Archery is the art, practice, or skill of using bows to shoot arrows. A person who shoots arrows with a bow is called a bowman or an archer. A bow consists of a bow buns-rigid but elastic arc with a high-tensile bowstring joining the ends of the two limbs of the bow. Typically while maintaining the draw, the archer aims the shot intuitively or by sighting along the arrow.

A container or bag for additional arrows for quick reloading is called a quiver. When not in use, bows are generally kept unstrung, meaning one or both ends of the bowstring are detached from the bow. This removes all residual tension on the bow and can help prevent it from losing strength or elasticity over time. Many bow designs also let it straighten out more completely, reducing the space needed to store the bow. Returning the bowstring to its ready-to-use position is called stringing the bow. The earliest probable arrowheads found outside of Africa were discovered in 2020 in Fa Hien Cave, Sri Lanka.

They have been dated to 48,000 years ago. Bow-and-arrow hunting at the Sri Lankan site likely focused on monkeys and smaller animals, such as squirrels, Langley says. Remains of these creatures were found in the same sediment as the bone points. Elsewhere in Eurasia, the bow and arrow seems to reappear around the Upper Paleolithic. After the end of the last glacial period, use of the bow seems to have spread to every inhabited region, except for Australasia and most of Oceania. 18,000 years ago, and at Stellmoor dated 11,000 years ago. The oldest extant bows in one piece are the elm Holmegaard bows from Denmark, which were dated to 9,000 BCE.

Several bows from Holmegaard, Denmark, date 8,000 years ago. High-performance wooden bows are currently made following the Holmegaard design. The bow was an important weapon for both hunting and warfare from prehistoric times until the widespread use of gunpowder weapons in the 16th century. Organised warfare with bows ended in the early to mid-17th century in Western Europe, but it persisted into the 19th century in Eastern cultures, including hunting and warfare in the New World. The British upper class led a revival of archery as a sport in the late 18th century. The basic elements of a bow are a pair of curved elastic limbs, traditionally made from wood, joined by a riser. The various parts of the bow can be subdivided into further sections.

The topmost limb is known as the upper limb, while the bottom limb is the lower limb. At the tip of each limb is a nock, which is used to attach the bowstring to the limbs. The riser is usually divided into the grip, which is held by the archer, as well as the arrow rest and the bow window. The arrow rest is a small ledge or extension above the grip which the arrow rests upon while being aimed.