sml logo Dark Ages Re-Creation Company sml logo
Overview
+ Bibliographies
+ General
+ Interpretation
+ Pastimes
+ Reviews
+ Techniques

Viking Age Arrow Heads - A summary

Author: Neil Peterson
This article is hosted at:http://www.treheima.ca/viking/VikingEraArrowHeads.html

Images included here are hand drawn sketches and should be proportional and to scale (1 cm lines).

Types:


Bodkin
Specialized for armour piercing, sharp point usually with a square cross section.
Trefoil
Specialized for armour piercing, sharp point with a trefoil (3-lobed) cross section. Often done with a solid section immediately behind the head. Perhaps for attaching burning material, perhaps to add mass.
Leaf
Hunting blade with a gently curving edge from the point.
Diamond
Hunting blade with straight edges.
Cylindrical
Hunting blunt (small game) with a round cross section.
Pentagonal
Hunting blunt (small game) with a pentagonal cross section.
Ball
Hunting blunt (small game) with a round cross section.
Conical
Simple point with a round cross section.
V-Notch
A flat blade with a notch in the end useful for hunting birds and cutting rigging ropes (not that I'm sure the vikings used it that way).
Transverse
A flat blade with a straight or gently curved edge. I have **NO CLUE** what one would use this arrowhead for. Everything I know says that it should fly badly and mostly likely glance off of anything it hit.
Barbed
Standard hunting or combat point.
Multi-Barbed
As above but with more than one set of barbs (more useful when fishing).


Viking Artefacts - A Select Catalogue, Graham-Campbell, James, 1980, The Trustees of the British Museum, ISBN 0 7141 1354 9, Published by British Museum Publications Ltd

#12 - 3 iron arrow heads
Provenience: Estuna, Uppland, Sweden
Museum: Stockholm: SHM 27761
Length: 15.7, 12.5, 6.3 cm
Type: Bodkin, Trefoil, Diamond
Notes: Find includes 245 arrowheads

sketch
sketch
sketch

#13 - Wood
Provenience: Hedeby, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Museum: Schleswig: LMS Hb.68; N 18-60; Q 229-60; vii; and Hb.68; N 39-50; Q 213- 10; viii; and Hb.67; N 24-55; 0 219-60: viii
Type: Cylindrical, Pentagonal, Ball
Notes: Three wooden arrow-heads cut or broken from their shafts of circular cross-section. The first is itself circular in section (L 8.6; D 2.0 tapering to shaft of 0.9 cm). The second is pentagonal in section (L 9.5; W 1.9 tapering to shaft of D 0.8 cm), and the third has an expanded club-shaped head (L3.8; D 1.5 with shaft of 0.8 cm).

sketch
sketch
sketch

#14 - Antler
Provenience: Hedeby, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Museum: Schleswig: LMS Hb.66; N 22 -65; Q 16 - 70; xi
Type: Conical
Notes: with a transverse perforation at its base containing a wooden peg, surrounded by the remains of a wooden shaft. L 4.9; D 1.3 cm

sketch

#267 - Iron
Provenience: Estuna, Uppland, Sweden
Museum: Stockholm: SHM 27761
Length: 15.7, 11.3 cm
Type: Trefoil
Notes: Same find as #12

sketch
sketch

Viking to Crusader, Else Rosedahl & D.M. Wilson, Publisher: Rizzoli (October 15, 1992), ISBN: 0847816257

#88 - Iron
Provenience: Norway, c. 800-1000
Museum: Vittenskapmusset T11190, T17696, T16477
Length:  18.1, 17.4, 10.3 (head only - tang unknown - its still on a shaft) cm
Type:  V-notch, Diamond, Leaf
Notes: Leaf blade is on a 27" birch shaft

sketch
sketch
sketch

#118 - Iron
Provenience: Kjølstad, Sør-Odal, Hedmark, Norway, c. 10th c.
Museum: Universitetets Oldsaksamling, C37550 f,g,h
Length:  16.8, 15.1, 12.5 cm
Type: Bodkin, leaf, Diamond
Notes

sketch
sketch
sketch

#208 - Iron
Provenience: Finland c. 1000-1200
Museum: Finlands National museum 18556:581, 588, 589, 583, 15767, 1174:11, 11070:13
Length:  13, 10.2, 22.7, 12.2, 22.4, 18.9, 11.3 cm
Type:  V-Notch, Transverse, transverse, Diamond, V-Notch, Diamond (rhomboid), Multi-barbed,
Notes

sketch
sketch
sketch
sketch
sketch
sketch
sketch

#238 - Reindeer Antler
Provenience: Vestvatn Skjerstad, Nordland, Norway, 11th/12th c.
Museum: Tromsø Museum Ts6251a,g,h,u,å,bå
Length: 13.3, 12.9 cm
Type:  Barbed, Barbed
Notes:

sketch
sketch

#288 - Iron
Provenience: Gorodisce, near Novgorod, Russia, 9th-10th c.
Museum: Novgorodskij Gosundarstvennyi muzej K 36157/6, 117, 124, 177
Length:  6.8, 7, 7.1, 7.5 cm
Type:  Barbed, Barbed, Barbed, Bodkin
Notes: First three are socketed.

sketch
sketch
sketch
sketch

#294 - Iron
Provenience: Zaozere, mound 6, complex V, SE Ladoga region, obl. St. Petersburg, Russia, 10th-11th c.
Museum: Gosundarskvennyi Ermitnz 700/48-50, 52-55, 57-59, 61, 456
Length:  unknown 
Type: 3 bodkins, 1 transverse
Notes: Picture is too small to sketch


#340 - Antler
Provenience: Narsaq, Ruin Group 60V1-I-518 (Ø17a), Greenland, 11th c.
Museum: Danmarks National museum - no numbers given
Length:  10.7, 6.9 cm
Type: Diamond (rhomboid), Barbed
Notes

sketch
sketch

Vikings, North Atlantic Saga, William Fitzhugh and Elisabeth I. Ward, ed, Smithsonian (Washington and London), in association with the National Museum of Natural History, 2000, ISBN: 1560989955

Fig 1-7 - Iron
Provenience: 
Museum: Birka SHM 5208: 276-7
Length:  11 cm <see note>
Type: Leaf, Leaf
Notes: Two arrow heads are shown of different lengths but only one length is given.

sketch
sketch

Page 54
Notes: From the text.  Complete arrows were found in Norway in the 1930s.  Blunt arrow heads exist.


      Updated: 4 Dec, 2007
Text © Neil Peterson, 2006
Copyright details
Contact us