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Persian arrow construction
#1
Hello,

Is there any archaeological or literary evidence about what the Persians, or anyone else in the area during the Classical period, used to attach fletchings and keep the reed shafts from splitting below the arrowhead?  I'd always assumed it was sinew sealed with pitch, but when I started investigating how to use pitch, it occurred to me that I'd only made these assumptions because these are what modern "primitive" archers prefer.

The sinew does work very nicely -- it's what I used on bamboo shafts in 2015, but I sealed them with epoxy, which went on thick and ugly, because I was in a hurry just before departing for Greece, and now I'm in the process of reconstructing them.
Dan D'Silva

Far beyond the rising sun
I ride the winds of fate
Prepared to go where my heart belongs,
Back to the past again.

--  Gamma Ray

Well, I'm tough, rough, ready and I'm able
To pick myself up from under this table...

--  Thin Lizzy

Join the Horde! - http://xerxesmillion.blogspot.com/
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#2
In the Bronze Age the Egyptians solved the problem by using footed shafts wth the arrowhead fixed in the wooden foreshaft. Sinew was used sometimes too, iirc. I think they used hide glue to keep everything together

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bronze_a...4-s20.html

Qui sepeliunt capita sua in terra, deos volantes non videbunt.
--Flavius Flav 
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#3
Thank you. I understand the Skythians also used wooden inserts for their socketed arrowheads.
Dan D'Silva

Far beyond the rising sun
I ride the winds of fate
Prepared to go where my heart belongs,
Back to the past again.

--  Gamma Ray

Well, I'm tough, rough, ready and I'm able
To pick myself up from under this table...

--  Thin Lizzy

Join the Horde! - http://xerxesmillion.blogspot.com/
Reply


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