Chinese antique arrowheads

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 6:07 am

Just wanted to show my latest findings on the new forum.

First, a batch of bi-metal heads, with an iron tang and a bronze point.

Usually the long tang is broken just after the head, I was lucky to find these in such a good state of preservation

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 6:11 am

and an arrow whistle of a new type (for me)

Stephen Selby · Post by **Stephen Selby** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:07 pm

Very lucky with both finds. The iron-tang heads look early: Late Warring States.

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:34 pm

Yup, I was very happy with my saturday harvest, flint heads, bronze heads, iron heads, I bought about 50 including many beautiful ones.

About the whistling head, would it be liao as usual ?

Iron, total length (including the tang remains) is 5.5 cm.

Stephen Selby · Post by **Stephen Selby** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 1:18 am

It doesn't look like Liao to me. The Liao heads usually used bone for the whistle chamber. It might be Jin or even Song.

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 10:43 am

Today I found 2 bronze whistle and a Liao bone one

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 10:44 am

The same, different view

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 10:45 am

another bi-metal, Qin style

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 10:48 am

and this weird long thing... it is broken at the beginning of the tang so what you see is the outside part of the arrow head.

Made of bronze, it seems hard to believe it had a military use, it should be way too easy to break...

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 10:50 am

detail

jack farrell · Post by **jack farrell** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 1:09 pm

Romain; This is good stuff! Keep on posting your finds.

I made a whistling arrow some time back. After some modifications it did start to whistle. Other shooters do enjoy when it is used, but it is so heavy. It's trajectory is somewhat poor. Do you have any idea of the weight of, say, the brass item? Would be nice to compare. -j-

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 4:17 am

Jack,

I weighted a few arrow heads and the result was a surprise :

-the tiny brass whistles above (the 4 sided one and the round one) came out at 8g and 8.2g respectively (= 123 and 127 grains).

-while the iron whistle with the 3 blade broadhead on top came at 7g only (=108 grains)

This to be compared with one of the Warring States bi-metal war head higher above which weights today 15.6g (= 241 grains) but was probably heavier when still intact (maybe it is the other way round, I forgot if rust is heavier than iron or lighter)

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 3:52 am

Stephen,

I was reading in the archives your 12 October, 1998 letter (by the way, it would be nice if you could post a new one for 2005 !).

You mentionned an expert named "arrowhead WANG".

Is this fellow still around studying arrowheads ?

Stephen Selby · Post by **Stephen Selby** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 4:22 am

I think he is still around, though I haven't had contact with him for some time. Although I paid a lot of attention to his views at first, I subsequently found that his understanding of arrowheads was very limited. However his collection is quite large and very interesting.

His real name wasn't Wang. He used 'Wang' when he was talking to dealers in the markets so that he would not be identified. (Not quite sure why

)

S.

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 3:47 am

Today, I'll show you arrowheads that are a bit older than what I usually post.

First, a set of stone heads. Small, sharp, cute, they appear to match what was made in Neolithic Europe. The longer one on the right with these strange grooves is a blade taken from a big stone and the hollow traces you see show where other blades have been taken from the same stone before.

I know this thanks to one of my French friend who studies Neolithic missile weapons for his thesis (all about bows, arrows and atlatls !)

Chinese antique arrowheads

Chinese antique arrowheads

Whistling head