Roman arrows: fletching

[Caballo]

I though that the Roman archers out there might be interested in this (rather long) article I wrote for "The Courier", the Roman Military Research Society's journal ( http://www.romanarmy.net/ ). I was lucky enough to get access to the British Museum to photograph and examine the Qasr Ibrim arrows personally, and am hugely grateful to them. Thanks to Peronis and Dr Neal Spencer of the BM for pre-publication comments. All errors are mine alone!

Roman arrows

1. Introduction
While many arrow heads have survived, very few examples of fletching and the actual arrow shafts remain. Two major finds are from Dura Europas and the Roman Meroitic remains (although there are references in James to arrow finds from Nahal Tse’elim and Masada) . The objective here is to compare these fletchings and arrow shafts; and to draw out some interim conclusions regarding how far these arrows can shed light on other. Having been fortunate enough to examine the Roman Meroitic arrows at first hand, I would like to thank Dr Neal Spencer of the Egyptian section of the British Museum for his invaluable help in allowing the huge privilege of access.

2. Dura Europas background
Dura Europas was a city on the Middle Euphrates in present day Syria. It was founded by the Macedonians, ruled by the Parthians and annexed by the Romans. In 255/6 AD, the Roman garrison was besieged in the city by a Sassanian army. From this period comes an astonishing assembly of items- wooden shields, horse armour which when found could be placed on a horse, bolt quarrels, and many other items of military and civilian equipment- including arrows. Simon James’s book “Final Report VII: The Arms and Armour and other Military Equipmentâ€

[Robert Vermaat]

Great work Paul, one laudes heading your way.

[Martin Moser]

Thanks for sharing this, Paul!

[aitor iriarte]

Excellent work, Paul!
Your attached image was too big to be displayed and I've taken myself the liberty of transforming it into a link :wink:
Please, I'd like to have more pics! bonnefoyATeuskalnetDOTnet
Many thanks!

Aitor

[Caballo]

Some pictures to accompany the article. Sorry- too big to post directly! Some are different views of the same arrow. And Aitor (and others) copies of the article is on the way in the email. Enjoy!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/ ... ic_010.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/ ... ic_011.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/ ... ic_004.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/ ... ic_001.jpg

[aitor iriarte]

Copy received, many thanks, Paul!

Aitor

[Cornelius Quintus]

Ave Paul,

direct hit - excellent information, straight to the point. (I attached one laudes to this virtual arrow shot :wink: )

Greetings from Germany

Heiko (Cornelius Quintus)

[mpferrell]

YES, Thanks for the article.I need all the information I can get.

[Quadratus]

Paul

I read your excellent article back in May and I was puzzled by one thing - now I'm a real, live Tiro (damn – that wooden sword is heavy!), I can ask you about it!

You deduce that both arrows were probably shot with a thumb ring, because the gap between nock and fletching is small. I shoot both fingers and thumb ring, and have found that, if anything, the nock-fletching gap needs to be bigger with the thumb ring than with fingers, as both thumb and fingers have much the same width, but the thumb release is generally taken deeper than the finger release. www.atarn.org and www.koreanarchery.org show several examples of 'thumb ring arrows', ancient and modern, and most have a large (estimated 40-50mm) nock-fletching gap.

The position of the cock feather at 120 degrees to the slot certainly implies that the Qasr Ibrim shaft came from a tradition where the thumb release was common. But on the same basis, the 90 degree cock feather on the Dura Europas shaft implies the opposite – a finger release. And in neither case can we be certain.

As far as I can see, nothing about these (or any other) shafts can give more than a hint of how they were shot. I would be interested in any comments.

Regards

Alan

[Caballo]

Quadratus,

Many thanks- its great having an experienced archer on board. My practical experience is more limited- Meditterranean draw on my Hungarian Grozer bow- and your insights are very valuable.

I agree deducing the draw method is very tricky- although the BM staff informed me that other finds in Qasr Ibrim have uncovered thumb rings, POSSIBLY supporting the thumb ring thesis here.

On Dura I took my comments from Simon James book which is at home- I'll check up this evening and give you the full reference.

I'll also post a question for you from the Bishop & Coulston book re an Antonine bow with lugs either side of the siyah. My hypothesis is that these are to attach a bow stringer more effectively- but more anon!


