The Sagittarii Holmiae had the honor today, to be shown the historical archery material at the Stockholm Museum of History.

Ph.D. Archeology Elisabet Regner, Senior Curator at the museum, gave us a very special
tour, including showing us some of the archery material from the museum’s collections, usually not shown for visitors.

Above a sami hunting bow (flatbow) from around 1,000 AD, is displayed, along with some arrowheads. Detail right. Arrowheads below.

Above a medieval longbow (14th or 15th century), probably a hunting bow.

Above, the skull of a soldier, fallen at the battle of Visby in 1361. The skull is penetrated by an arrow from a crossbow.

Perhaps most exciting was the remains of this heavy bow (above), which I would argue is probably a warbow. Made of pine, the bow is believed to originate från the period 500-800 AD. This however is unclear, since it hasn’t been examined using the C14-method.

Medieval arrowheads. A chain-mail penetrating needle-head left, an armour-piercing bodkin-head middle and maybe a hunting arrowhead to the right.

The visit was truly an exciting moment for all of us. We extend our deepest gratitude towards dr. Regner and the staff of the museum, arranging this unique visit for us. Special thanks to Program Manager Li Kolker, who put us in contact with dr. Regner!