I was under the impression that atlatls were stricktly Paleo. But I have been reading some stuff that makes me think they used atlatls up until they made bows and arrows. Any one want to straighten me out?

Travis
You are staighter than an arrow.I think they used them until dart or spear points were not used for hunting.

From materials I have read and studied, it appears that the sophistication of the socket joint and weights were not well refined until archaic times, so I tend to think of the atlatal as more an archaic product than paleo.....so it would appear a bit more the other way around. I don't know of anyone that has found atlatal weights within a true paleo layer.

If your studying weapon development and believe that
" NECESITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION " You gotta consider that a guy running up to stab a Mammoth in the knee with a hand spear would have to
be thinking . . . . .

" THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY TO DO THIS ! "

Yeah, his buddy probably said, "maybe next time you should stab him in his vitals"

........more runnin than stabbin

STAB STAB .. SQUISH!

2 to the knee.. then a mammoth foot to the head!



Michelle

Atlatl is an Aztec word like coyote or chocotate. Cortez and his men learned what an atlatl was the hard way. I think some of survivors of deSoto met some atlatl users near the mouth of the Mississippi.

The events of Cortez and Desoto further serve in exampled time periods (late woodlands to historic) of Atlatal use that reaches back into Archaic times,....but Paleo remains highly questionable.
Well constructed, the Atlatal spear could be hurled
at more than twice the velocity of single pole hand
thrown spears. Many cultures used them to drop
buffalo across the plains of the midwest to harpooning big fish in ocean shallow surf. Although
Atlatals were also used in asia and africa,and austrailia, I have still not found indication of use in the western paleo time period as we know it.

one of the reasons I thought they were used during Paleo times is because a recent documentary that came on tv not to long ago showed the paleo indians using them. Plus I always thought that clovis, folsom points were used with an atlatl.

Trav, I was watching the science documentary on the other channel
No early atlatl, mainly hurl and hope [ run ! ]

Jim's input is interesting, I always thought the bow and arrows were the primary weapons system by the
age of the Conquistadors ! I am pretty sure about this as its well documented by
professionals. . . . . When was the last time anyone ever saw an atlatl in a hollywood movie

How did they lose
An atlatl for big game, Bows, medium game, firearms
for over the horizon bombardment

I saw the same show Travis did. I'm pretty sure they were using atlatls, and the show was 10,000 BC on the Science channel.

History channel I mean.

THIS TOPIC GETTING OUT OF HAND ! , fROM OUT OF HAND THROWING TO AN ATLATL THROW THAT IS

Just GOOGLED. . "ATLATL AGES". . . . ...WOW-eee

Europe, 17,000BC to N. Am [Cortez ] 1520AD

Who reads this stuff on the weekends Might as well drop this in here> > > > > >

JUST NOW, on the local Ch 8 News, they ran a piece about Dr. Collin's work at the Gault site !
Said they have already proven people [ Clovis ] there 15,000BP.
Also said it was Archaology awareness month [ the month just finishing OR the
one starting next week ?]

Not a peep about an atlatl

Sorry to do a DJ but it's an important small detail .I had omitted !
Should be a QUESTION MARK after the "Clovis in Parenthesis" last transmission !

PS; full story on that Gault story is on NEWS8AUSTIN.COM