weapon

In the Merovingian era (5th-8th century AD) a lot of variously shaped iron arrowheads were used by the Franks, Alemannians and Bavarians, who dwelled in the region known today as Germany, Austria and Switzerland. As archaeological artefacts, two-winged arrowheads with rhombic, willow-leaf or triangular blades represent a standard Germanic type. Iron bodkin and needle-shaped tips are also...

Throwing sticks, including boomerangs as a subclass, are prehistoric objects as old as humanity. They have endured on many continents in different forms, uses, and traditions of manufacture. Numerous different approaches have been used to study them. Many studies of throwing sticks are dominated by morphological determination and focused on Australian objects which have been...

Hand-delivered spears are the earliest clear hunting technology in the archaeological record, with origins from 400,000 years ago, before the evolution of our own species. Experimental archaeological approaches to early weaponry continue to grow, and both controlled and naturalistic experiments are making significant contributions to interpreting such technologies...

The trebuchet, in all its forms, was very much in vogue in the reenactment and research community in the 1980s and 1990s. Several museums around the world have also built their own, with Middelaldercenteret in Nykøbing Falster in Denmark as one of the first modern examples of counterweight trebuchet (Hansen, 1989). Despite the multitude of builds, very little has been published about...

Black powder hand grenades are ubiquitous for several European archaeological sites between 1600 AD and 1900 AD. Unfortunately, many archaeological reports only note the presence of hand grenades in artifact inventories, perhaps denoting some minor measurements. Only one report contains a full assessment of grenades, but this was performed by treasure hunters who excavated the pirate ship Whydah...

In 2010 archaeological excavations on the pre-Roman site of Urville Nacqueville, Normandy (France) discovered a shaped unknown wooden implement. This boomerang shaped wooden artefact, dated from 120 to 80 BC, has been found in an enclosure trench of a Gaulish village close to a ritual deposit of whalebones...

7th UK EA Conference Cardiff 2013
***A large number of stone moulds, dating to Middle and Late Bronze Age (approximately 1650-1150 BC) has been found in Terramare sites since the 19th century. They were made to produce a wide range of bronze objects, such as ornaments, weapons and tools. Empirical observations of...

One of the most misrepresented hunting tools of the Southeastern United States is the blowgun. Most people do not realize that virtually every tribe in the Southeast used the blowgun for hunting small game. No on really knows the origin of the blowgun in the Southeast...

The Iron Age in Central Italy is a period that begins in the tenth century BC and ends as the Romans take control over other Italic populations. Italy is divided longitudinally by the Apennines and the definition of ‘Central Italy’ includes the actual regions of Lazio and Toscana to the west, Umbria in the middle, Marche and Abruzzo on the east side of the Apennines...