Roman arrows

[Peroni]

did the Romans do the same? or did they slot in their feathers... since i cannot get a clear picture from the Dura arrow ends.....

The Dura arrow flights are just glued, no slots cut into the wooden foot.

[Caballo]

Hi,

"The Dura arrow flights are just glued, no slots cut into the wooden foot." Qasr Ibrim flights were the same. It would be fascinating to see a reconstruction.
I'm also wondering if there are any other articles that you could make. For example, a Vindolanda letter talks about bark cloaks, which were also used by some Native Americans IIRC?

Cheers

Caballo

[TFLAVIUSAMBIORIX]

grass cloaks were used more by my people, we still use them very rarely for a grass dance, i can make one, but the amount of work is very intensive.

on some of my fishing arrows i use the slotted cane construction, but i have to send away for cane, as it is native to our ancestral homeland in the southeast, but the tribe was scattered by the U.S. government's use of force and removal in the 19th century.

[TFLAVIUSAMBIORIX]

i can talk to my father and see if he knows of making a bark cloak, it would be birchbark, his family came more from the north, in new york.

[aitor iriarte]

John,
Could you, please, post some pics of the arrows you make. Showing nock, fletchings, whipping (or not) around the fletchings, etc? 8)
Thanks in advance

Aitor

[TFLAVIUSAMBIORIX]

im computer illiterate, so youll have to let me email them to you and you post them, i would appreciate the help. I took 3 pics of a stone point turkey fletched hunting arrow, with bulb nock, for pinch draw.

[Tiberius Claudius Vindex]

I'm John's slightly more computer literate friend, here are the pictures.

[Johnny Shumate]

Here is an arrow I made with river cane. The footers for the nock and pile are made from hickory. The fletching I bought from 3RiversArchery (sorry, I cheated on that one!).

[Johnny Shumate]

Here are a couple of bows I've made.
Sinew backed Eastern Red Cedar recurve and a Eastern Red Cedar English longbow(80pounds). Please ignore the Gallic trousers....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... CF0438.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/shumate/ELB1.jpg

[aitor iriarte]

Many thanks John and TN (Hey, why don't you add your real first name to your signature? :? D

John,
I'd love to see clearer pics of that arrow. The fletchings look much bigger than those recovered on Roman arrows. Are cherokee arrow fletchings always so wide? What do you use for whipping, sinew? Any kind of glue? Thanks 8)

Folks, have you noticed that we don't know which kind of feathers were used for the Dura or Qasr Ibrim fletchings? hock:
Excuse my ignorance, could somebody tell me which kind of feathers have been used in Europe for that purpose during Middle and/or Modern Ages?


Aitor

[Richomeres]

Aitor,

medieval English fletchers used goose feathers, pinions from the wings. These feathers were valued due to the natural content of oil, which is an advantage when shooting in damp weather, since the single fibres of the
feather will not get wet easily and the fletching will not ruffle.

Modern archers, if the use natural fletching at all, mostly use turkey feathers, which are available from archery shops in various shapes, sizes and colours.

Cheers,

Helge

[aitor iriarte]

Many thanks, Helge!

Aitor

[Martin Moser]

Reread the bit from Coulston, J.C. Roman Archery Equipment. in Bishop, M.C. (Ed.). The Production and Distribution of Roman Military Equipment. BAR International Series 275, 1985. pp 220-366, here's what it says on shafts:

The Elder Pliny remarked upon the use of reed for arrow stele: "The people of the Eats employ reeds in making war; by maens of reeds with a feather added to them they hasten the approach of death ..."

[...]

[Dura Europos:] The stele are without taper towards either end, the 1st two being 1cm in diameter, the third 0.95cm. The longest has a nock 0.95cm deep with the tips and sides rounded off. the end was first bound with glue-soaked sinew for 2.5 cm, then the nock was cut so that its sides and base were strengthened by this binding against the thrust of the bowstring. 3 slightly ballooned vanes, 15 cm long, 1.1cm high, fletched the arrow with the cock feather aligned with the string. A sinew whipping extends along the waist to give a glue purchase on the reed for these fletchings. [...]
Reed or cane stele presuppose tanged heads. however, for the socketed heads at Dura wooden piles were used. 2 identical examples were found with the [...] stele [...] cut from tamarisk shoots. one was intact, 17 cm long, 1.1cm in diameter at its widest point. A dowel, 0.5cm long and 0.2cm in diameter acts as a "tang" to be inserted into the reed stele. The remainder of the length from the stepped stele tapered to a 0.6cm diameter end onto which a socketed arrow-head would have been placed. The last 2.5cm has traces of glue remaining and there is no evidence for pinning.
At Masada yadin found hundreds of arrows [...]. Some stele were found made of wood [...]. shafts from the 2nd Jeweish Revolt have also survived [...]. These exhibit an unusual 2-part construction, the half of the stele with the head was wooden, the half with the fletchings was of reed.
[...]
In the Roman west stele do not survive so well but probably less use was made of reed than in the east. The Sarmatians used used cornel-wood arrows, the Germans employed pine and hazel [after Pausanias]

[Robert]

The use of goose feathers, a bird very common to the delta's (and that includes all of Holland), is a common pratice for fletching arrows in re-enactment here. The Romans probably would have a hard time getting a New World turkey, the first birds were introduced here after Columbus, from the Mexican region.
I use them on my atlatl spears (rather large arrows) and they stand up to wear and tear well. You use only one side of the feather, needing larger vanes and stifness. The binding I use is of the wrapped type, tying the fletch on. Mind you, these are late stone-age weapons. Glueing, using hide glue, would probably work fine as well.
In Roman re-enactment of archery, the feather to use would be goose.

[Vincula]

TNArcher (Hey, why don't you add your real first name to your signature? :? )

Its Johnny Shumate, isn't it? roll: Who else can draw like that?