Native American Arrows

[dana_w]

Originally Posted by Berkley

Excellent collection. Thank you for bringing this thread back to life.
Although we typically think of such stone tools as projectile points, they had many uses in everyday life. The top right hand point, for example, is most likely a drill. Cf. Plates 3.78 and 3.79 in Miles' Artifacts cited above, used copies of which are such a bargain among ethnographic references that there is no reason not to have a copy.
Here is a selection of arrow heads and other points collected in (primarily central) Texas shortly after WWII. As you can see, there is much variety of shapes, styles and sizes just in this area.

Thanks Berkley! That is a WONDERFUL collection you have there.

I found a digital copy of Indian and Eskimo artifacts of North America here:

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...view=1up;seq=1

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Great Thread!! ....Please check out http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/n...arrowheads.htm for all sorts of ID material on the subject.
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[dana_w]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Great Thread!! ....Please check out http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/n...arrowheads.htm for all sorts of ID material on the subject.
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Nice site Ibrahiim, THANKS! Wish the pictures there had a little less contrast. It look like I have some more reading to do.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by dana_w

Nice site Ibrahiim, THANKS! Wish the pictures there had a little less contrast. It look like I have some more reading to do.

Salaams dana_w,
Thanks ~ before I saw the thread I knew nought about the subject... I agree the artwork is a bit brash ! but I think it is an initial learner site so it was ideal for me having never heard of a Mississippian Triangle ... and who would know that North American Indian hunters measured the arrow shafts to determine whos arrow was whose?? after a combined kill.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[spiral]

Interesting subject that sadly I cant add to... I can do a post about English Mesolithic, Neolithic & bronze age arrow heads, mostly from my own personal finds , dating back to up to 8000 years ago .

Guess that should be a separate thread.

Spiral

[Berkley]

Originally Posted by spiral

I can do a post about English Mesolithic, Neolithic & bronze age arrow heads, mostly from my own personal finds , dating back to up to 8000 years ago .

Guess that should be a separate thread.

It sounds like a fascinating topic - hope you will start the thread (with lots of pics).
Berk

[LJ]

I guess the Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology volumes published in the late 1800s and early 1900s might be worth a look, but there was also a monograph on North American Bows Arrows and Quivers by O.T. Mason published in 1893 in the "Smithsonian Reports" (pages 631-679).

I also remember seeing a book by Allely & Hamm published 1999 "Encyclopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows & Quivers. Vol.1 Northeast, Southeast and Midwest", and on checking the Web I see they also issued a second volume.

Just also checked Christian Feest's summary of North American artefacts in european Collections pre-1750 (Archiv fur Volkerkunde 46:61-109) and this confirmed something I suspected - that arrows are VERY rare in early collections. Perhaps they were so commonly seen that nobody thought it worth taking them home. Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got til it's gone.