Small arrowhead

The presented object, as indicated by its low inventory number, is one of the first acquired by our museum. The person who handed the object over to us stated that it was found in a farmer's field in Chodel (Opole poviat).

It is a trapezoidal flint arrowhead, which can be attributed to the Mesolithic Chojnice-Pieńkowski culture; its representatives inhabited the present-day Lublin region as early as 9 thousand years ago. The artefact was most probably used as an arrowhead. Its geometric form was one of many used in those times. But it was not only the shape of arrowheads that differed. Prior to the discovery of metal, bone or wooden materials were often used alongside flint armours. It was from these materials that it was possible, for example, to make not a sharp but a blunt pointed spearhead. Such weapons could then be used as tools for stunning birds.

And how was the flint arrowhead fitted into the radius (the wooden part of the arrow)?

Usually hot resin was used, which, like today's glue, cooled down and joined the arrowhead to the wood. In addition, parts of the arrow could be bound with a thong or sinew to further strengthen and stabilize the joint.

Nowadays, all arrows used several thousand years ago usually contain only stone arrowheads. Scientists who study such artefacts can, based on analogous finds, determine whether they are indeed fragments of arrows or whether they could have been used for other purposes. It also happens that such identification is facilitated by traces of blood or resin discovered on the monument.