Technique and technology of Scythian bronze arrowhead casting: Experimental and metallographic approach

Abstract

The most ubiquitous category of Scythian material culture – the bronze arrowheads – is paradoxically the least studied to date. First and foremost, this concerns one question: how were they cast? No definitive conclusions regarding the technology of arrowhead casting have been reached. Some sources suggest the use of a metal mould for this purpose, while others propose the use of lost-wax casting technique. Our understanding of the casting technology is fundamental since it affected the organisation of the manufacturing process of this important category of material and, as a consequence, the supply of Scythian warriors with necessary weapons. In order to solve this problem, several experiments were carried out casting the arrowheads in a metal mould, using metal moulds to obtain wax models, and lost-wax casting. Comparative metallographic analyses were carried out on the original Scythian arrowheads and their experimental analogues, cast in different ways. The results of the experiments indicate that lost-wax technique was the most likely method used for the casting of Scythian arrowheads. These data were confirmed by the results of metallographic analyses: the difference in the cooling rate of the crystallisation of arrowheads obtained by different casting methods affected the parameters of the crystal structure of their alloy.