We've had a short break in Seville. The Real Alcazar, a Moorish palace is fabulous and the Museum of Archaeology has some great neolithic exhibits including some incredibly delicate flaked arrow heads . Excuse the grainy photo, and lack of scale. I'd say they were about 1.5 - 2" long. The exibits were great, but they really should have a small scale along side.I hope I'm not infinging their copywrite, oppologies if I am, but I'd think they really belong to the man* who made them, who has now long gone, leaving us to marvel at his skill (*or woman of course)
I'm not sure why the 'tails'? 'barbs' ? are so slender and curved... maybe they are to be lashed to the arrow shaft rather than being barbs... Any ideas or suggestions appreciated! There was also a vertebra of an animal with a arrow head embedded in it a good half inch!
Meanwhile Twister 2 has come back for an inspection. There are two hairline cracks on the belly which I think are no problem at all and were probably there in the log all the time but have just opened slightly with the flexing. I've scraped off the Danish oil finish, flooded them with low viscosity superglue and flexed the bow to help it soak in. I'll have another look with it on the tiller at about 3/4 draw. I don't think it will need anything else, but I'll shoot it in some more and maybe slim the tips a whisker.
You can see in the pic the crack (indicated by the red arrows) doesn't actually run out where the grip narrows which was the main worry. There is no sign of it opening at 26" draw. The crack on the other limb is even harder to see and looks to be fine. I'll shoot a couple of dozen arrows through it before reapplying the finish. I've narrowed the nock area and taken off a little excess weight, I haven't done too much as it would be foolish to change the tiller.
Here's a pic of the roughed out Elm warbow stave too, that should keep me busy until the Yew is ready to work.
Those arrowheads are incredible! Thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking that they must have been used for ceremonial purposes, palace guards, that kind of thing. I can't see them having any practical use. They would break before you got a chance to use them. I would break them just looking at them.
ReplyDeleteNot sure they'd bother making non functional stuff. Yes they'd decorate functional stuff, or make functional stuff as nicely as possible... We need someone who makes and uses such things to enlighten us.
ReplyDeleteIs it worth trying the arrows/knapping section of PA? They are fascinating items!
DeleteShowing off skills or status is a viable function as well! And truly human.
DeleteI've posted a link to this blog entry on the PA Flintknapping Forum...
ReplyDeleteContext is very important with items like these. I'm going to assume they were burial items. In that case, they are for use in the afterlife. Many cultures considered arrowheads like these (very delicate and expertly made) to be part of an afterlife "kit".
ReplyDeleteAh! I think you are right, most of the stuff was from Dolmen or tumuli (Can't remember the actual term they used as it was mostly in Spanish) There were photos showing the excavation of the sites.
DeleteI could manage to translate Puntas de Fleche :-)