Atlatl (pronounced: "Ott-lottle")

[craftsman]

In case you've never heard of it - considered to be a primitive weapon.

Consists of a launcher ("woomera" in Australia) about the length of one's forearm (16 - 24 in.), having a hooked back end, with a nock point, and a "dart". The handle end usually has two loops (for your fingers). It is used as a launcher for a "dart" (for hunting - or a harpoon for fishing). Mainly a North American thing (Mayans, plains indians, Eskimos), but found elsewhere.

The "dart" or harpoon is an over-sized arrow - about 5 - 6 ft. long. The nock at the tail end is an indentation, not a cut, like an arrow has for the bowstring. Claims to be accurate for dozens of yards in the hands of an experienced user, and was used to hunt mastadon, bison, and the like.

Modern atlatlists claim to be able to take out a deer just as easy as a bow-hunter can. Fishing with one, claims to be able to get up to 12 ft. under water (bows only get arrows down about 4 - 6 ft.). Tie braided line on, about 30 ft., with a float.

They sell on e-bay for $30 - $60 (one to three darts and a launcher), on primitive weapons sites - the launcher can range from $60 - $150, and darts go between $8 - $15 each.

For those familiar with it - a suggestion to combine the modern with the primitive: Use a carbon-fiber, or aluminum arrow shaft, with a modern razor sharp broadhead tip, but don't fletch it, or add in the string nock. Get a 3 - 4 ft. hardwood dowel about the same diameter as the arrow, make a knock hole in the back end, fletch the back end of the dowel, make a nock point in the front end of the dowel to fit into the nock end of the arrow (to make a two-piece dart). Now load that up on the launcher as a hunting dart. Use a target arrowhead to practice and develop your skill.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

The atlatl is NOT a primitive weapon. That is a misnomer on two levels. First, it itself isn't actually a weapon, but a launcher. The weapon is the spear or dart. Second, it is a simple component weapon, but not primitive. It takes a high amount of skill and practice to use an atlatl effectively. On top of that, as a forerunner to the bow and arrow in various parts of the world, trying to fabricate an atlalt and spears/darts requires considerable skills, espeically when using traditional tools as would have been used (stone tools if in the Americas). The atlatl may be a stick with a hook that connects to the spear/dart, but the spear/dart will include several parts including the shaft that has the foreshaft halfted to it. The foreshaft often then has a point hafted to it. The foreshafts and points are the disposable portion of the assembly.

While folks may claim to be as good with an atlatl as with a bow and arrow, I have never seen this to be true. Even if it were true for some, it would definitely not be true for the rest of us. Kind of like with shooting rifled guns versus smoothbore, the traditional spear/darts are not fletched as with arrows.

 

[Third_Rail]

Here I was, thinking that it was pronounced "attle attle". D'oh!

 

[Kingcreek]

I know a fella that has made several variations and experimented with the Atlal at some length. He has demonstrated a very powerful delivery but limited accuracy. After much use, he contends that they were probably used mostly on herds or groups of animals such as migrating bison or from fairly close range.
interesting weapons.

 

[Sunray]

"...The weapon is the spear or dart..." Nope. The spear/dart/big arrow is the projectile. Not the weapon.
"...it itself isn't actually a weapon, but a launcher..." That means that a bow or a rifle is just a launcher and the arrow or bullet is the weapon.
The oldest known atlatl is 19,000 years old and it pre-dates the bow. That is primitive. Is skill required? You bet. The same as using any projectile weapon. And there's no reason why a guy couldn't be as good with an atlatl as he is with a bow. Practice enough with any weapon and you'll get good at using it.
Modern users? Go here. http://www.flight-toys.com/atlatl.html

 

[Rabbi]

On the pronunciation:

I knew a Mexican American professor of languages years ago who had made a life's study of the Aztec language. He told me that in that language, a letter "l" in the middle of a word is pronounced like we pronounce it in English but at the end of a word as in atlatl ......... the final "l" is pronounced as "ay". Thus atlatl would sound like ottle-ottay. More Aztec words in English use are tomato/tomatl/to-mottay and coyote/coyotl/co-yoe-tay.

I'm not trying to drift, just throwing in a tid-bit based on the header.

 

[ReadyontheRight]

I was walking the dog one morning and I came across a guy practicing with his newly-made Atlatl in his front yard. I had never heard of it before and he let me try it. I could hit a tree from about 30 feet, but I didn't want to try much further since we were in the middle of a neighborhood in the city.

One Atlatl bonus -- there's no way you could practice shooting your bow or firearm in the middle of liberal Minneapolis.

Has anyone ever seen a law concerning deer hunting with an Atltl?

 

[The Undertoad]

Atlatls are pretty cool. I remember using one in sixth grade when we went to Crow Canyon and some of the Anasazi ruins... Threw spears at an archery target turkey. Missed all over the place but had the time of our lives. We got some damn good range for being 12 years old.

 

[Lone Star]

If you want to know how well the Aztecs used them, read, "The Conquest of New Spain(Mexico)", by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who was on the Cortes expedition, and had firsthand experience of them. It is the ONLY first-hand account of the Conquest, by the way, and has undergone many editions, in several languages.

He also discusses other Aztec weapons, including the obsidian-studded sword-clubs, which he said could behead a horse, as I recall.

This is a very impressive account of the incredible hardships encountered by the Spaniards in taking Mexico, and everyone should read it.

Lone Star

 

[Big_R]

If memory serves, Ahlman's sports in Southern MN has an Atlatl contest once/year. They throw spears at a life size wooly mamouth.

