Iranian tanged bronze arrowheads, from I. N. Medvedskaya’s
Iran: Iron Age I. Second millennium BC dating on left of chart. The classifications I-V are based on the form of the blades. In most cases the dimensions are not provided, although Medvedskaya does mention that examples of
Type I range between 3.2 cm to 13 cm.
According to Medvedskaya, iron arrowheads were not produced in
Iran until Iron Age II (c. 1000 – 800 BC), and “they mostly repeat
types I and IIa”. He concurs with P. R. S. Moorey (
Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum) that “arrowheads of both periods (Iron Age I and II in
Iran) are not differentiated territorially…but it should be noted that arrowheads with a drooping barb and ‘wings’ predominate in the northern areas (Talish, Khurvin, and Marlik).”
