Tribal India ?

[colin henshaw]

Originally Posted by Timo Nieminen

The arrowheads look very African to me.

Strings like this are/were used in the Congo Basin (and West Africa too, I have read, but the examples I've seen have been Congo). Two examples of such strings in Traditional Archery from Six Continents (139 and 140), though the nocks are different (only one tip of the bows are shown, not the whole bows). Size is also common enough for Congo bows.

The arrows might not belong to the bow (and might not be from the same continent). The bowstring is flat, and the arrows have nocks.

Good point about the nocks and the bowstring. I have looked through the book on African archery equipment "Ata Epe" but cannot see a bow stave with those distinctive carved tips. There are some arrows illustrated with fletching a bit similar to these, however.

Any thoughts on the diminutive axe ? I should mention that the axe shaft and arrow shafts appear to be made of the same type and width of bamboo...