History

• Some of the earliest arrowhead points have been dated as 50,000 to 30,000 years old and where made from various types of stone, depending on what was available at the time. After stone tips, arrowheads made from bone, ivory and wood were all tried until the introduction of metals. There is some debate as to whether arrowheads were adapted from basic scraping and digging tools or whether these tools were made from old and possibly damaged points. There is evidence of both in different cultures.
  
  

Wooden Arrows

• The earliest type of projectile weapon was the throwing spear which was later adapted and shortened to produce arrows when the first bow and arrow weapon was devised. The materials used to construct the first bow and arrows were made from wood. At first these wooden hunting tools were weak, the bows often broke when drawn, and the arrows splintered and shattered upon impact. A way to strengthen wood was needed and the answer was found in fire. By placing the wood in the hot coals of a fire that had been allowed to die out, it is possible to harden the wood before it chars and so reduce the number of breakages.
  
  

Stone Arrows

• Many of the oldest arrowheads were made from a type of stone called flint. The characteristics of flint were such that a person could hit a piece of flint in the right place and knock off a thin flake that was extremely light and sharp and could be worked into the desired shape. This method of using a hammerstone to chip off shards of flint was known as flint knapping.
  
  

Bone and Ivory Arrows

• Bone and ivory arrowheads were made using a number of ways. Some involved the use of a hammerstone; others employed grinding, cutting, scraping and sawing techniques. One of the biggest reasons bone was used as opposed to other materials was the lack of the right type of resources. Some cultures or groups of early humans lived in regions where the rock was too soft or they did not have the technology to dig it out of the ground.
  
  

Metal Arrows

• Some of the first metals used by mankind were gold, silver and copper. Gold and silver were primarily used for decoration as they were to soft for anything else and copper, while good for certain tools, was still too soft to fashion any kind of weapon. It was only when humans began to mix copper and tin to create bronze that metal arrowheads became a reality and humans moved from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. When man then discovered how to process iron ore, the strongest and sharpest arrows that had ever been made were now available, which helped to usher in the Iron Age.