Neolithic European Arrowhead Types and Shapes

[JackCrafty]

I get the feeling some of you are doing this number...

[rileyconcrete]

Nope I like reading about those, and the pictures are great.  Makes me wanna go knap!
Tell

[jamie]

keep em coming pat. are these definetly arrow heads? was the bow prevalent in europe 5000 bp.?what did they hunt? fish?

[JackCrafty]

I made some Euro style arrowheads last night and hafted them.  I'm waiting for the photos to upload to photobucket...

Jamie, yes, they are true arrowheads.  Yes, the bow was used in all of Europe 5000 years ago.  I'm sure the Europeans take this knowledge for granted and think we are a bunch of dummies over here, but we are not taught anything about our ancient ancestors in school.

I'll post more stuff here shortly....

[JackCrafty]

[JackCrafty]

The tang on the "oblique" arrowhead (the one on the right in the first pictures) should probably be wider and the base should be flatter.  I'll make another batch this weekend.

[JackCrafty]

Here is a size comparison.  The arrowheads were hafted to 5/16" birch dowels.

[JackCrafty]

I've been reading the article by Paul Comstock in the Bowyer's Bible II.  It's called "Ancient European Bows".  It's a good article but I have found conflicts with the article and other sources.

First off, Paul says that the earliest arrowheads were simply flakes or blades that were minimally re-touched and then hafted on a shaft.  There are plenty of arrowheads like this but he puts the "transverse" arrowhead type into this early time frame.  Other sources date the transverse arrowhead thousands of years later.

Personally, I don't believe that ALL the earliest true arrowheads were crude.  Why would they be?  Europeans were making very sophisticated bifaces way before the invention of the bow and arrow.  It was entirely possible to create small, finely worked bifaces for arrows with the technology at hand.

I'm going to go back to reading for now...

[JackCrafty]

OK, it appears that there is a whole science devoted to analyzing microliths...  very small stone blades and bladelets.  Oh joy...

Anyway, there are microlith transverse arrowheads (early) and "bigger" transverse arrowheads (that came later).  Microlith technology was used on the first arrows, followed by "leaf" forms (bifaces), followed by oblique and  bigger transverse forms, followed by "barb and tang" arrowheads.

I think I'll be able to reproduce enough arrowheads this weekend to represent each time period.

Then I can match the arrowhead types to the bows of the respective periods.  Oh, what fun.

 

[jamie]

keep it up. that one point that looks like a thorn looks like it should be inlaid into the side of the shaft. similar to the aztec swords

[JackCrafty]

Yeah, that one and the other oblique arrowhead could be mounted in a slot on the side of the point.  I dunno, seems like a lot of work making the arrowhead considering that a stone bladelet would be faster and work better.

[jamie]

unless it was an additional barb for fish or fowl.

[JackCrafty]

Looked around for fishing arrowheads and couldn't find many photos... but I don't doubt that stone barbs were used quite often.  Barbed bird points?  Hmmm....