Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Flintknapping => Topic started by: JackCrafty on January 12, 2011, 12:00:00 pm
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Found this picture on a museum site. It's the best picture I could find that has a variety of shapes and relative sizes.
I've been practicing with Native American designs but I'm also interested in European arrowheads (my heritage). I'm just starting my research, so if any of you guys know of some good websites, please let me know.
Display of Bronze Age flint arrowheads. (Norwich Castle Museum)
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Another good picture:
Seven flint arrowheads – Suffolk England, Copper Age to Early Bronze Age 2500 – 1500 BC. A collection of barbed and tanged arrowheads, dating from the beginning of the Beaker period (Early Copper Age) through to the Early Bronze Age.
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2500 BC
Created during the Neolithic Period in Scotland (c 3800 - 700 BC)
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Washingborough England - Latter Neolithic ‘oblique arrowhead’
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Townland Knocks
Parish Dunshaughlin
County Meath
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Barbed and tanged arrowheads found within a pit and dated to the late Neolithic / Early Bronze Age (3000-1800 BC). From the excavations at Horton, Berkshire.
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Interesting pictures. They are close to alot of points found here in the northwest. Thanks for posting those.
Tell
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keep em coming. love seeing this stuff.
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From a museum website:
This is an example of the classic type of Neolithic arrowhead, generally known as a leaf-shaped arrowhead for obvious reasons! They are generally dated to the earlier Neolithic, between 3800 and 2500 BC. This one was found at Tarbat, Portmahomack, but similar ones are found throughout Scotland and Britain.
Arrowheads from the Bronze Age are of a different form (barbed and tanged), so that a leaf-shaped arrowhead provides useful dating evidence when found.
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This one has a size reference:
Found near the Langstone to Llanwern Lane it is a Neolithic arrowhead with a damaged point, 1” x 7/8” dated between 3000 and 1800 BC. It was picked up on the ground of Mr A Palmer of Langstone and is held in Newport Museum.
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A group of transverse arrowheads from the lithics casting lab site. These were made by fracturing blades.
Obviously, not all tranverse arrowheads were made from blades, as the second and third photos illustrate.
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A few pictures from a museum in Bristol, England.
Early humans found suitable stone in river and beach gravels, but from about 6000 years ago (in Britain) underground flint mines were dug to find the best quality material.
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Picture and Description taken from an EXCELLENT website (England).
---http://finds.org.uk/database/search/results/objecttype/arrowhead/broadperiod/NEOLITHIC/page/2
Notes:
Hollow-based arrowheads are far less frequently found than the earlier leaf-shaped form or the later barbed-and-tanged forms.
This is a find of note and has been designated: County / local importance
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Chronology
Broad period: NEOLITHIC
Date from: Circa 2500 BC
Date to: Circa 2000 BC
Dimensions and weight
Length: 33.56 mm
Width: 20.11 mm
Thickness: 6.54 mm
Weight: 3.17 g
Quantity: 1
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Interesting reference:
---http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/archives/arrowhead.htm
Finder: Dr Hugo Lamdin-Whymark
Location: SU8135
Discovered: 23rd November 2010
Dimensions: 45 mm long by 32 mm wide and 5.5 mm thick
Weight: 10 g
Description: A flake of mid brown flint that exhibits invasive removals on the ventral surface at the proximal end, which have removed the bulb and form a crude leaf-shaped point. Further slight abrupt edge-retouch curving around the distal end can be interpreted as a platform from which invasive pressure flakes could have been removed. This artefact can, therefore, be interpreted as an arrowhead blank that has been roughly formed, but not finished. The leaf-shaped form of the blank and the curving retouched platform around the distal end indicate that a leaf-shaped arrowhead was most likely the intended product; leaf-shaped arrowheads date from the early Neolithic (c. 4000-3300 cal BC). However, the orientation of the blank with the tip at the bulbar end is unusual as leaf-shaped arrowheads are usually manufactured with the bulbar end at the base of the arrowhead as this facilitates the production of a thin slender point. In contrast, early Bronze Age (c. 2300-1700 cal BC) barbed and tanged arrowheads tend to be manufactured with the bulb at the tip of the point as the notches required to form the barbs and tang can only be successfully produced on the thin and broad distal end of a flake. This raises the possibility that this artefact may be the blank for an early Bronze Age barbed and tanged arrowhead, but on reflection the curving distal end is most suggestive of a leaf-shaped form as barbed and tanged arrowhead blanks are usually triangular and no attempt has been made to flatten the distal end of this blank.
Context: The arrowhead blank was recovered from surface of a ploughed field located on the top of a hill within a gently rolling landscape. A brief scan of the area in the immediate vicinity of this artefact revealed several further flint flakes, suggesting the presence of a reasonably dense flint scatter. The flakes were not collected.
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Another interesting reference. Note the long tang.
---http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/237734
Late Neolithic oblique arrowhead. An eccentric example of Green’s British Oblique, Type f, with the leading edge forming an equilateral triangle with the adjacent edges and the ‘tail’ extended to form a long tang.
Chronology
Broad period: NEOLITHIC
Period from: NEOLITHIC [scope notes | view all attributed records]
Period to: NEOLITHIC [scope notes | view all attributed records]
Date from: 2500 BC
Date to: 2100 BC
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Friday 1st January 1999 - Sunday 31st December 2000
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I get the feeling some of you are doing this number...
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Nope I like reading about those, and the pictures are great. Makes me wanna go knap!
Tell
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keep em coming pat. are these definetly arrow heads? was the bow prevalent in europe 5000 bp.?what did they hunt? fish?
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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.... :)
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(http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/jackcrafty/2011-01-14-Euro%20Arrowheads/DSC_0095.jpg)
(http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/jackcrafty/2011-01-14-Euro%20Arrowheads/DSC_0099.jpg)
(http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/jackcrafty/2011-01-14-Euro%20Arrowheads/DSC_0098.jpg)
(http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/jackcrafty/2011-01-14-Euro%20Arrowheads/DSC_0100.jpg)
(http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/jackcrafty/2011-01-14-Euro%20Arrowheads/DSC_0102.jpg)
(http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/jackcrafty/2011-01-14-Euro%20Arrowheads/DSC_0105.jpg)
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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.
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Here is a size comparison. The arrowheads were hafted to 5/16" birch dowels.
(http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg112/jackcrafty/2011-01-14-Euro%20Arrowheads/DSC_00942.jpg)
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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...
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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.
;D
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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
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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.
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unless it was an additional barb for fish or fowl.
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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....