 Perhaps the greatest weapon in the arsenal of human beings across the course of time and history is in fact the arrow. As long as history can stretch, men have armed themselves with weapons of defense, hunt and play, an essential tool in development of people to survive. A thousand years before Christ, the Assyrians dominated large regions of our world. Their culture and development swept the land in a dominant sweep. The knowledge they brought to the Near East punctuated a sudden explosion of hope and this includes the use of arrows. They came, they conquered, and when they left, others rose up by simply implementing the study of the things that came to pass. Wait, do you hear this? Tens and thousands of years probably passed before the Assyrians emerged in the cultural evolution of our kind. During that time, arrowheads were in constant use, but the Assyrians are responsible for one of the most dramatic adaptations of a tool or weapon that the world had ever seen. Basic, effective, dramatic. The change? Arrowheads and sockets were cast as a single point. This made for perfect connection to the shaft, better accuracy, more power, and far better dynamics in the air, meaning a better, longer, more powerful shot over long distances with better accuracy that were capable of penetrating thick armor. Prior to this connection, trying and gluing the arrowhead was common practice. The more reliable Assyrian method is far more lethal in every manner and aspect. A simple change but a dramatic change that would see the Assyrians rise up to great heights in the game of empires. Archaeologists studying the phenomena at Tel Aviv University recently completed assembling a full guide to ancient arrowheads. Found over the years in Israel from the late Iron Age through to the early Second Temple period, tracing the evolution of this key weapon in the Biblical period. The new cast bronze socket and arrowhead that appeared in the 7th century BC is known as the Scytho-Iranian Arrowhead and also featured an improved aerodynamic shape with 3 veins, enabling the arrow to spin during flight, diminishing the effects of side winds. The arrowhead therefore had excellent flight capabilities and could even penetrate armor from a distance of many dozens of meters. Effectively, these Scytho-Iranian arrows were the first artillery in the sense that they could kill large numbers of enemies from a distance of several dozen meters. Their effectiveness was also a result of the use of powerful bows of the period when the bow was composed of a number of pieces of wood and was carried unstrong by the archer to the battlefield. The bowstring was strong on the bow shortly before the fight to not lose tension and this projectile assembly was so effective that it continued to serve the armies of countries and empires in the region for well over 500 years. Thousands of these arrowheads were found in dozens of archaeological sites in Israel and its neighboring countries but until now the subtypes of Scytho-Iranian arrowheads had not been classified. The research was published in the Israeli Exploration Journal by two professors leading the investigation from the Tel Aviv University Archaeology Department who analyzed and classified the arrowheads, categorizing them by type of army and period. The Scytho-Iranian arrowhead arrived on the northeastern historical stage in the seventh century before the birth of Christ and these researchers think that it may have been brought to the region by missionaries in the Assyrian army hailing from the northern parts of the Assyrian Empire which includes parts of modern-day Iraq and Kurdistan. Later this arrowhead was adopted by mighty Babylonian soldiers who rebelled against Assyria and established a new empire. 604 years before the birth of Christ when the Babylonians destroyed Ascalon they used Scytho-Iranian arrowheads which were found in the excavations recently carried out by archaeologists piecing together the lost history of our kind. However the archaeologists did notice that the arrows found in Jerusalem from the year the first temple was destroyed 586 BC less than 20 years after the conquest of Ascalon were a variant type of the Scytho-Iranian arrow even though this was the same army. According to the Babylonian inscription in 601 the Babylonians tried to conquer Egypt and failed and the entire army was defeated and retreated. 600 years before the birth of Christ Nebuchadnezzar writes in the Babylonian Chronicles that he is not going on military campaigns and instead he is rebuilding the army. The result of this rebuilding are the arrows we find in Jerusalem which are more sophisticated. Later bronze socketed arrowheads would be adopted by the Persian Empire which employed them in its war with the Greeks with many such arrowheads being discovered in the battlefield at Marathon. This type of projectile technology would only be superseded with the advent of Alexander the Great. Over time the empires improved their manufacturing capabilities for arrowheads as the great games of old played out people's lives as if they were nothing which actually became more standardized at the time. It seems they came from imperial factories that produced the weapons. The improvement was seen in the development of different types of arrowheads. One type was intended for penetrating body armor. Another type had barbs that made it difficult to pull out of the body which would cause a serious wound and a third type was meant for more accurate fire from a great distance. This type of artillery until the firing engines arrived in the 4th century BC such as the Catapults and the Ballista. This is a decisive weapon. Imagine a rain of arrows. Imagine just the noise it makes. It creates a very powerful effect. One of the researchers was quoted as saying, It's like finding a bullet from an M16 or Kalyshnikov. You can learn from it not just about these weapons but also who were the soldiers who were here. It is possible to connect it to certain armies and certain periods and I am already receiving requests from archaeologists in Jordan in Israel and other places asking me about the dating and identification of the arrowheads they found. Now when you find an arrowhead it gives you a lot more possibilities to analyze and understand it. That is all from us for the moment guys. The research appears online as reported by hearts and we just wanted to bring this to the attention of our subscribers. Comments below and as always thank you for watching.