Large arrow or spear for I.D
 

It's about 5 feet long !!

At first I thought it was a spear, but it is so light I just cannot see getting any weight behind a blow.
As you can see it is also notched, which suggests to me that it is designed for a bow and not to be thrown or launched from some sort of spear thrower.

The head is carved bamboo and the shaft is some type of hollow reed, as I said, very light.

To me it is similar to New Guinea items in construction, but the wood is wrong and I have never seen them fletched.

South American perhaps ? I know nothing about this area and am not allowed to look at Amazons :D :D

All suggestions welcome

Regards
Roy

Amazon. Picture from Amazonien, Museum fur Volkerkunde Dresden, Paracana. Like you I have read that Melanesian arrows are raerly fletched.

Thanks Tim

That looks about right

Roy

Hi Roy,

New Guinea arrows are easy, because they aren't fletched. They may not be nocked either, because some PNG tribes use a strip of rattan rather than a string to string their bows.

That said, you do have to watch out for modern atlatl darts, which look like oversized arrows.

That's not what this is, though. Tim nailed it.

Best,

F