Hun arrow design

[JABK]

In between waiting for staves to cure, I've gotten distracted attempting to reproduce various arrow designs.  I've knocked out (no pun intended) the English standard quarter-pound arrow, and now I'm moving on to the Hun arrow.

My question is:  Does anyone know the fletching pattern the Huns used, or direct me a source of information?  I've burned up my bandwidth looking for a definitive reproduction of a Hun arrow, to no avail.  It looks like modern horse archers use carbon shafts with parabolic fletching, but I'm reasonably sure carbon shafts are not historically accurate.  Any help or advice would be great.

jack

[agd68]

Not an expert by any means, but, appling some logic and knowlege of history, I would think their arrows were probably made of birch as it's very prevelant in the region. The Hun originated in the same area as the mongols and spent centuries fighting them so their arrows were probably very similar. May be able to find more info on Mongol arrows.

[Scowler]

As a ancient history "student" and a fan of the Huns I've done alot of looking for Hun artifacts on the web and in books.  I have found that there is not alot of Hun artifacts out there (in comparison to other cultures).  Nomdic cultures tend to have their artifacts scattered about.  Perhaps you can look to similar Eurasian cultures for inspiration (Avars, Mongols, etc...).  Check out the ATARN (Asian Traditional ARchery Network) site.  Perhaps someone their will be able to help.  Good luck.   

[PatM]

It can be tricky establishing exactly which culture the artifacts came from but many if not all of those finds which fit the Steppe warrior mold look quite similar to the weapons here: http://www.atarn.org/chinese/miran/Bows%20and%20Arrows%20from%20Miran.html

[JABK]

Thanks fellas.  ATARN is a pretty good site; I've spent quite a bit of time looking at that.  I think, insofar as basic design, that you guys are correct in assuming that Hun arrows might have been similar to other nomadic Eurasian tribes.  Arrows seem to be one of those grey areas, especially fletching design (damn that decomposition).  Short of confirmation via time travel, it seems reasonable that Hun fletching shapes would be very similar to Mongolian designs.

Of course I am not an archaeologist or professional historian (I'm beginning to rethink my choice of careers), so, in the spirit of getting it done, I will take your advice and use a Mongolian-ish pattern.

Now I just need to get my cow pony trained to shoot arrows off of.  Which might end up being a bigger problem than researching Hun artifacts.

[PatM]

Make sure you check out the three threads on Ancient bows from Mongolia(which doesn't necessarily mean the bows belonged to Mongolians) Good view of the arrows and several of them have well preserved fletching or at least the quill or glue mark is still clearly shown.
 Again they show that typical Steppe type of arrows.
 Keep in mind that the Huns were reputed to use tempered bone for heads rather than metal. Many of the Mongol arrows show chisel like or spade heads etc.

[JABK]

Pat, I've already ruined them then.  I used those slick little steel Persian points from 3Rivers.  They are pretty cool, but definitely not historically accurate (they might last longer than bone though, what with all the things I end up shooting at). 

Oh well, I'll get it right next time; you can never have too many arrows.

Thanks guys

Jack