It's Pronouced "Atlatl"

When people learn I’m an archaeologist they often ask me about the artifacts I find, and many of these questions are about arrowheads. It's not surprising – they’re interesting, easy to identify, and fairly common.

But many of the objects that look like this – aren’t arrowheads at all.

What I mean is – many of these sharp, pointed stone objects, were never intended to be propelled through the air using a bow.

The bow and arrow was invented by different groups of people at different times, but it appears in the Midwest U.S. by around the year 700 AD.  Before the invention of the bow, there were two primary means of launching a sharp projectile.

The first, and most basic, is throwing the object by hand, similar to a javelin or spear. This method, while simple, has obvious limitations of speed and distance. The second approach uses a similar throwing motion, but employs a tool called an atlal, which increases the velocity and distance a person can launch a projectile.

Note the dart flexing to store and release the energy provided by the atlatl

An atlatl is a short shaft that holds and propels the butt end of a spear or dart. A person holds the shaft opposite the end holding the dart, which adds leverage to the arm during the throwing motion.  This allows the dart to be launched further than with the arm alone. Skilled individuals can reach speeds approaching 100 mph, but as you can see in the sequence below, the atlatl can assist younger throwers as well.

Atlatl demonstration at a recent archaeology outreach event

The term atlatl comes from the Nahuatl Aztec language, but this tool appears in cultures all across the world. Most archaeologists agree that the atlatl was invented approximately 20,000 years ago, during the Upper Paleolithic period, but various indigenous groups continued using the tool after the invention of the bow, well into the 20^th century.

So can archaeologists tell if a sharpened stone point was used on an arrow, spear, or an atlatl dart? 

It depends.

Based on what we know about a particular culture or time period we may be able to say that a particular point was probably used as a spear, dart, or arrow. Generally speaking, smaller points would tend to perform well if shot by a bow, while larger points would do well at the end of a spear or dart, but some experiments have shown that darts can be very effective using small points, and bows can shoot arrows with large points, so the size of the point is helpful guide, but it’s not definitive.

Also it’s important to know that many cultures have used spears, darts, and arrows without stone tips, but rather by simply sharpening the shaft, or using other materials, like bone, as pointed tips. The difficulty comes from the fact the point is part of a system -  shaft, bow, atlatl - but since the stone point is only part that tends to survive, it's easy to lose sight of the rest of the system.

So remember the next time you see something like this –  

Understand that its history might just be a little more complicated than you might think.