WARNING! Atlatls or spearthrowers are LETHAL weapons. They are not toys. They were used to kill ancient bison and mammoth and were the weapon most feared by Spanish Conquistadors in South America because they are armor piercing. They will make your arm effectively 2 ½ times stronger. The distance and force of a thrown spear will be 2 ½ times greater than without it. The beginner will not have much control over where the spear lands and it will probably go further and have more force than expected. I threw one for the first time and accidentally put a hole in my garage door, not expecting it to fly as far or with as much force as it did. One local archaeologist accidentally put a spear through a metal 55 gallon drum the first time that she threw one. Do not use it with less respect than a bow and arrow or a gun. Atlatls are used to hunt deer in Minnesota and are sold in some archery stores. An atlatl will initially be much less accurate than either a gun or a bow and arrow. Use in a wide open area with nothing and no one that you do not want to accidentally kill. Use only with adult supervision. Build and use at your own risk.

ATLATLS AND MINNESOTA PETROGLYPHS

The Jeffers Petroglyphs in southwestern Minnesota have been dated to between 5000 years ago and 2500 years ago because of the representations of nearly 100 atlatls. This is known as the Archaic period in Minnesota and the atlatl probably was in use when the first Native Americans arrived. Mammoth bones have been recovered in Minnesota but no spearpoints embedded in the remains have been found yet. Clovis spearpoints have been found in Mammoth remains in the Southwest. A wooden atlatl has been found in Nevada that was 8500 years old.

Atlatls and game depicted at Jeffers.

The Jeffers atlatls are represented with "banner stones" and finger loops. It has been suggested by one author that the banner stones were like a "silencer" making the swishing sound less apparent as the spear was thrown at an animal or enemy in front of the thrower, much like a bowstring silencer. The "banner stones" may also have been status symbols or helped balance the atlatl when a spear was held in position for a long time. Some have argued that the weight improved the flex and the physics of the atlatl, increasing the distance a spear could be thrown.

Atlatls were in use in the Upper Paleolithic in Europe 14,000 years ago and one author has suggested that it may have replaced the only slightly less efficient Baton de Commandment that may have been used to throw spears from 25,000 years ago up to the invention of the atlatl. According to Pascal Chauvaux: "Spearthrower use is evidenced during the Upper Paleolithic of western Europe, from the Upper Solutrean (±17,500 BP) until the beginning of the Upper Magdalenian (±12,500 BP) in southwest France, Switzerland, eastern Germany, and Spain (Cattelain 1988, 1989; Cattelain and Stodiek 1996; Stodiek 1993). Only the distal extremities of spearthrowers, which were made of antler, bone or ivory, have been recovered; the handles, presumably made of wood, have not been found. Intact specimens show shaping (for example, bevels and perforations) indicative of hafting (Stodiek 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993). Study of macroscopic traces of use has shown that these objects bear the same wear traces as those found on ethnographic spearthrowers (Cattelain 1986, 1991)." The Aztecs had an entire arm of their army outfitted with atlatls and representations of atlatl warriors or duelists appear near the entrance to at least one Aztec stadium. The word "atlatl" is thought to be an Aztec word and the correct pronunciation according to one scholar is probably "atl-atl" rather than "at-latl."

An atlatl , which is shaped like a large 2 foot long crocheting needle, is grasped in the throwing hand with the hook placed in the end of a spear or dart. The index finger and thumb grasp the spear which lies on top of the atlatl. The last three fingers of the hand grasp the atlatl. The spear is thrown overhand just like throwing a baseball.

With practice some people can regularly hit a 4 inch square target at 120 feet. A spear thrown for distance can increase that by many times. The current world champion atlatl distance thrower lives in Bloomington Minnesota. There is a national atlatl organization that holds throwing competitions. Their motto is "I will hunt mammoth alone no longer." If you ever use an atlatl use CAUTION and BE CAREFUL. Like javelins, archery, or guns, accidents do happen with atlatls.