I aquired this Roman arrowhead a few years ago. I do not know much about it. I was told it was found outside of Constantinope (Istanbul) and is from around 200 AD. Any arrow experts out there ??? Any input is welcome. :hail:
I see these all the time. I am always hesitant to get one cause I know jack about them too. If its real & from that time period its cool.
Looks Roman. There is no way of knowing, though, best that can be said is it appears to be the type used in Europe in that era. Heck, could have been made by Rome's enemies. I have a few arrowhead, a few Greek, a couple Roman, a couple persian. Its an interesting side collection.
just a word of caution, if it comes from turkey it could be a fake, these days turkey is as bad if not worse than china for the manufacture of fake goods. best take it to a local museum to get it authenticated.
It is actually known as a trilobyte spearpoint because of the shape. They are not usually associated with the Romans though, rather the Scythian tribes that were predominate in what is now Ukraine and into the Balkans. So that is the "bad" news, they are not Roman. But the "good" news is that the Scythians were an earlier people, ie about 5-6 centuries BC. These have been found in quantities large enough to suggest that they were not always used for their intended purpose but had perhaps crossed over into some early attempt into a monetary function. Here are a couple of mine, from the source:
I thought Ripley's had the little sprue on it to input into the shaft? That is what I typically look for, as I read this was an advancement over the typical "greek" arrowheads. Typically the Greek ones were just the tip, but later they started casting a sprue on the arrowhead that they used to more easily attach to a wooden shaft with. Just what I have read. Btw Ripley, if it was found outside modern Istanbul from 200 ad it would be Byzantion, not Constantinople.
