Eli5: Did europeans and native Americans invent bow and arrow, coincidentally, seperate from each other?

Question

Or did the vikings bring the technology to the native americans?

In: 293

Answer 1

Heres a paper on the topic.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239942181_The_Bow_and_Arrow_in_Northern_North_America

The long and short of it is that it is compicated. There is evidence that the bow was here very early, but it seems to have fallen out of use in many places. You dont see widespread adoption until much more recently, and thos seems to be due to the introduction of new bowmaking technologies from Asia.

This also highlights that people were constantly coming and going across the Bering Strait, so technologies could diffuse through that area.