The earliest ones were thin and leaf-shaped with a reinforced ovoid middle vein and cast with teeth (thin protrusions at the base of the spearhead) that entered a slit at the end of the spear shaft.
In addition to its use as a hunting tool, the spear appears in almost every culture that has ever participated in mass combat.
They were cheap to produce, relatively easy to use, and very effective in combat. In archaeological discourse, spears are often distinguished from lances by their use: Spears are piercing weapons, lances are throwing weapons. Consequently, spearheads tend to be heavier and stronger than spear points, although there are many overlaps.
By the middle or late British Bronze Age (1500-700 BC), the spearhead took many different forms, including the addition of lateral or basal loops in a similar fashion to Bronze Age axe points. Blades could be shaped like leaves, triangles, thorns, or flames.
In Britain, bronze tools and throwing or piercing weapons (including spearheads) continued to be produced even into the Celtic Iron Age (after about 700 BC), as iron was preferred for bladed and cutting weapons such as swords, knives, and rapiers.
Spearheads are among the most beautiful artifacts of the Late Bronze Age. The example on the left was discovered in a hoard of Bronze Age artifacts in Hampshire, and is now in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.