The Global Egyptian Museum

Set of arrow heads (four hundred and sixty-seven complete heads and fifty-four fragmentary ones) in the shape of a circle segment carved in carnelian. Most were arrow heads with a transversal cutting edge. In other words, the bevelled rectilinear side of the head was perpendicular to the shaft and assured contact and impact. The circular side, the back of the head, was directly fitted to the hard wooden shaft, which was set in the stalk of a reed. Occasionally, other heads were placed right under the main arrowhead, on either side of the shaft (cant parallel to the shaft, this time), thus creating a barbed arrow. These were fixed to the wood with a dark bronze-green adhesive. Approximately two thousand seven hundred segments of this type were found in the fortress of Mirgissa/Iken, where batches of two hundred to four hundred arrows were placed in stuccoed wooden boxes. Like a variety of tools and weapons, such arrow heads have been produced in Nubian since the Upper Palaeolithic. These, like other 13th Dynasty weapons found at Mirgissa/Iken, demonstrate that even at the end of the Middle Kingdom the Egyptians, who had known about bronze for a long time, still used stone weapons on a large scale and had mastered perfect cutting techniques.

Lot d'armatures de flèches (quatre cent soixante-sept entières et cinquante-quatre fragmentaires), en forme de segments de cercles à dos abattus, taillées dans la cornaline. La plupart faisait office de pointes à tranchant transversal. L'impact était en effet assuré par le biseau rectiligne du segment, qui était perpendiculaire à l'axe de la flèche et dont le dos s'appuyait directement sur le bout plat d'un fût en bois dur, lui-même enchâssé dans une tige de roseau. D'autres, placés sous la pointe, de part et d'autre du fût de bois, formaient parfois des barbelures, le biseau étant cette fois parallèle à l'axe de la flèche. Leur fixation sur le bois était assurée par un ciment de couleur vert bronze foncé. Environ deux mille sept cent segments de ce type ont été retrouvés dans le fort de Mirgissa/Iken, où les flèches étaient entreposées par lots de deux cent à quatre cent unités dans des caisses de bois stuquées. Des segments de ce type ont été fabriqués en Nubie depuis le Paléolithique Supérieur comme armatures d'outils et armes de nature diverse. Comme d'autres armes de Mirgissa/Iken, qui datent aussi de la XIIIème Dynastie, ils montrent qu'à la fin du Moyen Empire, les &Eacute;gyptiens, qui connaissaient depuis longtemps le bronze, utilisaient encore à grande échelle des armes en pierre qu'ils réalisaient avec une maîtrise parfaite des techniques de taille.

Set of arrow heads (four hundred and sixty-seven complete heads and fifty-four fragmentary ones) in the shape of a circle segment carved in carnelian. Most were arrow heads with a transversal cutting edge. In other words, the bevelled rectilinear side of the head was perpendicular to the shaft and assured contact and impact. The circular side, the back of the head, was directly fitted to the hard wooden shaft, which was set in the stalk of a reed. Occasionally, other heads were placed right under the main arrowhead, on either side of the shaft (cant parallel to the shaft, this time), thus creating a barbed arrow. These were fixed to the wood with a dark bronze-green adhesive. Approximately two thousand seven hundred segments of this type were found in the fortress of Mirgissa/Iken, where batches of two hundred to four hundred arrows were placed in stuccoed wooden boxes. Like a variety of tools and weapons, such arrow heads have been produced in Nubian since the Upper Palaeolithic. These, like other 13th Dynasty weapons found at Mirgissa/Iken, demonstrate that even at the end of the Middle Kingdom the Egyptians, who had known about bronze for a long time, still used stone weapons on a large scale and had mastered perfect cutting techniques.

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