The Archaeology Thread

[Anomalocaris]

-and those dice were religious artifacts, just saying.

Another fun fact, the romans notched their javelins at the angle at which they would whistle through the air not because there was a practical benefit to javelin flight in this arrangement, or that they believed javelins could be better thrown if they did so...., but because they knew it produced an overwhelming fear which caused the enemy to make mistakes.

The original whistling death.

Also, contrary to popular belief, the javelins were NOT deliberately designed to bend on impact, so the barbarians couldn't throw them back. Although, there is some evidence that Marius (he of the 'mules') had the pilum redesigned so that the entire head of the thing would break from the shaft on impact.

Boru

The metal shaft of the spear was annealed, while the tip was then tempered and hammered.    If it was deliberately designed to bent on impact, that would have been the obvious way to do so.

Some Roman pilum was also apparently designed in such a way that the tang of the metal tip was attached to the wooden shaft with a rivet and a dower.  The dower would sheer upon impact, leaving the shaft attached to the tip with just one rivet, so the tip would just dangle loosely from the shaft, making it impossible for the pilum to be re-used without a trip to the armorer to insert a new rivet or dower.

That's how the error started - having to jerk and twist the thing to pull it out of a dead German is what caused the bending.

Boru

I believe there was a Celtic spear with backward facing barbs on the shaft to make attempting to pull it out do even more damage.

That also makes it more likely that the spear will get stuck behind bone, or armor. So it can’t be pulled out and reused.     I guess if you primarily fight unarmored opponents with no shields, you can always try to thrust for the stomach where there is no bone.    If you fight a Roman legionary you have to go through his shield, and then his armor.   During imperial times the armor would have been plate, making piercing the shield and armor dubious, and pulling the barbed point back out unlikely. 

Most ancient spear points were broad symmetrical leaf shape, deliberately designed to be as wide as would still allow a deep penetration, sometimes through armor, so as to do as much damage as possible going in, but have a more or less symmetrical shape front and back so as be easy to pull back out so the spear can be reused.