arrow-head
- Description
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Copper alloy arrow-head, heavily incrusted; triangular section, with circular socket end. Also known as trilobate, or 'Scythian type'.
- Production date
- 500BC-400BC
- Dimensions
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Length: 3.30 centimetres
- Curator's comments
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Object owned and held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This record is included in the British Museum database as part of the Museum’s Naukratis Project, a research collaboration that aims to virtually re-unite finds from the ancient port city of Naukratis, now distributed over 80 museums worldwide.
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Socketed trilobate type arrow-heads are common in the Middle East from the 7th century BC and subsequently in Greece and Egypt. During the course of the 4th century BC arrow heads tend to become larger and this short type is abandoned. Parallels from Olympia are tentatively given a Classical date of the 5th to early 4th century BC (Baitinger 2001, fig. 472 Dreiflügelige Tüllenpfeilspitzen type IID3). This type is cited as evidence by Snodgrass of Persian archers at the battles of Marathon and Thermopylae and was adopted in Greece subsequently, though this type is dated elsewhere to the 7th century BC onwards (Snodgrass 1964, 154 small ‘Scythian’, ‘pyramidal’ socketed bronze Form 3C3; 1967, 99; Erdmann 1973, 45 ‘Pyramid’ Form CIIc2 dated to 7th or 6th to 4th centuries BC). Parallels are known from Tell Dafana and the nearby site of T21 that Oren identifies as ‘Migdol’ (Oren 1984, 25, fig. 26.6, 44 dated to late 7th to 6th centuries BC). For a discussion of provenance see also Pelleg et. al. 1983. See BM EA 1885,1101.96 for a larger type also from Naukratis.
Baitinger, H. 2001, Die Angriffswaffen aus Olympia, Berlin & New York.
Erdmann, E. 1973. ‘Die sogenannten Marathonpfeilspitzen in Karlsruhe’, Archäologischer Anzeiger 88, 30-58. British Museum parallels from Egypt BM/BIG 42174.
James, S. 2004, The Arms and Armour, and other Military Equipment. Excavations at Dura-Europos 1928-1937, London.
Forsdyke E. J. 1919/20, ‘Some arrow-heads from the battlefield of Marathon’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London 2.32, 146-157.
Oren, E. D. 1984, ‘Migdol: A New Fortress on the Edge of the Eastern Nile Delta’, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 256, 7-44.
Pelleg, J., Baram, J. and Oren, E. D. 1983, ‘Analysis of bronze arrowheads of the Saite period from the Nile Delta region’, Metallography 16.1, 81-98.
Snodgrass, A. M. 1964, Early Greek armour and weapons from the end of the Bronze Age to 600 BC, Edinburgh.
Snodgrass, A. M. 1967, Arms and armour of the Greeks, London.
- Location
- Not on display
- Department
- External
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: 88.753 (Accession Number)
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Miscellaneous number: M.1513 (Metalworks ledger number)