What is the history of the spring as a mechanical object of interest?

Factual Questions
1

It’s like the wheel, I guess, where the “invention” is lying around, from springy plant things that can be used for bows.

  1. Do bows have a historical starting date? What were other first uses of springs?

  2. But for man-made materials, I would think it’s a major technological leap. Is there any record of someone saying, “Man, this springy-thing I constructed from scratch can be used for all sorts of things”?

  3. What is the earliest natural-science investigation of springs? (Greeks, etc.)

  4. Milestones in mathematics of springs?
    Good references specifically on topic?

ETA: I have in mind, for everything but bows, etc, a helical spring. That, I think, is major intellectual creativity.

2

Are you talking about coil springs or any springs? The former are a relatively recent invention, but humans have certainly been using pliable tree limbs and the like for springy qualities since prehistoric times.