Atlatls have a deep history in the Big Bend as evidenced by the recent 6,000-year-old example from San Esteban Rockshelter. Like most weapons, the atlatl can be constructed in different ways for different things, like hunting rabbits, fishing, or warfare. But its ballistics, including its potential to kill massive animals like wooly mammoths, are not well understood.
Archaeologists at CBBS are helping to unravel this weapon’s potential by measuring the velocities of modern people, which forms a baseline for understanding the minimum that was possible in the past. This research shows that when heavier darts are paired with strong and skilled throwers, they become lethal to very large animals like mammoths, while smaller and lighter darts are easier to use by a larger segment of the population and were effective against smaller prey like deer and rabbits. This has implications for how people organized and adapted to their surroundings in the past.
Check out the new publication in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology by CBBS’ Dr. Devin Pettigrew! Follow the link below:
