In war it has always been desirable to strike your enemy before they have chance to hit back, as such ranged weapon s such as slings, bows and spears date back millennia. We have arrowheads possibly 64,000 years old, the oldest bow is dated at 9,000 BCE made from elm and preserved in bog at Holmegaard, Denmark. But these weapons cannot lay low city walls or in a single blow destroy massed ranks of men, this is the job of artillery, “engines of war” that can fire a projectile bigger and heavier than normal personal weapons, and further.
