If we were to go back in human history as far as we can, when would we find the first example of engineering? If someone makes a tool, is that engineering? Yes, but there has to be some kind of line. If a person picks up a rock to crack a nut, that is tool use but it is not really what we think of as engineering. When something is engineered, there is more to it. Therefore, the bow and arrow probably qualifies as the first engineered object. And its use is indeed ancient-starting 30,000 years ago or more. The bow and arrow is a surprisingly clever piece of technology. It is the first device we know of that stores energy for later release. It is the first projectile weapon. And it can be fashioned from objects readily available in nature. A piece of wood combined with a string made of fibers, skin, or sinew handles the energy storage. A piece of wood tipped with bone or stone and stabilized with feathers acts as the projectile. As humankind's first projectile weapon, think of how useful the bow and arrow is. If a person is hunting a deer or rabbit, a bow and arrow gives the human a fighting chance. Compare the bow and arrow to throwing a rock or a spear. Rocks and spears work for only a short distance, are not particularly accurate, and telegraph the human's position with the windup. With a bow and arrow, the human can fire silently from a hidden position without any windup, with accuracy, and at a decent range. A bow and arrow changes the game for a hunter. By 1400 BCE, the bow and arrow was highly refined. Archers in England were able to use longbows to fire ten arrows per minute. Arrows leave the bow at 100+ mph (160+ kph) and fly 1,000+ feet (300+ meters). At a range of 60 feet (18 meters), metal-tipped arrows can punch through armor. Guns reconceptualized weaponry (and have since led to high-performance weapons like the AK-47), but there is no doubt that the 30,000-year run for the bow and arrow is a record for technological dominance. >In Egypt's Old Kingdom period (third millennium BCE), the single arched bow was developed.