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Atlatl

 

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Atlatl



 
 
An atlatl (from Nahuatl
Nahuatl language

Nahuatl is a group of related languages and dialects of the Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.Collectively they are spoken by an estimated Nahua peoples, most of whom live in Central Mexico....
 ahtlatl ; in English pronounced or ) or spear-thrower is a tool
Tool

A broad definition of a tool is an entity used to interface between two or more domains that facilitates more effective action of one domain upon the other....
 that uses lever
Lever

In physics, a lever is a rigid object that is used with an appropriate fulcrum or wiktionary:pivot point to multiply the mechanical force that can be applied to another object....
age to achieve greater velocity in dart
Dart

Dart may refer to:* Dart , a concave deltoid* Dart , a type of missile thrown or shot* SSM-A-23 Dart, wire-guided missile anti-tank guided missile...
-throwing, and includes a bearing surface which allows the user to temporarily store energy
Energy

In physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of Work_ that can be performed by a force. Energy is an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law....
 during the throw. It consists of a shaft with a cup or a spur, which may be integrated into the weapon or made separately and attached, in which the butt of the projectile, properly called a dart, rests.






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Atlatl
An atlatl (from Nahuatl
Nahuatl language

Nahuatl is a group of related languages and dialects of the Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.Collectively they are spoken by an estimated Nahua peoples, most of whom live in Central Mexico....
 ahtlatl ; in English pronounced or ) or spear-thrower is a tool
Tool

A broad definition of a tool is an entity used to interface between two or more domains that facilitates more effective action of one domain upon the other....
 that uses lever
Lever

In physics, a lever is a rigid object that is used with an appropriate fulcrum or wiktionary:pivot point to multiply the mechanical force that can be applied to another object....
age to achieve greater velocity in dart
Dart

Dart may refer to:* Dart , a concave deltoid* Dart , a type of missile thrown or shot* SSM-A-23 Dart, wire-guided missile anti-tank guided missile...
-throwing, and includes a bearing surface which allows the user to temporarily store energy
Energy

In physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of Work_ that can be performed by a force. Energy is an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law....
 during the throw. It consists of a shaft with a cup or a spur, which may be integrated into the weapon or made separately and attached, in which the butt of the projectile, properly called a dart, rests. It is held near the end farthest from the cup, and the dart is thrown by the action of the upper arm and wrist. A well-made atlatl can readily achieve ranges of greater than 100 meters and speeds of over 150 km/h.

Design

Atlatl designs may include improvements such as thong loops to fit the fingers, the use of flexible shafts, stone balance weights and thinner, highly flexible darts for added power and range. Darts resemble large arrows or thin spears and are typically from 1.2 to 2.7 meters (4 to 9 feet) in length and 9 to 16 millimetre (3/8” to 5/8”) in diameter.

Another important improvement to the atlatl's design was the introduction of a small weight (between 60 and 80 grams) strapped to its midsection. Some atlatlists maintain that stone weights add mass to the shaft of the device, causing resistance to acceleration when swung, which results in a more forceful and accurate launch of the dart. Other atlatlists claim that atlatl weights add only stability to a cast which results in greater accuracy.

Based on previous work done by William S. Webb, William R. Perkins claims that atlatl weights, commonly called "Bannerstone
Bannerstone

Bannerstones are artifact s usually found in the Eastern United States that are characterized by a centered hole in a symmetrically shaped carved or ground stone....
s," are artifacts characterized by a centered hole in a symmetrically shaped carved or ground stone, shaped wide and flat with a drilled hole a little like a large wing nut, are a rather ingenious improvement to the design that created a silencing effect when swung, lowering the frequency of the telltale "zip" of an atlatl in use to a more subtle "woof" sound that did not travel as far and was less likely to alert prey or other humans. Robert Berg’s theory is that the bannerstone was carried by hunters as a spindle
Spindle (textiles)

A spindle is a wooden spike weighted at one end with a circular whorl; it may have an optional hook at either end of the spike. It is used for spinning wool and other fibers into yarn....
 weight to produce string from natural fibers gathered while hunting, for the purpose of tying on fletching and hafting stone or bone points.

