REMARKS ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BRONZE ARROW HEADS.
On a former occasion,[1] I ventured to suggest that bronze celts might be classified according to the progressive development evinced in their forms, from a simple wedge-shaped axe to a socketted instrument, more appropriate for the use intended, graceful in its proportions, and often tastefully ornamented. The line of argument there pursued applies with equal fitness to bronze arrow heads; and, as in the former case I adopted the stone or flint celt as the normal type of the bronze implement, so I shall now regard the flint or stone arrow head as the type of those formed of bronze.
So far as I have had opportunity of examining, I think that bronze arrow heads may be divided into five classes.
First, the simple leaf-shaped weapon, without barbs, or the barbing slightly developed; the blade of an equal thickness throughout, and the edges often blunt. The tongue for insertion into the shaft thicker than the blade, sometimes blunt, as if cut off by a blow, or rounded and bulbous, as if the unwrought end of a small bar of bronze, which by hammering had been made to assume the form of an arrow head (Figs. 1 and 2). This weapon would require the shaft to be split to secure it, and all subsequent tying would be insufficient to prevent the head from being driven into the wood of the arrow.
In like manner as in celts of the first class (formerly proposed), this tendency of the weapon to split the shaft was a constant and fatal objection to its use; and accordingly we find the arrow heads of the second class (Fig. 3), in which the tongue for insertion is much longer than in the former example, and is tapered from the blade suddenly in a succession of flattened shoulders or edges, thus offering a succession of flat surfaces, which, when pressed by the shaft (doubtless notched to secure them), offered a considerable resistance to a blow. The blades of this class of arrow head are more delicately shaped than in the former, the barbs are well
- ↑ See Archaeological Journal, vol. iv., p. 1.
