Ha Ha Ha .................. a long time ago on the Excalibur crossbow site I did a complete history on the crossbows just for the Anti-crossbow people that thought crossbows were not as traditional archery equipment as compounds were.

I think I can remember correctly that they were even around before the 5th BC that stoop14 mentioned. They were mostly used as a war weapon/ They were more accurate, but they could not put forth the volume of arrows that the long bows could, so their use was not very practical. I tried a search on the Excalibur Site but could not find the threads, it might have been at their earlier pain in the butt site . Unfortantly the info I had on this history went with my laptop when it was stolen and I do not know if I have it backed up at home.

There is alot of great and interesting info out there on the history of crossbows.