Atlatl the paleolitic hunting spear thrower
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
- Late paleolithic hunter's weapon of choice. Johan is constructing a spear thrower and dart. With a flint ahrentsburg point by the use of natural materials in this video.
The first people to settle Scandinavia. After the last glacial period. Hunted with these spear throwers.
The technology has been used for hunting in most parts of the world at some point or another Including our home region Scandinavia. The dart can reach a much higher airspeed when thrown with the thrower handle than if it was only thrown with the hunters own arm. Averaging 60mph in flight. But it is capable of reaching much higher speeds. When thrown by an trained athelete or hunter.
This clasification of hunting spear throwers (and darts) takes its name from the mesoamerican language Nahuatl`s word Atlatl. That can be translated to "spear thrower". Originally this word only designated the short handle like thrower. That is used to gain ekstra speed of the dart itself. But is at the moment beeing appropriated by popular culture and of convenience. To describe the whole set of both thrower and dart. For informational an entertainment purpose. We have chosen to build the whole assembly. Both dart and thrower in this video. And to name it an Atlatl because the term is familier to many of our viewers. We do not apprechiate cultural appropriation. But we do apprechiate crafts of the past and pressent by many coultures around the world.
#atlatl #spear #flintknapping #ahrentsburgculture
I like how you did this with traditional tools.
Mimecraft music made it 100x better. Nice video
Thank for your Kind words Fvis, I am glad you enjoyed the video.
Erik Satie
Gymnopadie
Good musical taste.
Wow props to you and our ancestors for the craftsmanship and knowledge to create such an awesome weapon!
I was recommended this and it felt like such high quality, wholesome content. I find it impossible you dont have thousands of views. I hope to see your channel grow!
Thanks for your kind words.
You are welcome 🙂 and tanks for your support!
Thank you so much for the video. That was so cool.
Well made! Very nice.
Thank you for your kind words sir
All of those suspicious animals wondering what you are making at 5:00... And then seem more dramatically concerned at 12:03. Those deer look particularly worried, lol
They were put in the video by the video editor... I didnt feel it was that cool but whatever man 🙂
great job..editing the footage..morning coffee sat back and watched ...perfect, keep up the good work
Thanks stephen! We got some more videos comming up. Stay tuned...
Came for the Paleolithic weaponry, stayed for the soothing atmosphere
excellent primitive tool use, love the atlatl
Thanks for your kind words sir!
We still use womaras here in Oz different design then yours. Y don't you try a boomerang ,they hunt kangaroos with them but a bit bigger and a different design then most people think
I might go for a boomerang or "aerodynamik throwing stick" one time. They has also been found in Scandinavian Mesolithic context
brother, fantastic content. 9/ 10. the only way to make it better is by wearing paleo clothing to increase the authenticity. other than that good tools good throw good stuff
Truly amazing!! Thank you.
Thanks for your support sir!
Your dedication skill and effort are apparent. However your dart is typical of the basket weaver culture circa 14-1500 AD.
The Pleistocene hunters made a decidedly different atlatl/dart combination. Where your weapon is optimized for range, theirs was optimized for leverage in order to achieve penetration on elephant sized animals.
No intact darts survive. But the fragments that do have been reconstructed forensically. The point was distinctive being long thin and sharp. Clovis and solutrean are the typical examples, but there are others both before and after those cultures.
The shafts were of two pieces. Typically the fore shaft was of the genus Cortaderia stalk. A pampas grass like plant now extinct in most of the northern hemisphere. The point was attached to the shaft with pine tar adhesive and fiber or sinew binding. The main shaft was larger in diameter and socketed at the forward end to accept the fore shaft which appears to have been about a yard in length. The fore shaft was free to detach from the main shaft. The existence of fletching is still debated. Keep in mind this was a very close quarters weapon used, it is thought, at about 2-3 meters from the target.
Tests conducted upon elephant cadaver show that such a dart could penetrate to a depth of 36-40 inches into the chest cavity, reaching the heart/lung vital organs. By contrast darts thrown from 15-20 feet away barely penetrated the hide/flesh/bone of the chest wall, and did not achieve the vitals. Up close and personal appears to have been the order of the day.
It has been assumed up until the last 30 years or so that the point was the most expensive item in the Paleolithic hunting economy. Largely because of the numerous points that were recovered from the kill, sharpened and reused. Very few intact points are found in the kill sites. Mostly broken points. Intact points are usually found in manufactory sites. Today it is understood that wood was scarce in the Pleistocene, just as it is today in areas of Arctic tundra. Thus the heavy use of what is in fact a grass stalk for the fore shaft. The heavy wood shaft may have been more valuable than the laboriously made point.
The scant examples of the atlatl are of bone. It was presumed that this bias was from the relative survival of bone over wood over time. Now it is understood that bone was “cheaper” than wood based upon abundance. Wood was literally like gold at that time due to scarcity.
Today your efforts are guided by knowledge obtained from later cultures where the atlatl competed with the bow and arrow as a ranging weapon for use on game like deer or bison, noting as large as the mega fauna 12,000 years ago and before.
This is not to critique your efforts, rather to guide you should you choose to seek really large game as those in our distant past did.
Fox out
Although the longer lever does add power to an atlatl, the real power comes from the flex in the dart - which is evident in the video.
Inertia means that the force applied is stored as elastic energy until the critical point when the dart literally jumps from the thrower.
@@andyleighton6969
This is correct for the lighter ranging darts. But the Paleolithic dart was quite stout judging by the points used. Thus it lacked the stored energy of compression that you reference. It was literally all about leverage.
Exelente video amigo saludos desde México 😄
Mucias gracias amigo 😁
nice.
Thanks 🙂
I appreciate the work, I have also made these but the music is terrible with it and you do not speak or explain anything for newbies that dont know anything about these weapons. Please consider this.
Thanks Don. We have given this some thought and we will be making some videos with speak, explanations and instructions in the future.
You, sir, apparently know how to not only make those choppers but how to use them without them breaking right away as occurred with another fellow who made two of them and broke both right away and said they were impractical. It's a wonder we are here considering we came from them, if they did not use these tools successfully.
What wood was used for the spear and the thrower?
The thrower was crafted from hawthorne and the dart from a long straight hazel shoot
@@johanvillemoes3374 nicely done. Very informative video. Looks like you had fun, too.
I did, there is somthing very pleasing about crafting somthing from scrach with tools you made youeself.
@@johanvillemoes3374 I agree. Very satisfying.
Chah man
🙂
Coulda sped it up a bit. Nearly put me to sleep.
i would rather die by a gun than this slow painful way if i was a deer or forest beast. nice job.
Thanks. This kind of hunt requires a high level of accuracy and skill. The effective range is not much longer than 10 or 20 meters. Thats why it is unlawful to hunt with these spears in our country. I would argue that an accurate dart through the heart is just at deadly as a rifle shot. But that is only if the hunter can place an accurate shot. We at Craft of the past, do not posses such high skill level and would therefore not try to hunt any live animal with the atlatl. But we have seen footage of aboriginal australians hunt very effective with these spears where they drop large animals fast with one shot.
Music is brutal!! I couldn't watch.
Just listen to your music of choice while watching if you want. Thats ok.