This chert hollow-based point is from Escoural Cave, Portugal.  The arrowhead was excavated from a Neolithic burial in the cave dating to ca. 5000-5500 BP.

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This hollow-based point was found in association with one of the Neolithic burials in Escoural Cave.  Caves in southwestern Iberian peninsula were frequently used to bury the dead during the Neolithic period, ca. 5000-7500 BP.  In some cases, bodies were placed on the floor of the cave with burial goods.  In other cases, bodies were defleshed elsewhere and the skulls places in niches within the cave.  It appears that, over time, bones were moved to the sides to make room for new bodies.  More than 50 individuals were interred in Escoural Cave from ca. 5000-5500 BP, during the Neolithic period.

In Portugal, hollow-based points are classified as Group 3—concave-based arrowheads—subdivided into categories A or B based on the degree of concavity.  The point in this model is classified as Group 3B.  The point was made by non-invasive pressure flaking on a thin platy piece or flat flake.  Triangular and hollow-based points continued to be made into the Chalcolithic period.  For instance, at the Chalcolithic hill fort enclosure of Zambujal, ca. 3700-4500 BP, some 1037 stone arrowheads have been recovered, many of them hollow-based.  Archaeologists have suggested that this was the result of armed conflict at the site using bows-and-arrows.

The hollow-based arrowhead is part of the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia collections, Lisbon, Portugal.  Scale approximate.