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

The earliest bows and arrows we have found are in Africa and are from 60,000 years ago, before human beings even settled Europe, let alone the Americas. So most likely neither Europeans nor Native Americans invented the bow at all. They could have brought it with them when they arrived, or received it at any point through cultural exchange since then – the Americas were never actually fully cut off from the rest of the world, as the people living in Alaska and Siberia always had contact with each other. There were definitely bows in America long before the vikings showed up.