BARBED AND TANGED ARROWHEAD

An incomplete barbed and tanged flint arrowhead of Early Bronze Age dating (c. 2500 BC to c. 1500 BC).

Approximately 95% of the arrowhead is present, with the tang being incomplete.

The arrowhead has been knapped from a mottled mid grey coloured piece of flint. It is broadly sub-triangular in shape and lentoid in cross section. The tang is incomplete and the surviving barbs are sub triangular. The arrowhead has been knapped using both direct and indirect percussion techniques. Both long sides / edges of the arrowhead have been finely retouched to create sharp edges. The retouch can be classified as invasive / sub-parallel / low angle. One face of the arrowhead (the dorsal) has received more reworking than the other and a large number of retouch scars are present.

The arrowhead measures 21.0 mm in length, 18.8 mm wide and 2.8 mm thick. It weighs 0.9 g.

Similar flint barb and tanged arrowheads are associated with the Beaker phase of the Late / final Neolithic and Early Bronze Age c. 2500 BC-1500 BC. This example fits into the sub-classification of non-Fancy B&T arrowheads best described as Sutton types (Butler 2005: 162-165, after Green (1980).

Several similar barbed and tanged arrowheads have been recorded on the PAS database including WMID-DDE216; WMID-9BE024 and WMID-837197.

Reference:
Butler, C. 2005. Prehistoric Flintwork. Tempus Publishing. Stroud.