I noticed when in petra recently a lot of places with directional arrows painted on the wall or floor. They were obviously modern, but the combination of them and the various more historic paintings made me wonder how long they've been used for as a way of pointing out directions. It seems obvious and near-ubiquitous, so I imagine for a while, but I wonder if there were at one point multiple different competing ways of doing it and at some point arrows won out?
(Obviously drawings of arrows and similarly pointy weapons have been around for a while. I'm specifically interested in their use as ways of indicating direction).
I'm sorry, but I just first need to say that I love this sub, all these people like you coming up with these fascinating questions!
All right, lets do this!
To tackle your question of how long arrows have been in use as symbols of direction, we should first ask, how long have we as a species had arrow symbolism?
The earliest Images of bows and arrows come about during the cattle period of humanity, about 4 to 2 thousand years before christ. http://www.hartford-hwp.com/image_archive/ta/painting11.jpg
However, the evidence for humans using bows and arrows goes back at least 71 thousand years ago, indicating that we have long had a grasp of the concept of using an arrow to hunt and to kill. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/early-bow-and-arrows-offer-insight-into-origins-of-human-intellect-112922281/?no-ist
Now that we've established the origin of the arrow, we must pose the question, at what point was the imagery of an arrow equivalent with the command to go in a certain direction. The first thing to note while answering this however, is that an arrow from its first representation on a surface has been a symbol of direction. You know that the arrowhead points in the direction that the arrow is flying in regardless of what culture made whatever work you are looking at because you understand the basic mechanics of arrow flight and so did they.
Hence, I would argue that the concept of using an arrow as a way to show direction is concurrent with the invention and application of the Arrow itself.
Back to your question, how far back has it been a direction marker? 2-4,000 years BC would be the answer, that is the earliest we can find visual representations of arrows and all said arrows indicated direction.
I also strongly recommend you crosspost this question to AskAnthropology, a cultural anthropologists would be a huge help with this sort of thing.
By the way, if you want to see something cool, here is the oldest neolithic bow we've been able to recover, it is well over 5,000 years old!!! http://www.uab.es/servlet/Satellite/latest-news/news-detail/the-oldest-neolithic-bow-discovered-in-europe-1096476786473.html?noticiaid=1340951938330
hi! this question might attract more responses in an archaeology sub, but it has come up here before; get started on these previous responses
Has the arrow always been the universal symbol for direction?
When was the arrow invented? As in a line/shape to indicate direction, not the weapon.
