The Meare Heath Bow was found, preserved in a bog, in Somerset, UK, and has been analyzed as being 4690 years old.  Only one half of the bow was recovered as it had broken at the handle.  Assuming that the bow was symmetrical, it was over 75 inches long, and over 2.5 inches wide for much of the limb, tapering to a point at the tips.  It's back was carved to a rounded or crowned section, violating the growth rings throughout, and the belly was flat for most of the limb, with a keel approaching the deep, narrow handle.  It was made of yew, but only the heartwood, and there is clear evidence that it was wrapped in diagonal and horizontal bands of leather and/or sinew.

     This bow is huge and fairly inefficient by modern standards - although functional replicas have been produced - some even having suggested that it may have been ceremonial in some way, linking it to the more well known theory that ancient people would ritually break a meaningful object and deposit it in a bog as a form of sacrifice, often along with a ritually 'broken' person, it seems.  This would demonstrate the importance of bows to those people.  Of course it may just be an accident of the acidic, anaerobic conditions found in peat bogs that that is where so many artefacts and bodies are found, but it is believed by some that these, and other strange properties of such places, would have roused interest and superstition within ancient societies.

     Being custom made, my version of this bow can either be a near replica, with the original dimensions, as far as can be determined from the evidence and permitted by the wood, or it can be entirely built with the intended archer in mind, and reduced in size accordingly.  I can also apply some more modern techniques to the creation of the bow, in order to increase its durability, while retaining the original design, of course.