Arrow Cresting History?

[Adam Mooney]

OK Gang, He is a little home work I need to get done and I need some help. I need to find out who, What, When and Where the first Arrow Cresting Was ever done. Or some thing real close to the first time it was found. Is this a doable thing. What I'm doing is studying the history of this subject. Any help would be great. Also if anyone know where to look for it so I can look as well so much the better. Thank youall in advance

[Pete Darby]

Cresting goes back to the romans at least.  Here is a link to a report on some roman arrows.

 http://www.romanarmy.net/arrows.htm

[pointy sticks]

It's my belief that cresting on arrows goes back to the medevil times. The kings had arrow smith's who would do nothing but mass produce arrows for the archer's. Each arrowsmith developed his own cresting design to distinguish his arrows from the next. Some would say that the cresting would be division specific as each arrowsmith supplied a different division or platoon/legon  of the army.  Quality products were favored by the archers in battle. It was not uncommon for an archer to go to the battle front carrying a bundle of arrows on pack horse, archers where considered the earliest form of artillery  as they could effectively strike from longer distances. Thus keeping the mounted and foot soldiers out of the battle until the enemy forces were reduced.

[JBiorn]

Nope, the Ancient Mayans and Aztecs were doing it even before the Romans. Not to mention the Chinese(Mongols).

 Jeff

[Jake H]

One request:

Please cite references to back up the stories.   It's easy to say "well, the ancient Toltecs invented cresting as a way of magically associating the arrow with the colored rings on their field archery targets", but  I COULD just be making that up too.

There are SO many myths and so much bull effluent out there it'd be nice to know WHERE the information is coming from.

Jake
(who IS kidding about the Toltecs)

[Adam Mooney]

Thanks guys Ill do some research also and see what solid evidence I can come up with.