A Shooting Experiment with Reconstructed Scythian Arrows and Bows : New Data on the Iron Age Siege at Dédestapolcsány-Verebce-tető

Abstract

The archaeological research of the last decades revealed that around the beginning of the Middle Iron Age, at the end of the 7th century BC, the territory of Northeast Hungary and Western Slovakia and the eastern part of today’s Czech Republic were hit by an extensive series of attacks. Approximately 20 fortified settlements are known today where bronze arrowheads, found along pristine hillfort walls, bear witness to devastating sieges that occurred almost simultaneously. The most spectacular evidence of the Early Iron Age attack series in the territory of Hungary is the fortified settlement at Dédestapolcsány–Verebce-tető, located at the fringes of the Bükk Mountains. Hundreds of early Scythian-type cast bronze arrowheads have been discovered there, scattered along the northern wall of the defensive earthworks surrounding the inhabitation zone. Recently, as part of a new research project, we have conducted a shooting experiment using reconstructed Scythian-type bows and arrows to obtain additional information about the efficiency of the bows and arrows used in the siege, as well as about the probable progress and details of the event.