One afternoon while I was rambling on and on about why archaeologists are particularly well-adapted to post-apocalyptic situations, I started to describe the general mechanics and uses of an atlatl. (In the event of a zombie apocalypse, it would be my weapon of choice, as the weapon itself and the ammunition are very easily made [well, ok, easily made by someone who knows where to get the materials].)
One wouldn’t think a seven foot long dart would be a very accurate weapon, especially when used in conjunction with a weird lever thing, but I’ve heard the stories, and I’ve seen the pictures, and these suckers could pack a wallop.
Easy pronunciation - AT - LAT - UL like you’re saying the end of “little.” The guy who taught my class to use them has a fish tale about atlatl use that I’m more than a little inclined to believe - he once skewered a carp as it leaped out of the water.
They were also pretty much used everywhere and predate the bow and arrow. The projectile points that people tend to find synonymous with prehistory were probably used for atlatls and not arrows. It makes sense, if you’ve ever held a dart point in one hand and an arrow point in the other - arrow points are pretty tiny, especially compared to dart points, and if you tried to stick a four or five inch point on a two and a half foot arrow, it probably wouldn’t go very far. Rocks are heavy, yo.
It’s one reason, among others, that projectile points aren’t referred to as arrowheads anymore. I probably shouldn’t even be calling them projectile points, because there’s really no way to know if the bifacially flaked diagnostic stone tools were even used as projectiles. Many of them just as likely spent their use lives as knives, scrapers, or ceremonial possessions.
Overall, the atlatl darts are pretty much the same as an arrow. They have the basic point, shaft, and fletching, though the nock is usually a depression that will sit on the spur at the butt-end of the atlatl. The difference is mostly in scale. Atlatl darts are usually somewhere around six or seven feet in length.
The atlatl itself can have a couple different forms, but most will be a length of wood, bone, or antler about the length of the arm or a little longer. At the butt-end will be the spur that the butt of the arrow will sit on. Sometimes a weight will be placed toward the middle to give a little more power to the throw. At the front, either a y-shaped cut or a groove holds the dart in place along the shaft as the thrower prepares the swing.
The physics of it are complex and I’m sure very fun for people who like physics, but the moral of the story is this: the atlatl just makes your arm longer. Since the arm is longer, the swing to throw the dart is longer, and there is more force behind the throw. It’s basically like winding up for a pitch - there’s a difference in the power of the throw if you wind up or if you just sort of lob the ball with half your arm.
So that might have been a long, convoluted, and over-thought explanation for why the atlatl is my weapon of choice in case of zombies. There are other benefits - like not having to learn how to use the bow and arrow and put up with those pesky armguards, right Hawkeye…
