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. The world champion reportedly threw a dart 848.56 feet (almost 3 football fields) with one of these.
To see a petroglyph of an atlatl see Atlatl Rock Petroglyphs, Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada
To see a museum specimen of an atlatl go to An Atlatl at the Chicago Museum of Natural History
For a 10 second Quicktime movie (.mov) of me throwing a dart with an atlatl (200k in size) click here or for a better 307k .mov file Click here. For a larger format (320 x 280 pixels and 335k) movie Click here. This requires a Quicktime viewer.
ATLATLS OR SPEARTHROWERS IN PREHISTORIC MINNESOTA(article by Kevin Callahan)
© 1997 call0031@tc.umn.edu
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