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The debris of war. Excavators have found hundreds of arrowheads like these all over Masada. The largest concentrations, including a group of more than 200, came from two rooms in the western palace (rooms 442 and 456), identified by the author as a Zealot smithy. The arrowheads range from .5 to 2 inches long and from .5 to .75 inch wide at the tips of the barbs. Their light weight indicates that they were fired from manually powered bows rather than from catapults.

A metallurgical test on one arrowhead showed that it was not hardened by quenching in water during the manufacturing process, reflecting a low-quality level of smithing during the Roman period.