Topic summary

Projectile points

Projectile points

Extracted from the Wikipedia article Projectile point.

Types

Projectile points fall into two general types: dart or javelin points and arrow points. Larger points were used to tip atlatl javelins or darts and spears. Arrow points are smaller and lighter than dart points, and were used to tip arrows. The question of how to distinguish an arrow point from a point used on a larger projectile is non-trivial. According to some investigators, the best indication is the width of the hafting area, which is thought to correlate to the width of the shaft. An alternative approach is to distinguish arrow points by their necessarily smaller size (weight, length, thickness).