Closed Quiver Design

[Bede]

This is the analysis I created some years ago for someone interested in closed quiver designs. If you have any questions, please ask. The measurements are in inches and the quiver is designed for reasonably long arrows.

[Alam ed Din, Adnan]

Bede:
I am interested in building a closed quiver as well.(after finishing the
turkish quiver project) You mentioned Birchbark. Can you explain how,
and what part of the bark was being used. I have a lot of birchbark, but I
have peeled out the middle layer which is reddish in colour and thin as paper.
I don't really know how to obtain the thick birchbark that is used in Russia
for building containers and baskets of sorts. We usually find only "white or
paperbirch" around where I stay.....Silverbirch, too but its completly unusable
for there are to many cracks in the bark.......

Greetings & Salaam

[Andrew Hall]

If you have trouble getting suitable birch bark, a number of the quivers remains from the circa 8th century burials of Moshcheveya Balka were leather covered. These were generally of D-shaped cross-section with a flat back. They were made from thin wooden strips with a covering of leather or birch bark and a fairly thick wooden base. Some had bone pieces for decorative reinforcement. One variant had a wooden board for the back.

Below is a photo of a simple quiver I made last year, very loosely based on the these finds. Other than the carved base plate design, I don't make any claims to it's historical accuracy. It was made with a wooden back plate and a leather front, and was quite simple to construct. It seems quite rigid enough without the wooden strips.

Regards

Andrew

[Alam ed Din, Adnan]

Andrew,
That is a beautiful quiver.Very nice with it's carved base. Having it D shaped
may also have a good feel when wearing it on ones belt. Thank you!!
Was it a Khazar burial side?

Greetings & Salaam

[Andrew Hall]

Glad you like it. Quivers at the site came in a variety of sizes, with base widths of 10 to 18cm (4-7 inches). Mine is about 13cm (5 inches) across the base and holds a dozen arrows comfortably. The interior length should be a bit longer than your arrow. The shaped opening at the top guides your hand down below the arrow tip to avoid stabbing yourself.

The Moshcheveya Balka burial site is in the territory of the Alans, at the time they were part of the Khazar empire.

Regards

Andrew

[Alam ed Din, Adnan]

Andrew,
The friend I mentioned earlier (in the context of the Magyar bow topic) is doing all sorts of replications from ancient (Magyar)burial sites. He made a quiver similar to yours. He did it very authentic. He has a supplier of thick Sibirian birch bark which he used to make his closed quiver. There was some uncertainty about the "lid" function I believe. He used iron rod reinforcements which he got made at by a local smith. The back of the quiver was also made from wood which he then covered by(thin)birchbark.Unfortunatly I don't have a close up photo that I could post. Anyway, he offered to get me some of the
Sibirian birch bark with his next order, and than I will probably use the bark
instead of leather or both. Thank you very much for the measurements.
The danger of stabbing one self could be there, so measurments can be kind of essential.......

Greetings & Salaam

[Bede]

Alam,
You might be interested in an article I wrote some years ago.

http://www.atarn.org/islamic/bede/CLOSE ... ER2001.htm

The references are very useful for looking up closed quiver designs.

[Alam ed Din, Adnan]

Bede

Thank you for the link to your article. I wonder why I haven't seen it before.
You mentioned feather mites. How bad where your personal expierences with that sort of pest? Maybe the ancients did occasionaly place their arrows into
the direct sun. In North India & Pakistan they say" Doop main rakh do, sab
theekh hojaega"(put it into the sun and all will be good). They do it
with their bedframes (chowky) which are often infested with bedbugs and
mites......etc. At another discussion(serbian saints) you where pointing out
that used arrows may have been kept in the bow holster, until they where
cleaned and could be safely inserted into the quiver. This may had somthing to do with the mite problem.......
I was also thinking by myself why the closed quiver was being developed in
the first place.Was it that the glue used for fletchings was sensitive to rain or heat or both in succession? Maybe it was developed to avoid theft? Suppose
one has valuable eagle feather fletchings on ones expensive arrows, they could easy be snatched away fom an open quiver. Probably this is nonsense.
Maybe the closed quiver did represent(like the Huns) a very powerfull people that dominated
large parts of Asia and others copied it in a way just like european clothing is spreading in Asia now.

Greetings & Salaam

[Bede]

Feather mites are nasty little creatures that remove feathers laying about in the wild. Unfortunately, they don't know we want to keep our arrows in good condition for a long time after the bird that donated the feathers is dead.

I have had arrows end up looking like some of those old Mughal reed arrows you see, just a line of glue where the fletching used to be.

Personally, I think closed quivers were popular among people who worked on horseback, rather than just fought from there. Heavy cavalry might have also preferred them. They keep your arrows below the waist and out of the way. They complete protect them from weather, accidental damage and being knocked out of the quiver during a fight.

Open quvers became popular again, but were much shorter than they used to be when people rode without stirrups. There might be a connection between riding style and quiver design too. Closed quivers were popular when people used medium length stirrup leathers. They declined when shorter leathers predominated after the Mongol conquests.

A painting of a Mongol hunter in the Musee Guimet shows a blood covered arrow in the bow case. The hunter is adjusting his horse's girth after having shot a goat-like animal.

[Alam ed Din, Adnan]

[quote]Open quvers became popular again, but were much shorter than they used to be when people rode without stirrups. There might be a connection between riding style and quiver design too. Closed quivers were popular when people used medium length stirrup leathers. They declined when shorter leathers predominated after the Mongol conquests.[unquote]

Its very interesting what you say here. I never thought of the connection between stirrups and quiver design.