I found all of these arrows within a few blocks of my house. I grabbed my camera and got in my car expecting to go on a drive to search for them, but I immediately began spotting them everywhere and only made it a few hundred yards before I was finished. It made me wonder, if there are more than twenty arrows clustered in this small area, how many were there in my entire town? Why do we use this symbol so much?
As the article "Setting Sights on the Arrow" by Phil Patton said, the arrow is one of the most basic and universal symbols and has been around since at least the 18th century in a graphic form. The bow and arrow dates back much further, and arrows appear on the earliest compasses. The article discusses how the arrow has evolved from it's early uses to being used in art and everyday graphics used to communicate. Only a symbol with a strong meaning would have survived this long.
So what does the arrow mean? Of course it communicates direction, and it is associated with war. The article also observes that it can have connotations of "energy, effort and spiritual yearning." I'm sure this ancient symbol will continue to evolve over time.
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