Resources were collected from Google (“atlatl”) and Bob Perkins’ website (BPS Engineering).

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By Chris le Roux

Used as an adjective, “mammoth” refers to something of enormous size or scale, like a task. As a noun, “mammoth” is an elephant-like creature that roamed the regions of northern Eurasia and North America more than 40 000 years ago. Hunting animals like the mammoth, mastodon (also an elephant-like animal), the cave bear or the saber-toothed tiger must have been a mammoth task for primitive human beings. Remember, this was long before the time of the bow and arrow!

There was, however, one weapon system that could match these animals. Immigrants from Siberia probably brought it to North America at least 10 000 to 20 000 years ago – after being in use in parts of the Eurasian continent from 30 000 years ago. These dates give us some perspective on its relation to the bow and arrow, which only came into use some 2000 to 3500 years ago.

This revolutionary weapon system is known as the atlatl, and was the first true weapon system that consisted of both a projectile and launching device. Briefly, the atlatl uses leverage to achieve greater speed in spear throwing. It consists of a shaft with a spur at the rear end, in which the butt of the dart rests. It is held near the end furthest from the spur and is thrown by the action of the upper arm and wrist (see Figure 1).

The word atlatl is an Aztec name for this throwing stick and is pronounced in a variety of ways: “at-lat-tul”, “at-ut-at-ul”, “at-ul-la-tul”, “at-lat-ul” and even “ott-lottle”. To prevent my tongue from twisting too much, I simply call it an “attle”.

It would be limiting to think that only some ancient Euro-Asians and indigenous North American peoples knew this device. Other areas where the atlatl was used included Australia, where the Aborigines called it “Wumera” (not to be confused with the boomerang). The Aleut and Inuit Eskimos did a lot of hunting from their kayaks with their type of atlatl, called “Norsaq”. The indigenous people of South America used their atlatls to resist the conquistadors of Cortez as recently as the early 16th century.

The length of atlatls range from 13,75 to 120 centimetres, with widths ranging from six millimetres to 20 centimetres. Materials used included wood, bone, ivory and antler, with a variety of designs such as dart rests, finger holes, leather thongs, shell grips, painted shafts. It is clear from this that atlatls came in all shapes and sizes, with shorter ones used mostly for fishing and larger ones for hunting and warfare.

Throwing a dart with an atlatl system is much like throwing a spear, the significant difference being that the atlatl extends the length of the pendulum of the thrower’s shoulder to the point of release. The power generated thus is at least three times that of a spear thrown by hand. Atlatl throws of up to 250 metres have been recorded.

A brief description of some of the components of the atlatl system will highlight its uniqueness. Darts are flexible projectiles with an average length of between 1.5 and 1.8 metres. The darts I have are Aluminium Easton 2216 Lite shafts, 1.63 metres long, fletched with five-inch plastic fletches, fitted with a 125-grain fieldpoint. When thrown, the dart flexes and compresses, storing energy to be used to push it away from the launcher at velocities that exceed 120 kilometres per hour.

The throwing board consists of a handle (see Figure 2), a weight (see Figure 3) and a spur (see Figure 4). William (Atlatl Bob) Perkins, an engineer-archaeologist from Manhattan, Montana, USA (and manufacturer of my Warrior atlatl) has researched the function of these weights that were fixed to ancient atlatls. The weight, Perkins concluded, is meant to resist acceleration, forcing the spring of the throwing board to store an equal and opposite amount of energy to that stored in the flexing dart. Perkins compares this to a diver diving from a springboard, with the diver’s bent legs representing the dart and the flexible diving board representing the throwing board part of the atlatl system.

Atlatls are growing in popularity all over the world. Associations like the World Atlatl Association and the International Atlatl Society are promoting competitions, friendly contests and events for members and non-members. In some countries and USA states it is even legal to hunt with an atlatl – whether it is fish or antelope.

Since I ordered my atlatl from Bob Perkins through his website I have put both my compound and recurve bows aside. Maybe I will, like primitive hunters before me, gradually progress to bow shooting one day. In the meantime I have the mammoth task of learning how to hit that stuffed bag target at 80 yards.