The arrow bolt plane from the medieval archepiscopal residence at Esztergom (North Hungary)

Abstract

This paper presents a previously misidentified antler tool from Esztergom-Várhegy-Kőbánya (North Hungary), which was found in the late medieval kitchen residue of the archbishopric palace. The arrow shaft plane, an implement used together with a knife for smoothing the wooden bolts of (cross)bows, is a rare type of tool whose role was misinterpreted by several authors in the past although its ethnographic parallels made from both antler and wood in Siberia has been described already by the turn of 19th to 20th century. This work aims to summarise all the published arrow shaft planes from Hungary and abroad by presenting their origin, context, and individual features.