Nine Roman to Medieval Iron & Copper Alloy Arrowheads

Europe or Near East, Roman to Medieval period. A group of nine hand-forged projectile points, ranging from broad leaf-shaped blades to slender square-sectioned bodkins made to punch through mail. Six are iron, their surfaces mineralized to a dense earthen brown with laminated crusts that follow the smith's original hammer planes; the remaining three are copper-based, one a high-tin bronze, one a copper alloy, and one of nearly unalloyed copper, all carrying a soft green and grey-blue patina. Most retain tapering tangs for insertion into a split wooden shaft, while several thicken at the shoulder into a collar or stop. The largest preserves a pronounced midrib running the length of the blade. Such points served hunters and soldiers alike across a long arc of centuries, and the range of forms here spans light hunting arrows to armor-piercing military heads. Arrowhead typology tracks armor. Broad, flat, barbed or leaf-shaped heads cut soft tissue and were favored for hunting and against unarmored opponents, while the narrow square- or diamond-sectioned bodkin concentrated the entire force of the shaft onto a point small enough to spread the rings of a mail shirt rather than cut them. The two traditions ran side by side for centuries, and quivers were commonly mixed. The material split in this group is equally telling. Copper-alloy points belong to the older, longer-lived Eurasian casting tradition, where a socketed or tanged head could be poured in numbers from a two-piece mould. Iron heads were forged individually at the anvil, a slower process that yielded a harder, more penetrative point, and by the medieval centuries iron had largely displaced bronze for military ammunition across Europe and the Near East. Item # 204787

Estimate:£149.5

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