History

Wooden dart
Dart (missile)

Darts are missile weapons, designed to fly such that a sharp, often weighted point will strike first. They can be distinguished from Javelin s by fletching and a shaft that is shorter and/or more flexible, and from arrows by the fact that they are not of the right length to use with a normal bow....
s were known at least since the Middle Paleolithic
Paleolithic

The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic or "Old Stone" era is a Prehistory era distinguished by the development of the first stone tools, and covers roughly 99% of human history....
  (Schöningen
Schöningen

Sch?ningen is a city of 13,000 inhabitants in the district of Helmstedt , Lower Saxony, Germany. In its current form, it was created in 1974 by joining the municipalities of Esbeck, Hoiersdorf, and Sch?ningen....
, Torralba, Clacton-on-Sea
Clacton-on-Sea

Clacton-on-Sea is the largest town on the Tendring Peninsula, in Essex, England and was founded in 1871. It is a seaside resort that attracted many tourists in the 1960s and '70s, but which like other English resorts has been in decline since foreign holidays became more fashionable and affordable making it more popular as a retirement hotsp...
 and Kalambo Falls
Kalambo Falls

Kalambo Falls on the Kalambo River is a 772ft single drop waterfall on the border of Zambia and Tanzania at the southeast end of Lake Tanganyika....
). While the atlatl is capable of casting a dart well over 100 meters, it is most accurately used at distances of 20 meters or less. An atlatl dart is capable of killing even the largest of animals at any distance that its thrower is capable of accurately reaching since more power is applied to longer shots than shorter shots. The accuracy of the atlatl and dart tends to decrease as the distance increases. The atlatl is believed to have been in use since the Upper Paleolithic (c.
Circa

Circa means "in approximately", generally referring to a year. It is widely used in genealogy and historical writing, when the dates of events are approximately known....
 30,000 BC). Most stratified European finds come from the Magdalenian
Magdalenian

The Magdalenian, also spelled Magdal?nien, refers to one of the later archaeological cultures of the Upper Paleolithic in western Europe. It is named after the type site of La Madeleine, a rock shelter located in the V?z?re valley, commune of Tursac, in the Dordogne department of France....
 (late upper Palaeolithic). In this period, elaborate pieces, often in the form of animals, are common. The earliest known example is a 27,000 year-old atlatl made of reindeer antler and found in France.

In Europe, the atlatl and dart was replaced by the bow
Bow (weapon)

A bow is a weapon that projects arrows powered by the elasticity of the bow. Essentially, it is a form of Spring . As the bow is drawn, energy is stored in the limbs of the bow and transformed into rapid motion when the string is released, with the string transferring this force to the arrow....
 and arrow
Arrow

An arrow is a pointed projectile that is shot with a bow . It predates recorded history and is common to most cultures....
 in the Epi-Paleolithic. Along with improved ease-of-use, the bow offered the advantage that the bulk of elastic energy is stored in the throwing device, rather than the projectile; arrow shafts can therefore be much smaller, and have looser tolerance
Tolerance (engineering)

Engineering tolerance is the permissible limit of variation in# a physical dimension,# a measured value or physical property of a material, manufacturing object, system, or service,...
s for spring
Spring (device)

A spring is an Elasticity object used to store mechanical energy. Springs are usually made out of hardened steel. Small springs can be wound from pre-hardened stock, while larger ones are made from annealing steel and hardened after fabrication....
 constant and weight distribution than atlatl darts. This allowed for more forgiving flint
Flint (tool)

Chipped stone tools were made by stone age peoples worldwide. Paleolithic tools were relatively simple, repeated small flakes being struck or pressed from a cobble or nucleus until the required shape was achieved....
 knapping: dart heads designed for a particular spear thrower tend to differ in mass by only a few percent.

The atlatl has been used by early Native Americans as well. It seems to have been introduced during the immigration across the Bering Land Bridge
Bering land bridge

The Bering land bridge was a land bridge roughly 1,000 miles north to south at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at various times during the Pleistocene ice ages....
, a wide section of exposed seabed that connected Asia and North America during the last Ice Age. The word atlatl is derived from a Nahuatl
Nahuatl language

Nahuatl is a group of related languages and dialects of the Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.Collectively they are spoken by an estimated Nahua peoples, most of whom live in Central Mexico....
 word for "water thrower," as it was most commonly used for fishing. The Aztecs reinvented the atlatl after the arrival of the Spanish conquistador
Conquistador

Conquistador is the name given to the Spaniards soldiers, leaders, List of explorers, and adventurers involved in the conquest of the Americas following the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492....
es and it was used extensively during the resulting war. History shows that the Spanish feared the Aztec atlatl above all other weapons. Many unfortunate Spaniards were surprised to find the power of the weapon, which proved deadly even though it couldn't penetrate Spanish metal armor. The Inuit
Inuit

Inuit is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, Russia and Alaska, United States....
, tribes of the Northwest Coast, as well as south Florida native people, utilized atlatls in historical times as well. Complete wooden spearthrowers have been found on dry sites in the western USA, and in waterlogged environments in Florida
Florida

Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
 and Washington
Washington

Washington is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute....
.

