does not mean we know a single recipe for all Neolithic archery.

Why two distant finds are compared

Holmegård preserved the wood but not the string; Albuñol preserved strings but no bow. Bringing them together in one record helps to imagine the complete weapon without claiming that they were the same: they are separated by more than fifteen hundred years and about 2,400 kilometres. Each find answers its own questions.

Location and territory

Physical world map with routes of human evolutionPresent-day world coastline from Natural Earth in an equirectangular projection. The overlaid markers let you explore each milestone.Map base: Natural Earth 1:110m · public domain · present-day reference coastline

APPROXIMATE LOCATION

Holmegård bog · Zealand, DenmarkApproximate marker for the bog where the bow was found. The sinew strings compared in this record come from Cueva de los Murciélagos in Albuñol (Granada).

Where it is held

National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet)

Item or group in the record · Documented collection

It presents the Holmegård bows as among the oldest and best-preserved in Europe. Their current display is not verified here.

Museo Arqueológico Nacional (MAN)

Component of the group · Documented collection

The study places the string CM-591b in the MAN. It does not unequivocally identify the current repository of CM-P287, which was excavated in 2022.

The holding institution is documented; public display may change. Check its official record before visiting.

Sources and references

Expand this information · National Museum of Denmark

Did you enjoy this exhibit?

Your opinion helps us improve the museum. You can change it whenever you like.

Loading your rating…