PETRIFIED NEANDERTHAL HUNTING BOW FROM AMERICAN WATERS IS OLDEST ARCHERY DEVICE EVER FOUND. Laboriously extracted from the Monterey Canyon (MC) underwater cave and now partially conserved, the fossilized Neanderthal hunting bow (above, & Figs. 5-6) is apparently an advanced 'recurve' design. Not thought to have been produced until around 3K years BP, somewhere in Central Asia. The bow's innovative configuration has stunned scientists and archery buffs everywhere. PSR's anthropologist, an avid archer himself, George Westcort: "What makes the Monterey Canyon bow so remarkable is not only its futuristic recurve shape. And that it was likely made by the Neanderthal found with it. Moreover, it predates all other unequivocal bow and/or arrow finds by over forty thousand years." Wood decays rapidly, but the MC cave bow became petrified. That allowed it to persist so later humans could one day find it. But it also made it a daunting task to remove the bow with often unwieldy submersibles. No matter how high-tech nor sophisticated those new subs may be. Westcort: "Hammering, drilling, and sawing it out from its masonry tomb with the subs' manipulator arms was a formidable and exhausting task. But the right arms on our new subs can do everything. Short of threading a needle. Finally though, the bow came out in several pieces. More like chunks, or sections of a base-relief wall sculpture. Where a good portion of the underlying wall must come out with it. And remain attached thereto forever." (NOTE: The ENTIRE article describing the history making Monterey Canyon Neanderthal discovery can be read or downloaded via the LINK at the Profile page herein. All photos and captions in this Library were excerpted from the original American Neanderthal report at SUBMARINE ARCHAEOLOGY TIMES.)