The people of New Guinea
New Guinea

New Guinea, located just north of Australia, is the List of islands by area, having become separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the last glacial period....
 and Australian Aborigines used spearthrowers as well. Australian Aboriginal spearthrowers are known as woomera
Woomera (spear-thrower)

A woomera is an Australian Indigenous Australians spear-throwing device usually used for larger prey or when there is a greater distance to be overcome....
s
.

The Shoshone of the Great Basin used this as well.

As well as its practical use as a hunting weapon, it may also have played an important role in human evolution
Human evolution

Human evolution, or anthropogenesis, is the part of biological evolution concerning the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species from other hominans, great apes and placental mammals....
. John Whittaker, an anthropologist at Grinnell College, Iowa, suggests the device was a social equaliser in that it requires skill rather than mere muscle power. Thus women and children would also have been able to participate actively in hunting.

Modern times

In modern times, some people have resurrected the spearthrower for sport
Sport

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of regulation of sport or traditions and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome , but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports and motor...
s, throwing either for distance and/or for accuracy. Throws of almost 260
1 E2 m

To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists lengths between 100 metre and 1 kilometre.1 E+1 m...
 m (850 ft) have been recorded. There are numerous tournaments, with spears and spearthrowers built with both ancient and with modern materials. Similar devices are available to throw tennis ball
Tennis ball

A tennis ball is a ball designed for the sport of tennis, approximately 6.7 cm in diameter and is normally yellow in color....
s for dogs to chase, and in the sport of jai alai
Jai alai

Jai alai . The term is used to denote a fronton used to play a variety of Basque Pelota called Zesta Punta, and, more broadly, to the game itself....
.

The World Atlatl Association stages an annual event of spear-throwing.

See also
  • Hunter-gatherer societies
    Hunter-gatherer

    A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary List of subsistence techniques involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either....
  • Dual-use technology
Atlatl are sometimes used in modern times for hunting. There are meetings and events where people can throw darts. There is one in Rhode Island
Rhode Island

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a U.S. state in the New England region of the United States....
 and one in Lexington held yearly. In the U.S., the Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a U.S. state located in the Northeastern United States and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States....
 Game Commission has given preliminary approval for the legalization of the atlatl for hunting certain animals. Final approval would come in April 2006. The animals that would be allowed to atlatl hunters have yet to be determined, but attention is focused on deer
Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae . A number of broadly similar animals from related families within the order even-toed ungulate are often also called deer....
. There are some who object, stating that the atlatl is rarely capable of a clean kill, resulting in undue suffering for the sport animal, though these detractors ignore the fact that the atlatl was a weapons system designed to bring down animals weighing up to 9 tons and penetration power tests have shown them to be more than capable of taking down a deer. Currently, only Alabama
Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the Southern United States of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west....
 allows the atlatl for deer hunting, while a handful of other states list the device as legal for rough fish (those not sought for sport or food), some game birds and non-game mammals. Missouri allows use of the Atlatl for hunting wildlife except deer and turkey.

The woomera
Woomera (spear-thrower)

A woomera is an Australian Indigenous Australians spear-throwing device usually used for larger prey or when there is a greater distance to be overcome....
 is still used today by some Australian Aborigines for hunting in remote parts of Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. Yup'ik Eskimo hunters still use the Atlatl, known locally as "nuqaq" (nook-ak), in villages near the mouth of the Yukon River for seal hunting.

See also

  • Aztec warfare


  • Woomera (spear-thrower)
    Woomera (spear-thrower)

    A woomera is an Australian Indigenous Australians spear-throwing device usually used for larger prey or when there is a greater distance to be overcome....


External links

  • .
  • ("Il lancio con il propulsore")