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His Story Collections Presents
An Ancient Bronze Arrowhead from the Age When China Became an Empire
More than two thousand years ago, an archer carried an arrow fitted with a bronze point of this form.
Its wooden shaft has long since disappeared.
The bronze survived.
Certified as a Warring States–Han period bronze double-wing arrowhead (戰漢 青銅雙翼箭鏃), this remarkable artifact measures approximately 80.4 mm in length and weighs 12.3 grams.
Its long central tang, sharply defined wings and centuries-old mineralized surfaces preserve the unmistakable character of an ancient utilitarian object.
But its historical setting makes it far more than an arrowhead.
THE STORY — BEFORE THERE WAS ONE CHINA
During the Warring States period, China was not a single empire.
Powerful kingdoms—including Qin, Chu, Zhao, Wei, Han, Yan and Qi—competed for territory and supremacy.
It was an age of extraordinary political change, technological development and warfare.
Armies grew enormously. Infantry, cavalry and crossbow forces transformed the battlefield. Bronze weapons continued to play an important role even as iron technology became increasingly significant.
Then one state prevailed.
Qin.
In 221 BC, King Zheng of Qin defeated the remaining rival kingdoms and proclaimed himself Qin Shi Huang—the First Emperor.
For the first time, the competing kingdoms were brought under a single imperial government.
China had entered the imperial age.
FROM QIN TO HAN
The Qin Empire was powerful but short-lived.
After its collapse, the Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) emerged and built one of the great empires of the ancient world.
Han armies expanded deep into Central Asia. Diplomatic missions and commercial networks reached westward, helping establish the routes that later generations would call the Silk Road.
Chinese civilization entered an age whose influence remains so profound that the majority ethnic group of China still carries the name Han.
This arrowhead is attributed broadly to that extraordinary Warring States–Han cultural horizon.
AN OBJECT MADE FOR ACTION
This was not created to sit inside a cabinet.
Its form had a purpose.
The long tang was designed to secure the bronze head to an arrow shaft, while the projecting double wings formed the working blade.
When complete, the bronze point represented only the surviving end of a much larger weapon consisting of wood, binding and fletching.
Those organic materials disappeared.
The bronze remained.
That survival gives the object an immediacy that coins often cannot provide.
A coin tells us what people spent.
An arrowhead tells us something about the technology they depended upon in an age when kingdoms were fighting for survival.
TWO THOUSAND YEARS IN BRONZE
Look closely at the surface.
Green mineralization mingles with deep brown and reddish areas accumulated during a very long history.
The sharply recognizable profile remains: pointed blade, pronounced wings and elongated tang.
At 80.4 mm, it has a particularly impressive presence for an ancient projectile point.
It is small enough to hold in your hand, yet its historical context stretches from the wars between China's ancient kingdoms through the formation of the first unified empire and into the Han world.
CERTIFICATION
Attribution: Warring States–Han Bronze Double-Wing Arrowhead
Chinese: 戰漢 青銅雙翼箭鏃
Period attribution: Warring States–Han
Historical period: approximately 5th century BC–3rd century AD
Material: Bronze
Length: 80.4 mm
Thickness/measurement: 6.0 mm
Weight: 12.3 g
Assigned Grade: 極美88
Certification No.: B001860181
Certification: 致臻 / Baocui Rating
Certification information is shown in the photographs and can be checked using the certification number/QR information provided by the grading service.
WHY COLLECT THIS PIECE?
Some historical artifacts commemorate great events after they happened.
Others were actually part of the technology of their age.
This arrowhead belongs to the second category.
Its historical attribution places it within the centuries that witnessed the final struggle of the Warring States, Qin's first unification of China, the rise of the Han Empire and the development of the networks that would become the Silk Road.
It represents warfare, technology and the birth of imperial China—all within a single surviving piece of ancient bronze.
HIS STORY COLLECTIONS
At His Story Collections, we believe history becomes most powerful when it can be encountered through the objects people actually made, carried and used.
From ancient coins and personal ornaments to medals and historical artifacts, our collection explores the human stories preserved within surviving objects.
Carry History With You.
