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Ferrous arrowheads and their oil quench hardening: Some early Indian evidence

  • Archaeotechnology
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Abstract

A wide variety of ferrous arrowheads were in use in ancient India. Several typical chemical analyses of arrowheads found from archaeological excavation carried out at Kaushambi are reported in this paper. The average carbon content of these arrowheads varied from as low as 0.1 wt.% to approximately 0.9 wt.%. Literary evidence for oil quench hardening of ferrous arrowheads, as reported in famous Sanskrit epics—the Rāmāyana and the Mahābhārata—have been discussed in this paper. This type of quench hardening was intentionally adopted as it helped in preventing distortion and formation of quench cracks in arrowheads. The oil quench-hardened arrowheads were rubbed on stones to sharpen them, which also brought about tempering of martensite due to frictional heat.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 208016, India

    R. K. Dube

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