Iron arrowhead

I have seen well provinenced Mongol era points which would be consistent with yours. Could also be considerably earlier or later. Where it came from is also a clue to its era; for instance, a famous battle site.

I bought it in a antique shop.
It may be from east europe.

Be carefull. Everywhere was many falsifikates especialy from metal and bronze .

I think it is genuine but not Asian. I think it may have been found in Europe. Medieval English, Flemish and French arrow heads were mostly socketed. So it may be from north-eastern or south-eastern Europe.

It may be viking??

I have not studied Viking points. Maybe someone else has this information.

Dusan; What you say about fake points is true. I myself have seen fake bronze points. But a fake point, or maybe a reproduction point made of iron would be another matter. If it was cast, this could be easily determined as a fake. If it were forged, that is hot hammered, it seems like it would be worth more as a reproduction point than as a fake.

At any rate, many old hot hammered, forged, items show a degree of difficulty of manufacture which would preclude their being imitation.

What do you say?

it's 33 mm lenght

Jack , when i work like movie artist in our television i meat guy who doing replikas for Thrilers- every details from arrowheads to big tanks . His hobby was perfect archeologicals falsifikates from Antiquites shops :roll: . He was wery happy if evan museum specialists buy his work... People like him live everyvhere :shock:
/Like this guy fron Holland and his Vermeer like paintings /I heard from mi Hungary friends that in todays Hungary was running big biznis vith bronze skitas, Avars and Huns replicas arrowheads...

do you have any idea??

Heads of this shape are common in the Middle East, but there are also some Late Roman ones in this style too. It is a case of form following function.

The English rarely used tanged arrowheads and not for bodkins at all. There are quite a few Viking tanged arrowheads and it might represent influence from trips to Constantinople or interactions with steppe tribes in Russia.

I cannot comment on its authenticity, but it is a generic armour-piercing head.

Arkan; Despite some objections made here, I have no doubt that your point is original and authentic. As Bede has indicated, it has a Central Asian connection. I like the small clip near the shoulder. I have not yet seen fakes which were hammer forged.

Near likenesses are seen in this collection entirely from Pakistan; the one in the upper right, for instance. Though it is possible that all these were recovered from a single battlefield, it is also possible that the collection spans 1000 years. The one with the X cross section is especially nice. Many have their points turned by striking a hard object.

Thank you very much!

Of what era are the arrowheads of the picture?

Of those in the photo that appear to be Chinese/Mongolian, there's a range of almost 900 years.

Stephen has seen more points than I ever thought of seeing. Still, I will make some observations.

The X cross section one in the center first appeared in Central Asia in the middle of the first millennium and became rare toward the end of the millennium. The little bullet point, third from upper left, I have seen in several second millennium collections through the Mughal period. It is not a flight point but a war point as attested to the fact that they are recovered from battlefields along side more typical types.

The three lobed point, next to upper left is seen in the first centuries CE and becomes less common yet persists through Mongol period. Mongols and others preferred points with shoulders, that is, the tang will abut a flat place which will prevent the point from driving into the shaft. But this is also not universal, like the fourth down from upper right.

The diamond shape point is very Mongol but persists till the end of military archery in China.

Generally these points are but a fraction of the size their Mongolian/ Chinese equivalents. The long X point is only 65mm. Some premier points may be missing. How to generalize from a commercial collection?

One of these may not even be an arrow point.

And the first point in the upper left??

Upper left? This is a very Mongol type. There is an identical one in a Liao dynasty collection from what is modern China.

These came from a kind of rummage sale. The vendor goes about buying large numbers of an item. He had about 30 of these when I found him; said he had sold a hundred. They were not expensive which made me suspicious. But everyone was different and they looked good to me. So I got these. He was not sure where they were from.

Some had been used for farming or some such. The next time there was a sale he had none and did not know if he ever would.

Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to provenience? What is your source?

The shape of the one in the middle reminds me of a Khanda from punjab india.

34 cm seems a little big for an arrowhead! Might be a spearhead?

PJ; Please explain Khanda. What time period?

Not sure about the time period but it's a type of Indian sword. AFAIK They are narrower in the middle of the blade than at the ends, and have a straight blade with a short point. Very similar to the arrowhead.

Here's a good picture:

[external image]

The Word Khanda is derived from the sanskrit word Kharag.Swords were refered to as Kharag prior to the different names that came later.Khandas became more popular among the Sikhs from the 16th century onwards and are still popular with the Akalis.

These are certainly not arrowheads, and not swords and probably not even spears. What they are is lance points, I have seen them in the literature in several places, twice labeled as Mongol Empire and they also appear in a book about Kazakh armaments. I would suspect they have a larger distribution, would not be surprised if they were used throughout the Qing dynasty.

I would assume they came from Inner Mongolia because large caches of middle ages items originate from there. They are apparently still being used for rural agricultural purposes.

My assumption would be that blunt pointed projectiles would do their damage without becoming wedged in the target so easily. A fourth point is broken off which demonstrates that the blade is tempered steel.

Other than the rare chisel pointed arrow head (tranchet point), blunt pointed arrowheads seem to be the exclusive provenience of the second millennium. In fact, Chinese used those until the end of military archery.

Are there other references to these lance points with the faceted central ring?

I agree with Jack.

There are quite a few paintings showing people and sometimes demons carrying spears with heads shaped like these. An acquaintance of mine acquired a set of weapons with the faceted ball decoration at the transition between the blade and the socket. They included several types of blades and they were once displayed in a temple. Due to their protected past they were still in good condition. The group included various large bladed chopping weapons, tridents, and many spear blades. Unfortunately the wooden shafts had been cut short so that they could be put in decorative racks.

I have a spear blade in this style with traces of the shaft, but it had been buried like the ones in the picture here.

I have seen pictures of some the blunt bladed types with concave sides from as early as the Song Dynasty and others that were clearly made in the Qing. Most of these types are in the military encyclopaedias with explanations of their various uses. Because of the books, old types of head were reused in later dynasties as ceremonial and real weapons.

It is quite possible that there are also cast iron ones made to defraud the Qing military authorities and some maybe from the Taiping Rebellion.

In use, they were probably very sharp and the obtuse angles of some of the points were likely to be very dangerous to unarmoured men or horses. The unsharpened ones probably come from government stockpiles. Archaeologists have excavated large arsenals going back to the Han Dynasty.