Cheers

Caballo

[Caballo]

From Simon James's "Excavations at Dura Europas: Final Report VII The Arms and Armour"
"The discovery is a stratified context at Dura of a broken thumb ring proves that the "Mongolian release" in which the string is drawn back by the thumb was known in the Middle East by the third century AD....The design of the arrows ...proves that the Mongolian release was used by the Roman defenders. The traces of fletching on all the preserved shaftments extend back to the edge of the nock. If the bowstring was drawn with the fingers, holding the arrow to the string, the rear end of the fletching would be crushed, clearly an absurdity. In fact, in areas where the string is drawn in this way (eg modern Europe) the fletching is stopped short of the nock, leaving a space of 25mm or more to allow the fingers to fit between vanes and the bow string. Clearly, the Dura arrows, many of which as we have seen certainly belong to the defenders, were shot using the Mongolian release...Traditionally, in Europe the arrow rests on the left side of the bow, with the cock feather pointing away from the archer's body. In oriental archery the arrow has no cock feather and the bow is held upright, the arrow passing to the right of the bow." Later, James argues that thumb rings were confined to the Eastern Empire, and particularly to the frontier zone.

I'd be really interested in your comments on this as a practising archer?
Great to have you on board!

Cheers

Caballo

[Quadratus]

I will try to dig up some references and pictures over the weekend, but here are my comments, purely as a practicing archer - and oh boy! do I need the practice!

The point about feather crushing is a valid one. However, the thumb can crush just as easily as the fingers. One way that excessive crushing is avoided by traditional thumb release archers is by the orientation of the feathers. Using the 120 degree 'oriental' arrangement, the thumb is under the arrow, with the feathers more or less flat above it while The index finger pushes the feather downwards, in the direction of its natural lay (sorry I don't know how to get diagrams onto this board). So, an arrow with little or no nock to fletching gap can be shot off the thumb. The disadvantage is that one of the feathers inevitably scrapes against the bow handle quite severely. Hence, the option preferred by many thumb ring archers, both ethnic and reconstruction, of going for a large gap between fletching and nock. This way the feathers can be orientated in the 'western' manner, minimising contact with the handle.

So, a small gap with oriental alignment does suggest a thumb draw, as at Qasr Ibrim. However, the small gap, western alignment, Dura arrow does not. I can think of two plausible alternatives to the thumb draw. First it may be that the two or three finger so-called 'Mediterranean' draw was used, despite crushing the fletches. Some Mediaeval arrows seem to have been fletched very near the nock (pictures/references to follow, I hope) and the feathers must have made contact with the drawing fingers, even if they weren't actually crushed by them. The second alternative, often forgotten, is that some form of pinch draw may have been used - see
http://www.archerylibrary.com/books/bad ... er5_1.html .
In this type of draw, the nock is simply pinched between first finger and thumb (the so-called 'primary' draw), and assisted by the other fingers as necessary to bear the weight of the draw (the so-called 'secondary' and 'tertiary' draws). It is sometimes stated that this type of draw is not suitable for heavy draw weights, but at least one East African tribe used a 'tertiary' draw on a 120lb (45kg) draw weight elephant hunting bow well into living memory (and may well do so to this day). Since surviving war bows, of whatever culture, tend to have draw weights in the 90-120lb (40-55kg) range there is no reason why a pinch draw should not have been used in Roman times, and the pinch draws need very little nock to fletching gap.

To anticipate a question, I have seen it written that arrows shot with a pinch draw have a bulbous end, to aid the grip. Unfortunately this is not always true either. Turkish arrows are invariably shot off the thumb, but have a bulbous end, while the African arrows mentioned above are shot with a pinch draw and don't have bulbous end - I could go on, but you take the point, I'm sure.

So where are we? First, in my opinion, we cannot know from the arrow alone, how it was shot. The closest we can get is to say that the use of a short fletching gap with 120 degree orientation does strongly suggest a thumb draw, particularly when found in association with thumb rings. The use of a short gap with 90 degree orientation suggests a Mediterranean or pinch draw, but by no means confirms it. The use of a large fletching gap, whatever the orientation tells us nothing whatever about the draw.

Hope this helps.

[Caballo]

"Hope this helps."
Absolutely . Let me give you your first laudes!
Any more archers out there who can shed light on this?
Cheers

Caballo

[Virilis]

Great to have more practising archers here!

I have a Grozer 50 pound fiberglass traditional hungarian recurve bow. I have never tried to shoot with a thumb ring, it is difficult enough with the mediterranean release!

With this three finger method the finger pinch is a real pain to fingers. The draw of my bow is from 28" to 31" inches so I draw it behind the traditional anchoring point (corner of the mouth). The angle of the string becomes so acute that it pins especially the forefinger against the arrow shaft. Blood flowinng under the nail, you don`t feel it right away but later the pain is STRONG!

I am waiting to get a Grozer`s 70 pound assyrian bow, it should arrive quite soon!

[Quadratus]

I am waiting to get a Grozer`s [size=150:15xi41m6]70 pound [/size]assyrian bow

Good luck! No wonder you're called 'Virilis'.

Just don't do what I did and put yourself out of archery for a year with a torn shoulder caused by a 75lb flatbow and an over-optimistic view of my own strength.