Experiments in the function and performance of the weighted atlatl

Abstract The atlatl (or spearthrower) has been used on one continent or another for at least 13,000 years, making it one of the most pervasive weapons in human history. Yet, anthropologists disagree onhow to wield an atlatl, and about the purpose of stone weights often attached to prehistoric examples of this weapon in North America. This paper briefly reviews the contributions and oversights of previous experiments and models on the function of atlatls and atlatl weights. I conducted three new experiments with replicas of prehistoric weapons to describe how an atlatl operates and to assess the performance of a weighted atlatl versus an unweighted atlatl. The results indicate that a weighted atlatl cannot launch a dart (or spear) significantly further than an unweighted atlatl. However, physical models do suggest that a weighted atlatl will hurl a dart more accurately than an unweighted atlatl. Additionally, a comparison of the performance of the atlatl and dart with the bow and arrow provides insight to ...

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