Blackwood
Banned
Let's imagine for a moment what kind of effect the bow and arrow had on humanity. It allowed a much greater scope in the area of warfare, as well as gave an increased safety to groups of attackers and revolutionizing technology in that period. Along with the bow and arrow, other weapons, such as maces, slings, as well as extremely old weapons, such as spears and clubs, existed and were in widespread use. So let's posit for a moment what might have happened had the bow and arrow never developed.
The reasons for this could be any number of possible PODs. As we simply have no clear idea about how the weapon was developed, much less who invented it, or where, we have many ways in which the development could have been hampered. If we say that the bow and arrow was a weapon invented by a single man, group, or society, it would only be a matter of eliminating that man, group, or in other ways changing the development of their society in the past. If we take the bow and arrow to be a universally-invented weapon, created by several societies spanning the entire inhabited globe, we would be forced to alter the spread of humans, development of society, or otherwise create an event that would eliminate the bow from existence for a time.
For simplicity's sake, we'll say that the bow and arrow was invented by an unnamed and unknown group of hunter-gatherers somewhere in the globe, and that several generations ago, this group brought in less food, leading to some starvation, and thus butterflying away the would-be inventors. Society should then continue as normal up to that point, but what I'm interested in is how the world, civilization, territory, and warfare in particular, would have developed onwards. We could say that the bow might have just as easily been invented by a neighboring society, but that wouldn't be any fun. Try and hold off the invention of the bow and arrow for at least a few generations, so as to get an idea of what society and civilization might have been like without the invention of the bow.
What are your ideas?
The reasons for this could be any number of possible PODs. As we simply have no clear idea about how the weapon was developed, much less who invented it, or where, we have many ways in which the development could have been hampered. If we say that the bow and arrow was a weapon invented by a single man, group, or society, it would only be a matter of eliminating that man, group, or in other ways changing the development of their society in the past. If we take the bow and arrow to be a universally-invented weapon, created by several societies spanning the entire inhabited globe, we would be forced to alter the spread of humans, development of society, or otherwise create an event that would eliminate the bow from existence for a time.
For simplicity's sake, we'll say that the bow and arrow was invented by an unnamed and unknown group of hunter-gatherers somewhere in the globe, and that several generations ago, this group brought in less food, leading to some starvation, and thus butterflying away the would-be inventors. Society should then continue as normal up to that point, but what I'm interested in is how the world, civilization, territory, and warfare in particular, would have developed onwards. We could say that the bow might have just as easily been invented by a neighboring society, but that wouldn't be any fun. Try and hold off the invention of the bow and arrow for at least a few generations, so as to get an idea of what society and civilization might have been like without the invention of the bow.
What are your ideas?