Ryan

 

[Fred Fuller]

Dang- they've gotten popular in the past few years-

Annotated Atlatl Bibliography
John Whittaker
http://web.grinnell.edu/anthropology/Atlatl Stuff for John/atlatlbib2003.htm

Society of Primitive Technology
http://www.primitive.org/

http://www.atlatl.com/

http://www.worldatlatl.org/

http://www.thunderbirdatlatl.com/

lpl/nc

 

[mec]

"Consists of a launcher ("woomera" in Australia) about the length of one's forearm (16 - 24 in.), having a hooked back end, with a nock point, and a "dart". The handle"
Not many people know that. In fact, your post had all the major facts Ive heard about throwing sticks. (Maybe this stuff has gotten more widespread now that they have become a commercial item. Even the Whammo Company never thought of that.}

I once said " Atlatl" to an Anthropology Professor back around 1975 and she dropped her jaw and said " Where did you ever hear about those." She had been around a lot of college types and expected ignorance. I had pronounced it "Ata La Tul" but she picked up on it right away. I think it was spelled kind of that way back then. I bet the Rabbi has the right of it. Sounds good to me, anyway.

It is a primitive weapon. We developed the concept as young savages and would pack mudballs on the end of short sticks. We could hit each other and gripey old (&((*'s at a fairly good distance.

 

[White Horseradish]

One Atlatl bonus -- there's no way you could practice shooting your bow or firearm in the middle of liberal Minneapolis

Bows aren't a problem. There's a couple of hay bales with targets on them over at the golf course near Central Avenue.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Nevada State Museum in Carson City use to have one displayed. That gallery is being redone and let's hope they bring it back.

 

[mec]

Hey! I just remembered Mr. Paladin making one to kill some guy. Don't recall the details but remember him carving it out.

 

[Lone Star]

mec-

Hey, Mike: what you said about the prof reminded me of my own anthro prof overhearing me telling another guy that I had a Stone knife. He got all excited and wanted to know if it was flint or obsidian and from which period of pre-history.

Was a little disappointed to learn that it was made by the late G.W. Stone, the blade being 440C high-carbon stainless steel, which G.W. gave his unique heat-treat for added toughness and long edge retention.

Not really atlatl related, but a parallel story, of sorts...

Lone Star

 

[VTKFJoe]

Yeah, Atlatls are tons of fun. I am and archaeologist and wanted to give one a try so I bought one from Thunderbird years ago and liked it so much I made a half dozen to give as gifts (fun to make, fun to experiment, relatively cheap but personal gifts and then I had folks to throw with ). We would go to the park and throw the darts at a tv box filled with foam. Everyone was pretty accurate to about 150' and could make occasional hits to around 250 but that was with limited practice. at 75' you could nail em every time. I was messing around in my back yard one time with my target (same or similar box) throwing at reduced speed when the dart skipped across the top of the box, contiued on its flight and then miraculously through the slats of a privacy fence and lodged in the median strip mere feet from the feet of a young boy. He was scared excrimentless. I never pracitced in my back yard again.

know your target and what lays beyond...

good clean fun though. I think I'll throw today.

 

[mec]

That reminds me of a friend who worked at a Gibson's Discount store in the mid 60s. He had ordered a reall I-talian stilletto of 13.5" lenght overall. The distributor wrote back and told him that they were no longer able to sell one that long. So, he ordered and received a japanese made 13.5" Stilletto and carried it around in his pocket all the time. One day at the store one of the other teen-aged employees got to talking about knives. He reached into his pocket to whip out the 13.5" job. The tip caught on his pocket yanking the knife open and out of his hand at the same time. It flipped over the counter and stuck quivering in the linoleum a couple of feet from a bug-eyed woman shopper.
His coworker went " Wow! Where did you learn to throw a knife like that??!!"

 

[Colt46]

Way too much fun

I attended a 'Knap in' a few years ago in Wrightwood. All sorts of interesting characters were present and had a great time. We had atlatl darts of all types and lots of primitive folks doing primitive things. The second morning three guys dragged into camp a roadkilled doe that they wanted to harvest for it's sinew and whatever else seemed valuable.
They are simple to use and amazingly long ranged. Beware of how trees and tree limbs may redirect the path of your dart. A few time I've had close calls that boggled my mind at the time.
Great exercise. Always draws a crowd and schools that shun so much as a swiss army knife or nail clippers on campus don't seem to mind you coming and giving a demonstration.

 

[Glenn Kelley]

Hunting

I know of 2 hunters that have taken hogs and deer with them.They use them in archery season.It is a fine line whether they are archery equipment so check your state regs.

 

[Trebor]

I've tried a couple different ones a couple different times. There is some skill involved in learning to use one. I'm not very good with one, but I can see where you could become very good with one with some practice. One of the guys who had one was regularly hitting archery butts at 30 or so yards.

They do make some modern versions with carbon fiber, etc. I understand they can get some truly crazy distances out of these.

 

[Dave McCracken]

These turn up worldwide, and there's a good reason. Back when our protein showed up on the hoof and oft weighing more than a ton, anything that would give more penetration was a big help.

Using a defunct circus elephant in Germany, some paloeanthropologists compared penetration between thrown spears and those propelled with a launcher. Penetration tripled with similar simple spears, and when a purpose built compound dart was used with a smaller diameter foreshaft, it quintupled.

Atlatls are not distance weapons, though they do add some to the effective range, but power weapons.Sure, they could give range, but the big advantage was leverage that could drive deep into the vitals on big, dangerous critters.

The proof of this is that worldwide as Ice Age megafauna died off or dwindled greatly, weaponry switched to bows and arrows. More gracile prey meant a distance weapon was needed, not something that can drive through a couple feet of tissue.

Atlatls are a hoot. After making a simple stick launcher, try adding a counterweight and experiment with the total length of both launcher and dart.

Great science project for kids also.