Whether following signs to a destination or moving the cursor on a computer, we encounter arrowheads throughout our daily life. The symbol is so familiar that it is surprising to learn that it has only been used to indicate direction for the last few hundred years. Its unmistakable outline – a design that we know in the UK as ‘barbed and tanged’ – has much earlier origins, however. The central stem directly below the projectile’s point, where the arrow shaft is attached, is known as the tang, while the two projections either side are the barbs. Such arrowheads appeared in Britain and continental Europe c.4,500 years ago, as one of the last types to be made in stone while the earliest metal objects and distinctive pots called beakers were beginning to circulate.
While metal items were hugely valued, archaeological evidence indicates that stone archery equipment remained an important sign of status in the early Bronze Age. One of the wealthiest graves from this period is that of the Amesbury Archer, a 35- to 45-year-old man whose burial was excavated by Wessex Archaeology around 5km (3 miles) from Stonehenge in 2002 (see CA 184, CA 251, and CA 265). This individual had travelled from the Continent c.2300 BC, and alongside generous grave goods including beakers, copper knives, and gold hair ornaments, he had been laid to rest with stone archers’ wristguards and 17 finely made barbed and tanged arrowheads. A year later, just 500m (0.3 miles) to the north, Wessex Archaeology encountered a broadly contemporary mass grave of seven individuals who had been buried with a record number of beaker vessels, as well as a number of similar projectiles that led to them being dubbed the ‘Boscombe Bowmen’ (CA 193).
Hundreds of arrowheads like these have been found across the UK. What were they for? From their frequency we might imagine that hunting was a common pursuit, but surviving animal remains speak of communities of pastoralists who kept cattle, pigs, and some sheep, consuming wild prey much more rarely. Perhaps the arrowheads placed in graves held a greater symbolic value. Martial prowess almost certainly played a role, and we know that at least some were fired in anger, as examples have been found still embedded in the bones of their victims – for example, a man who had been shot at close range with multiple arrows before being buried in a ditch at Stonehenge (CA 128 and CA 420). The ability to protect valuable livestock would also have been important to early Bronze Age people. The demand for finely made flint tools quickly dropped away, however, as copper was replaced by the harder alloy bronze, allowing the creation of longer knives/daggers and eventually swords and elongated spearheads as a new way to show status.
Ancient aquifers and a sovereign spirit