Time to leave the stone age and visit the iron age.
Iron Age cultures existed up until the eighteen hundreds in Southern Africa.
Below are some examples of various types of iron age spears made around that time that are at least a century old.
Different types of spears heads and spears were preferred by the different tribes.
Thin and Slender for throwing spears and stouter and broader for stabbing or thrusting spears.
Zulu's preferred the Assegai or thrusting spear and Xhosa's and other tribes the throwing spear.
The throwing spears are inserted into thinner shafts and the stabbing or thrusting spears are attached to stouter shafts.
Various methods are used to secure the spear point to the shaft.
- wrapping with a leather thong - center
- encasing the wrapping in a wet piece of leather that contracts and hardens as it dries.
- inserting the shaft into an iron receptacle as is the case with the stabbing spear.
These spear heads are beaten into shape while repeatedly heating and beating an originally round bar to produce the thin, but strong blade.
Great pictures. That spear head on the far left seems particularly fantastic to me.
My favorite too, have chased an intruder with this one
Sounds like one of those crazy moments in life--but I'll bet the intruder was surprised.
Here, I'll just sneak into this place to swipe something. What the...? The owner is coming at me with a spear? Hope he doesn't have a blowgun as well he thinks as he runs off.
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Yeah
Any idea when the african people started mining iron for weapons? Also was it's something they discovered themselves or was it past down from Roman era, maybe explorers?
Iron ores of many varieties are plentiful in Africa, This teck was introduced to Southern Africa by tribes migrating down from the north. SA hunter gatherers were stone age up till that time.
What I find fascinating about ancient metal working techniques is that they did a lot of processes which have the same effects as we use today in terms of hardening and working the metal into a useful tool.
I'm a metal worker and we are taught the effects our processes have down to the structure of the molecules. These guys wouldnt have benefitted from that level of knowledge but they did know how to use similar techniques to have the same effects.
In fact some people believe that some ancient metals were actually superior to todays such as true Damascus steel (not the modern recreated versions).
trial and error is a good teacher
Deadly weapons.. safe to say combat striking & war is your thing. I love defensive training, this post resonates some, cheers!
nope, I just like old stuff that tells its own story
weapons are always dangerous.....we have to be conscious
Too bad they don't do black smithing like they used too. That old style hand pounded iron looks really good.
yup, and keeps a strong and sharp edge
I think, different types of spears heads and spears were preferred by the different tribes because there were many different species as well.
My guess, the bigger the animal, the longer the spears head should be?
Iron age tribes were pastoralists, these spears were mainly for warfare, not so much for hunting.
Well, in this circumstances, I would not want to get stabbed with either one....
Hey, did you find them in your garden? :d
Officially the stone age garden.
actually, one of them yes
"Time to leave the stone age and visit the iron age" cuz of bitcoin 1th August right? XD new age of btc
lol... didn't think of that
And they probably forged it in a furnace made out of clay.
Did they have an iron mine or did they picked it up from the ground?
All of the above
great article :)
is this your own spear collection? Or are those pictures from a museum?
have a nice day! ;)
my own
oh wow, really cool ;)
so I guess you are an archeologist?