File:Barbed and Tanged Arrowhead.jpg

Throughout the Neolithic period archery was used for both hunting and combat. There is evidence of arrows being used to attack Neolithic settlements and of others found in skeletons. The arrow remained the preferred weapon of the warrior into the early Bronze Age. A number of burials beneath barrows from this period seem to celebrate the archer. Such graves often contain arrowheads, an archer's wrist guard and a dagger, all of which were usually finely crafted. As the Bronze age progressed, daggers and then spears and swords appear to have replace bows and arrows as favoured weapons and potent symbols of the warrior. The lozenge-shaped arrowhead shown HCA 017 has its tip snapped off, a common form of damage when a flint hits its target. Damaged arrowheads were often rejuvenated by additional flaking, which may account for the asymmetry of the barbed and tanged arrowhead HCA 036