Looking for Historical References to use of horn nocks

I have seen many Central Asian bows from historical periods, but never with horn nocks. They were all self nocked, often with sinew wrapping for reinforcement. Another feature was that they were barrelled.

While on the subject, most reenactors get the bows and arrows right and forget about the quivers. Here is an original quiver of arrows from the times of the Mongol Empire.

:shock: Stephen,
That is a classic closed quiver. I wish I had that photograph when I was writing my article. The one I found excavated from 8th century Tuva is very similar. Your photograph shows the mounting fittings very clearly.

There are Mongolian target arrows from the Grauson collection with horn nocks. They have large walrus ivory tips for shooting at sur targets. They only date from the early twentieth century, but the contruction of the nock was very similar to those on Turkish arrows I have. However, it was made for a much larger string.

In areas were reed was common, bone nocks were sometimes used. There are excavated bone nocks for wooden arrows from Russia in steppe areas.

I think bone and horn were used for both practical and ornamental purposes, but self nocks were very common. In the Chinese context, I agree with Stephen. Except for the decorative arrows I mentioned, most Mongolian arrows I have seen had self nocks. I do have some Manchu arrows with spliced bamboo nocks made from wedges of thick bamboo.

Bede wrote: That is a classic closed quiver.

Bede, what happened at the top? Was it open like that, or is there something missing from this specimen?

On the mounting fittings, don't get misled by the soccer-boot laces. :lol:

Stephen,
The quiver from Tuva had no sign of a little door either. Most in art have lids hinged at the bottom of the mouth or on the leading edge. However, the one depicted in the painting of the warrior saints in Mt Sinai's monastery did not have a lid either.

Perhaps they had a simple soft leather or cloth cover as sometimes seen over arrows in Chinese paintings of open quivers. The other possibility was that the cover was held on by a strap and completely detachable for hunting and combat.

As we find more examples we will learn more.

Thank you for your assistance and information. Your help is much appreciated. I've had a look at the design of the nocks for the turkish arrows. Very nice! I'm inspired to give it a go with some scraps that I have.

I've used a mid nock design that I got from Primitive Archery website to splice the horn on the shaft. I got a twist drill bit and modified the tip with for a 11.5 degree taper. I drill the horn with the drill bit on a drill press and then glue the horn onto the shaft that I have tapered using a standard whiffen tapering tool. Its then a matter of shaping the horn and cutting the groove in the nock.

I'm using this method for making more arrows. These ones are for an avarian horn backed bow and a scythian bow, both from Grozer Archery.

Happy shooting all :)

I do not disagree that self nocked arrows are standard in Asia and elsewhere. Anything better than wood nocks seems unnecessary. There are exceptions. My friend, Karasev, found bone points as well as bone nocks in a Scythian/Sakian grave in Uzbekistan. The illustration is in Primitive Archer magazine, V 13, #2, p 48. The nock itself is socketed in the Turkish manner. These nocks were crested with incised lines and dots.

Bone points delivered poison effectively. If any part of the point remained inside the victim, death was almost certain.An arrow with a bone point and nock would be an attractive item indeed. But bone points are fragile. Same with antler.

Indo-Persians also used ivory nocks. Bone is an excellent substitute.

Modern Japanese target arrows have tanged horn nocks. Earlier war arrows are self nocked. -j-

While making tapered holes in the horn nock pieces will work, with horn and wood there was no reason to be so elaborate. The Turkish arrow I have has a straight tenon and the nock has a parallel-sided hole bored it it.

When ivory nocks were inserted into arrows as Jack described the nocks often had cylindrical tenons to fit into the hollow shafts. With wooden nocks, the wooden nock piece was tapered and the hollow of the arrow was enlarged to fit. These inserted nocks were bound with sinew. The Turkish horn nocks had no binding.

Bede; I never noticed that the ivory nock pieces on indo-persian arrows had"shoulders" but upon inspection, you are correct.

There is a Russian text by S I Rudenko on Scythian Archery showing yet another method of attaching bone nock pieces. A tapered slot with a square bottom is cut into the nock end of the arrow. A tapered, blunt bone tennon piece is inserted and the nock cut out of the protruding bone (at a 90 degree rotation to the tennon axis). Is that confusing enough? The existing artifacts look like miniature open ended wrenches.

Need more? A socketed bone nockpiece could be used with a cane arrow by using a small dowel to span both parts. The same with a bronze socketed arrow head.

These bone nock pieces came in every imaginable size and shape, long and quite short. The string slots are mostly parallel but some are open, like a V. -j-

Stephen please could that be that the quiver looks like the quiver found with the russian bow in Novgorod?

Jaroslav

Jaroslav wrote:

Stephen please could that be that the quiver looks like the quiver found with the russian bow in Novgorod?

Jaroslav

Not sure. It was a very common design.