Bronze though, it's strong enough for armor. That's when spears returned, and when we eventually saw swords come about from the various long daggers used before. But the bow remained still, it's probably the longest continuously used weapon in human history since spears took a backseat for a long time. I think the only reason spears came back at all, unless it was just sheer coincidence that we made them twice, was they became used for spearfishing after bows made them an obsolete weapon, then later they returned once armor meant they could be used again. Bows most definitely take the spot as one of our more revered weapons, appearing in ancient mythology before swords do.