Spear-thrower - Design

Design

Spear-thrower designs may include improvements such as thong loops to fit the fingers, the use of flexible shafts, stone balance weights, and thinner, highly flexible darts for added power and range. Darts resemble large arrows or thin spears and are typically from 1.2 to 2.7 m (4' to 9') in length and 9 to 16 mm (3/8" to 5/8") in diameter.

Another important improvement to the spear-thrower's design was the introduction of a small weight (between 60 and 80 grams) strapped to its midsection. Some atlatlists maintain that stone weights add mass to the shaft of the device, causing resistance to acceleration when swung and resulting in a more forceful and accurate launch of the dart. Others claim that spear-thrower weights add only stability to a cast, resulting in greater accuracy.

Based on previous work done by William S. Webb, William R. Perkins claims that spear-thrower weights, commonly called "bannerstones," and characterized by a centered hole in a symmetrically shaped carved or ground stone, shaped wide and flat with a drilled hole and thus a little like a large wingnut, are a rather ingenious improvement to the design that created a silencing effect when swung. The use of the device would lower the telltale "zip" of a swung atlatl to a more subtle "woof" sound that did not travel as far and was less likely to alert prey or other humans. Robert Berg’s theory is that the bannerstone was carried by hunters as a spindle weight to produce string from natural fibers gathered while hunting, for the purpose of tying on fletching and hafting stone or bone points.

Several Stone Age spear-throwers (usually now incomplete) are decorated with carvings of animals: the British Museum has a mammoth, and there is a hyena in France. Many pieces of decorated bone may have belonged to batons de commandement.

The Aztec atlatl was often decorated with snake designs and feathers.