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Specialized arrowheads for carrying incendiary material, Roman Empire, 1st-2nd century AD?
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this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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Historical Artifacts
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The way they're often used in movies by firing basic flaming arrows into groups of soldiers is often not accurate(although there are records of East Asian troops using gunpowder based rocket arrows against soldiers).
However, flaming arrows have been historically used in sieges for a long time. We have records going back 2700 years of arrows having something tied around the tip that was soaked in oil and lit on fire. Just look at the posted picture, those are real "cage" style flaming arrows
We even have actual examples of arrows from the 1400s with a saltpeter compound on it that burns under water.