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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

which, according to the newest chronological determination, would indicate the
nineteenth century B. C. It is, however, improbable that the stone arrived in so
distant a locality at the same time that analogous types came into use. Its impor-
tation into Central Asia presupposes a flourishing epoch of culture III; on the
other hand, it may have been in use a long time here before it became buried in
the strata of this culture. Thus the possibilities vary and with them the chrono-
logical determination; but we need not seek much later than the middle of the
II millennium B. C. to find the latest date of the continuance of its use.

In dating the youngest culture (IV) there is to be considered an implement
which was certainly imported—the three-edged arrow-point of copper (fig. 288).
Objections might be raised to the use of this in dating an entire culture, inasmuch
as two bronze arrow-heads of the same type were also found on the acropolis of
Ghiaur Kala (plate 51, figs. 6 and 7). Here, however, the surroundings in which
they were found are entirely different and contradict in themselves the possibility
of the arrow-points being contemporaneous; otherwise one would be forced to the
assumption that the three-edged bronze arrow-heads had remained in use in those
distant regions until the middle of the first century A. D., which seems impossible.
The circumstances are different in Anau. Here the bronze arrow-heads do not in
any way fall outside of the framework of the youngest culture (IV).

A typological study of the three-edged arrow-points of bronze would be a
useful and praiseworthy undertaking; but I must confine myself here to a deter-
mination of the principal points in regard to their form, distribution, and chronology.
The three-edged arrow-points of bronze belong in the series of arrow types which
were published by P. Reinecke as Scythian (Arch. Ertesito, XVII, 1887, pp. 18 ff.,
figs. 6 and 11). They might be more properly termed Græco-Scythian, unless
one preferred to call them Southeast European, from the region in which they
originated. From there they spread in a westerly direction to Central Europe,
eastward to Central Asia, and in northern and northeastern directions to Siberia.
As regards their form, essentially two types can be distinguished. The first has
a hole through the heart of the arrow-head to receive the end of the shaft; the
second type has a shaft-socket. The variations in the two types arise from the
varied conformation of the surfaces of the sides; of the edges, which change to more
or less broad wings, and of the three lower corners, which are either truncated
or drawn out to form shorter or longer spines. These last represent the dangerous
barbs on arrow-points. In exceptional cases there is found on specimens of the
second type a special spine or barb set upon the socket and directed downwards,
such as occurs often on two-winged arrow-points. When a three-edged arrow-
point has a shaft spine, it has this barb in common with the two-winged type.
Our arrow-point of Anau represents the first type, with truncated lower corners,
and has the compact form of a bolt. This is probably the earliest.

The principal localities are the coastal regions of the Black Sea and the inland
part of Southern Russia. Here the three-edged arrow-heads belong among the
customary burial gifts in the so-called Scythian kurgan graves of the fourth cen-
tury B. C. In the celebrated kurgan of Koul-Oba there were found more than