I was at a coin show a few says ago and a table with ancient coins also had a number of artifacts such as these two arrow heads, which I would like to know a bit more about. The seller said they came from the Balkans, possibly Thracia and may have been associated with Trajan's campaign into Dacia, early first Century AD. He said that hoards of items like these are now being frequently found and put onto the market. The one arrow head, both of bronze, are differently shaped and one is very small, something I would think may have been used for hunting small game. It sees too small to be used as a weapon. The second seems about the right size for a weapon. The denarius in the image is just to give an idea of relative scale. If any readers have any thoughts I would very much like to hear them. Thanks
I do not have Roman, but I do have a couple others: Egypt Neolithic Arrowhead 8000 BCE Scythia 2 AE Arrowheads 7th-3rd C BC Trilobate Lower Danube 21-25mm China Xinjiang Warring States Period 475-221 BCE Arrowhead socketed leaf shaped biblade w grooves nailhole bronze 36x10mm 3.9g
Actually, very early on in the stone projectile era the smaller ones were found to be better for large game because they flew a little farther and penetrated better.
I believe much of the reason we have the little ones in such numbers is that they were shot in volleys of a few thousand making a rain of points that could not be dodged and could hit small spaces in defenses like shields and visors. If you watch shows like Game of Thrones you will see some recreations of this technique. I would suspect being on the receiving end of such a deluge would be disheartening if not immediately lethal. Remember as late as the US Civil War, many deaths did not happen instantly on the battlefield but followed a prolonged suffering.
Proper attribution of arrowheads can be very difficult as many types were used by different cultures. I think the best place for attributing them is Joe Sermarini's page on them, pretty comprehensive: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Ancient Metal Arrowheads
Thanks for that very informative link but trying to master this area seems more difficult than any area of numismatics. I better go back to just coins.
I have a small collection of arrowheads , the Romans used auxillary archer troops to reinforce their legions. * Emperor Domitianus (81-96 AD) was an expert archer according to Suetonius.