Atlatl history: this is an ancient atlatl
What is an atlatl?
An atlatl, or spear-thrower, is a wooden or bone stick with a hook on one end that you can use to throw a spear farther than you could throw it without using an atlatl.
Flint spear-points
Paleo-Indians
All our Native American articles
Who invented the atlatl?
People began using atlatls in Europe during the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age, around 17,000 BC. They probably came to North America with the people who crossed the Bering Land Bridge about 15,000 BC, or when people came in boats maybe.
Bering Land Bridge
Stone Age in Northern Europe
More Early Europe articles
Many hunters used atlatls in North America during the Paleo-Indian and Archaic periods, and migrating people took them to South America as well.
How do you use an atlatl?
You put your spear into the hooked end, and then you use the atlatl (aht-LAH-tull) to push the spear. It gives you more leverage so the push is harder and the spear goes farther.
How far can you throw with an atlatl?
A good atlatl will let you throw a spear more than 100 meters (about 100 yards). That’s about a block, or the length of a football field. You used an atlatl to spear fish, and to hunt big animals like deer or bison or mammoths.
History of fishing
What are bison?
American environment
Improvements to the atlatl
Once people began using atlatls, they gradually made them better and better. They added leather loops on the end that went over your fingers.
History of leather
They attached stone weights to the middle of the atlatl to make them push harder, and they began to use lighter spears that were really more like darts or arrows (Maybe this led people to invent the bow and arrow). People also made small atlatls for kids to learn how to use them.
More about bows and arrows
Who used atlatls?
By about 10,000 BC, people in Europe stopped using the atlatl because they were using the bow and arrow instead. The same thing happened in North America starting around 3000 BC.
But Inuit and Chinook people kept on using the atlatl, and in Central America the Aztecs used atlatls to spear fish (the word “atlatl” is an Aztec word meaning “water thrower”).
More about the Inuit
And the Chinook
Who were the Aztecs?
Aztec soldiers also used atlatls in their war against the Spanish invaders in the 1500s AD, because spears thrown using an atlatl could go right through Spanish steel armor.
[…] Quatr.us, Atlatls or Spear Throwers […]
Can you include the Australian aborigines using the woomera, which is a similar type of spear-thrower, in the above article. DId the Asians use them too, as they are not mentioned either.
I’m afraid so far the site in general doesn’t cover Australia, though that’s on our list for the near future. We’ll add Australian things to all of our articles as we research Australia to add its history. Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll keep it in mind.
No, Asians as far as I know did not use atlatls or anything like them; they used bows and arrows instead.